Today I passed my last exam. As some of you might have noticed in my last few pictures, I have been training to be an sniper for the last 3 months, and I've been in Sniper school since Sunday April 12. Its an MTT. They came from Fort Benning, Georgia, to give us the course here in Fort Lewis because we are deploying soon, to have more time with our families, so we have been going home every day.
It was grueling, specially the first 3 weeks. I have learnt more in this month about how to kill people than in the last 3 years. My combat effective range have been extended from 300m to 1200m. I have consistently engaged targets up to 1440m. This is WAYYYYY beyond my previous capabilities.
More importantly, I have a new set of skills in sniper/counter-sniper operations that I can't wait to deploy and use them on the field. Today, I am far deadlier than I have ever been. Now I truly understand ballistics and the effect of wind, elevation, gravitational pull, humidity, etc, on the trajectory of my bullets, and I can compensate for it by instinct. I have fired a shitload of bullets in these 4 weeks.
Organizationally, I have no longer a 9 man recon squad under my command. Now I lead a highly motivated 3 man sniper team, counting myself, all veterans and combat hardened, eager for the fight. No more babysitting for me, thankfully. I already did my part and then some, training new privates out of basic up to speed with the rest of our platoon.
And the way things are looking, I will probably become the Sniper Section Leader at battalion level, something that I don't want because it will take me out from the front line, not completely, but I wouldn;t be able to just concentrate on my team.
I have to say, the best thing of being an sniper is how much freedom I have in organizing and training my team. Right now I have myself with an M110 7.62mm SASS (Semi-Automatic Sniper System), my shooter, an E-5 SGT, with the M24 7.62mm SWS (Sniper Weapon System) bolt action rifle, 5 round repeater, and my security element, an E-4 SPC, with an M4 with an M203 40mm grenade launcher attached to it. We are all sniper qualified, and we all know how to shoot each other weapons.
I also have a M107 .50 cal Barret semi-automatic sniper rifle. That's a big mothefucker, and incredible fun to shoot, though nowhere as acurate as the M24 or the M110. I decided not to carry it, and instead I keep it in whatever stryker we ride.
Ah yeah, I don;t have my own stryker anymore. I don't have to worry about that bitch anymore. Now I can focus on my team and our weapon systems, and I ride in whatever stryker in our platoon mission dependant. Total operational freedom.
I am on top of the world.
That's awesome. Seriously. :thumbsup:
I enjoy guns, I'm a canuck.
I feel like I've betrayed something.
Can we get a pic of the M24?
Good man. Splendid.
You're second rate. If you want to be a first-rate sniper, you have to join Canadian Forces.
Sorry.
Quote from: Caliga on May 06, 2009, 08:21:15 PM
That's awesome. Seriously. :thumbsup:
Dude, I can't even believe it myself.
I am a fucking sniper. I got my B4 skill identifier in my ERB (enlisted record brief).
Out of 40 guys only 19 graduated, including my two boys.
Quote from: Grey Fox on May 06, 2009, 08:24:10 PM
I enjoy guns, I'm a canuck.
I feel like I've betrayed something.
Can we get a pic of the M24?
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F%5Bimg%5Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fimg172.imageshack.us%2Fimg172%2F332%2Fdsc01846.jpg&hash=cb0e6bb9d0da1637e8e2dbd561d69165a03f517e)[/img]
Why I can't see the images?
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg21.imageshack.us%2Fimg21%2F5343%2Fdsc01856y.jpg&hash=33c9a9b9713ac42dc9103081ddde8aa610750244)
That's the M24.
Congrats.
Every sniper I've known was a really cool stand-up guy. Good job Siegy. :cool:
Quote from: FunkMonk on May 06, 2009, 10:01:17 PM
Every sniper I've known was a really cool stand-up guy. Good job Siegy. :cool:
He's the exception to the rule!
Quote from: katmai on May 06, 2009, 10:03:48 PM
Quote from: FunkMonk on May 06, 2009, 10:01:17 PM
Every sniper I've known was a really cool stand-up guy. Good job Siegy. :cool:
He's the exception to the rule!
If he can kill me in a running gun battle* then he will have proven his worth.
* in CoD4
Congrats. How's the M107? I always understood that bad boy was so loud and had so much muzzle flash that it ONLY works as a distance weapon.
Awesome Siege, congratulations. :thumbsup:
Congratulations!
Congrats Seeb.
Do the HALO training next.
Nice, Siegie.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freewebs.com%2Fcod2peaches%2Fgerman-sniper-03-large.jpg&hash=7ad5bfb73ddec5ebb33ea7524386e9b9208742ad)
Quote from: DontSayBanana on May 06, 2009, 10:24:46 PM
Congrats. How's the M107? I always understood that bad boy was so loud and had so much muzzle flash that it ONLY works as a distance weapon.
It is indeed very loud and the muzzle flash is massive. Lets just say that if you fire the 107 from an sniper hide, it ain't a hide no more. I fired the thing from a house in our MOUT range (Military Operations in Urbanized Terrain) and the whole house shaked when I fired, and my position got covered by a cloud of dust lifted by the gas from propelant in the cartridge.
The M107 have a muzzle brake that takes 30% of the gas to diminish the recoil. This gas goes back at you in a 45 degree angle from the lenght of the barrel. It doesn't hit you or anything, but it blows away whatever you might have next to you, and if there is dust around you, it will cover you in a cloud.
It is intended to be a long range weapon, but the problem with that is that is not very acurate. Its barely a 3 MOA gun (Minutes Of an Angle). Depending on the ammo, for all practical porpouses is a 4 MOA gun. At 1000m the rounds will hit anywhere within a 40 inches circle. This is not shooter error, but the inherent acuracy of the weapon and the ammo. It is a great weapon system if it is used as it was intended by the designers, as a materiel destruction weapon, to destroy vehicles, large equipment like radars or commo platforms, and covered enemy positions. It does goes through walls. It is great as an anti-sniper weapon because of its ability to penetrate walls and rubble, plus its range of up to 2000m. But if you think you gonna hit a dude walking around at 1500m...
Quote from: Admiral Yi on May 07, 2009, 12:16:13 AM
Congrats Seeb.
Do the HALO training next.
High Altitud Low Openning?
Hell no. I ain't gonna break my legs doing that shit.
Send Alci to that one.
So are you off to Polk soon to train the newbs and then on to Iraq again in the fall?
GG.
Kevin
Impressive. Hopefully, one of my sons will be an elite combat arms guy. I will have to stick with the soft stuff as a Signal/Civil Affairs guy.
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on May 07, 2009, 02:03:46 AM
So are you off to Polk soon to train the newbs and then on to Iraq again in the fall?
Yeah, we are doing a JRTC rotation and from there all our gear will ship straight to the sandbox.
Aint you ever seen Jarhead (I think that was the one)
Snipers are dead. :(
Nice! Congratulations.
Good luck on your next deployment.
Are they sending you to Afghanistan soon? I would like to hear about you picking off those school destroying Taliban assholes.
Quote from: Valmy on May 07, 2009, 01:43:09 PM
Are they sending you to Afghanistan soon? I would like to hear about you picking off those school destroying Taliban assholes.
I wish I could.
I volunteered to go to 5th SBCT, I went there and talked to their S-1, but my friggin Sergeant Major didn't let me go.
I was so pissed of. 5th Brigade is going to be the surge in Afghanistan, like we were in Iraq in 2007. And Im gonna miss it.
I don't even want to think about it.
I'm gonna be wasting my fucking time in Iraq while there is a real war going on in Afghanistan.
The war in Iraq is over. We are done over there. Nobody is leaving the wire to do missions without 2 fucking iraqi judges signing on the orders.
Grats! You kick ass, Siege! :)
Quote from: Siege on May 07, 2009, 12:42:12 AM
High Altitud Low Openning?
Hell no. I ain't gonna break my legs doing that shit.
Send Alci to that one.
Truth. My uncle in the 82nd Airborne had to be honorably discharged after he destroyed his knees via a HALO exercise where he was landing on a bucking carrier in the Mediterranean. The only net positive was it kept him from going into Desert Shield.
Quote from: mongers on May 07, 2009, 03:51:34 PM
Congratulations Seigy, you'd probably have enjoyed our Royal Marine/ combined sniper school (or whatever its now called) with its I guess slightly different approach.
:cheers:
What do you mean by diferent approach?
Quote from: Siege on May 07, 2009, 06:35:13 PM
What do you mean by diferent approach?
Mostly spelling things their own way (snoiper, tahget, roifle, etc.) and insisting on using metrics only half the time.