Marine Scout Sniper Requirements
- Thread starter mdmp5
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I'm not the most current on today's standards, but I do know a bit of the past. First and foremost, officers are the platoon commanders and higher, they don't ever perform in the actual Scout Sniper mission. As such, the ranks that can billet in the 0317 MOS are PVT-GySgt. The Platoon Commanders are typically 0203 Field Intel Officers, basically officers who went through Infantry Officer Course as well as a Field Intel school.
Officers have attended Scout Sniper School in the past, but were typically only on a familiarization basis versus training them to perform the actual mission. Prior enlisted 8541/0317 friends of mine that have commissioned actually had the MOS removed from their record as a result of wearing bars instead of stripes, one told me it was a real kick in the nuts to him when they did that, but rules are rules.
The course officers would attend is the Sniper Employment Officer Course, an abbreviated school of a few weeks where they get familiarized into the missions and how to best employ snipers on the battlefield. They do a lot of classwork, shoot the rifles and team up with HOGs to execute training missions so they know what is happening on the ground when they give the orders to the teams supporting or working under them.
Officers have attended Scout Sniper School in the past, but were typically only on a familiarization basis versus training them to perform the actual mission. Prior enlisted 8541/0317 friends of mine that have commissioned actually had the MOS removed from their record as a result of wearing bars instead of stripes, one told me it was a real kick in the nuts to him when they did that, but rules are rules.
The course officers would attend is the Sniper Employment Officer Course, an abbreviated school of a few weeks where they get familiarized into the missions and how to best employ snipers on the battlefield. They do a lot of classwork, shoot the rifles and team up with HOGs to execute training missions so they know what is happening on the ground when they give the orders to the teams supporting or working under them.
I've got that beat by a full foot, but damn if those short guys don't have an advantage on stalks. I think I have at least 50% more surface area to camouflage, and I at least like to believe that's a good part of why I sucked so bad at stalking.
I wanted to be a Marine since I was playing with GI Joes and cap guns as a little kid, the only other thing I wanted to be was an astronaut but I've worn glasses since I was seven, so that wasn't happening. I had read Hathcock's biography in high school so it was certainly a dream of mine, but I joined wanting to just be a good infantryman first. I spent two years in a line company cutting my teeth as just that, working my way up to fireteam leader and squad leader, before I took the indoc to go to the Sniper Platoon. Four months after that, I had graduated and was a TL heading to the urban course supporting the MSPF mission.
As much as I busted my ass to get there, I was also fortunate to be in the right place at the right time as well as having some good baseline rearing in my adolescence to be able to make it all happen the way it did. I never shot anything but expert with the rifle, I have my grandfather teaching me to hunt and my time on the JROTC Rifle Team in high school to thank for that, I had a mother who was big into outdoors hiking, swimming, biking and running to thank for me growing up physically active and competitive, and I had my farmer/mechanic father and jack of all trades and VN veteran Marine step father to thank for my work ethic and critical thinking of how to accomplish anything with next to nothing.
Very cool bio. Similarly, I grew up wanting the same thing, to just be a Marine. Period. Like you, I also wore glasses (from age 10), but alas my time was before PRK/LASIC was available. I managed to finagle a school seat slot for the Sniper School at Stone Bay, but got snagged/caught not being able to eek my way through the eye exam (I was only 20/40 at the time, so figured I'd try to slip through), and so was disqualified.
Shit happens, life sucks some times, and you move on.I also spent time in JROTC (USMC) and the OIC was an avid shooter, so we got all the instructions for shooting hammered into our pubescent brains, and spent a fair amount of time at the nearby College's indoor range banging away with Mossberg .22's (can still remember the image of a yellow school bus, witha bunch of kids in shooting jackets, toting rifles into the seats). The top shooters used the few (like 3) Anschutz rifles we had. Now a days, having an armory on the school grounds is unheard of, and the marksmanship programs have been scrapped in my old school.
Sad really, since many of us learned proper marksmanship principles from that.Anyways, sorry to go off topic...
We had cheap Crossman or Daisy (been a few years) .177 pellet rifles with ghost ring sights for our team, but that also meant we could shoot in the classroom into the traps. My senior year I had a class as teacher's aid for JROTC (Army there), but our SGM was a PE teacher that period so I had the classroom all to myself. I would shoot the entire hour and a half the 2-3 times a week I had that "class" with Beverly Hillbilly reruns playing in the background. Good times...
LOL! Yeah, I spent a lot of time dry firing in the class room on a shooting mat as well (my "study hall" period one year, was the same period that JROTC classroom was empty, so the Maj and MGySgt would open up the armory for me). I had heard that my old school eventually went to air rifles as well ("range" was on the roof of the gym), but as stated, the entire program was eventually scrapped.
Good times indeed.
Good times indeed.
I was the "armorer" for my JROTC (oldest USMC JROTC in the country). We had 513T's for the general marksmanship training and M40X's for the Rifle Team. It's the reason I bought a USMC-marked M40 several years ago: the nostalgia of loading into a van with M40 rifles on the way to range after school.
I went back years ago after I was a PMI and helped coach a little dry fire and position building for the Rifle Team. They'd had to surrender the .22's but were shooting nice air rifles. The de-milled M14's I'd unpacked and cleaned the cosmolene off of were still in use as drill rifles.
I didn't realize this many of us had the benefit of JROTC to bridge what we'd learned from our dads into more structured shooting knowledge. Very cool.
I went back years ago after I was a PMI and helped coach a little dry fire and position building for the Rifle Team. They'd had to surrender the .22's but were shooting nice air rifles. The de-milled M14's I'd unpacked and cleaned the cosmolene off of were still in use as drill rifles.
I didn't realize this many of us had the benefit of JROTC to bridge what we'd learned from our dads into more structured shooting knowledge. Very cool.
I don’t think I would’ve been able to handle sniper school, or much of the military for that matter. Physically, I could’ve done it, no problem I am sure. Mentally, I’m not so sure. I ask too many questions and being told to do something without knowing what the point is drives me crazy. So I may not have made it through the mind games they play, like in seal school where they let guys sleep for like ½ hour and then unexpectedly come in and wake everyone’s asses up for drills. Closest I ever came was signing up for Navy OCS. I was gonna, or at least wanted to fly F18s. I fagged out last minute and didn’t show up for my physical. Shit that was 20 years ago
Hence, why Boot Camp is mostly mental. You get (quickly) to the point of reacting instantly, without question, to given orders. "Discipline = The instant, willing, obedience to orders." Or at least that was what was drummed into our brains for 13 weeks...
Physically, you can train a monkey to get through boot camp, given enough food, exercise and conditioning. My little narrow 6'2" 145lb ass made it through without issues (and gained about 20 lbs to boot) physically. The thing that shocked me was listening to so many MF'ers sobbing the first few nights in their racks. Never understood that...
Physically, you can train a monkey to get through boot camp, given enough food, exercise and conditioning. My little narrow 6'2" 145lb ass made it through without issues (and gained about 20 lbs to boot) physically. The thing that shocked me was listening to so many MF'ers sobbing the first few nights in their racks. Never understood that...
You just have to know how to embrace the suck and enjoy it.
It's worse enduring a shitty marriage. At least we got paid to get shit on.
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