The Sniper
Since time immemorial, warriors, have branched off and specialized. Among warriors and soldiers, the sniper stands apart: elite and precise, the sniper is a true force multiplier. He can change the outcome of battles and wars. The reason officers wear matte black rank in the field is because of the sniper’s scope. If you cut the head off the snake, you don’t have to fear the body. Militaries all over the globe know this, that the sniper is a surgeon with a rifle. Infantry is about war by attrition. Snipers are about “one shot, one kill”. Lethal and precise, that’s how snipers roll.
The whole reason for one shot is that it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine the location of a shot’s origin if there is only one shot. In urban areas, even more so, as the sound of the shot bounces off walls and echoes throughout the urban terrain. When snipers operate in urban terrain, they can cordon off entire sections of town. The reason is fear of random death. Sure, the sniper might not be there, but what if he is? What you can’t see CAN kill you. And snipers do everything they’ve been taught and can think of to hide themselves and their operations. For instance, in MOUT (Military Operations in Urbanized Terrain) situations, the sniper will typically set up in a high area, like an office building with windows up high. There are certain criteria that the sniper looks for in a “perch” or “hide” (i.e. position): broad field of view, preferably overlooking a main travel artery or objective of significance, numerous escape routes in case the hide is compromised, sturdy structure that can provide bulletproof cover against return-fire, and at least in the case of Baghdad, some comfortable furniture. There was one case written about in 2004 of a sniper who was tasked with protecting his platoon while they slept at night. He set up shop in one of Saddam’s old palaces. While his brothers-in-arms slept off their combat fatigue down on the main floor, he was up on the third floor with his .308, a night vision starlight scope, a canteen full of “bug juice” (i.e. Kool Aid), and an MRE, sitting in one of Saddam’s old gold-leafed, plush, red velvet lounge chairs. He set the chair back from the window, with some sandbags built up in front of it as a shooting rest. Then, he put a piece of black-dyed cheesecloth over the window. That way, he could see everything without risking being seen at all. In the movies, the sniper sticks his barrel out of the window. In reality the sniper is set back from the window, so that neither the barrel nor the sniper can be seen from the outside. When the tactical opportunity arises, the sniper places his reticle on target, stabilizes his rifle, draws a breath, holds it, and gently squeezes the trigger. One shot, one kill.
The logistics of sniping are inherently different from other professions. The sniper must reach his location undetected. That includes four of the five senses. The sniper wants to get to the hide unseen, unheard, untouched, and without a scent. To that end, the tactical sniper moves slowly and deliberately. The slower the better. The reason is that we as mammals are instinctively drawn to movement when trying to discern our surroundings. This feature is innate within us, and it is a survival instinct. Think about it. Millennia ago, in the dawn of mankind, when someone would emerge from the cave to hunt and gather, what would have the potential to harm him? Not the plant, not the rock. They remained motionless. It would be the saber-tooth tiger, that moves around. To this day, we are technologically advanced and organized, but we retain that feature that our distant predecessors had. The eyes are drawn to movement. It is autonomic and instinctual. The sniper knows this, and moves accordingly.
Snipers also wear specialized outfits called ghillie suits. The “O.G.” as it were, the original ghillie, was a guy employed by land owners in the highlands of Scotland in the late 1800s. The ghillie’s main task was to catch poachers and monitor the local wildlife, flora and fauna. The ghillies were expert woodsmen, and wanted to blend into their environment as much as humanly possible. They came up with the idea to sew netting onto the backs of their clothing. Then they would tie sections of old rags into the netting, and dye the rags to match the plants and shrubs in the area they were operating in. When they were lying down in the prone, observing the area they’ve been tasked with protecting, they literally blended right into the landscape. There are two reasons for this. First, the ghillie suit broke up their shape. The body didn’t have the recognizable shape of a human form. Second, the color was the same as its surrounding colors. The ghillies even made special camouflage hoods, so that they could just peek out and see everything, but no one could see their faces. The ghillies were the ultimate masters of disguise, and were very successful in catching poachers. They were loved by the land owners and townsfolk, and feared and despised by the poachers, who came to refer to them as “ghosts of the forest”, for their ability to seemingly appear out of nowhere.
Modern day snipers like those in the Special Forces, Navy Seals and Marine LRRP (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol) use ghillie suits extensively, and they vary them to suit the environment. Snipers in the Torah Borah region of Afghanistan, where the world seems rocky, dusty and beige, use tan and light brown ghillie suits. Seals in the tropics of Panama use light green, dark green and black ghillie suits. Tactical snipers will often augment the suit by tying and affixing twigs, leaves and mud into the netting of the suit as well, to add even higher levels of “immaculate deception”.
Like deer and turkey hunters, the sniper will often hang the ghillie suit outside for a number of days, to get rid of any possible scent, and also use scent killer to make themselves olfactory neutral. Nothing for the guard dogs to smell. As far as that other sense, touch, well obviously the sniper doesn’t want to be touched. I remember one instance my neighbor told me about. His brother was in the Army Rangers down in Panama, around the time that they ousted “Pock-mark” (AKA the dictator, General Manuel Noriega), and my neighbor’s brother and his spotter were overlooking Noriega’s compound as an LPOP (lookout post – observation post) in their ghillie suits. Noriega’s security detail was out on patrol, and walked right in front of them. One member of the security detail stopped next to the bush my neighbor’s brother and his spotter chose as a hide, and actually stepped on his hand. My neighbor’s brother bit his lip, squinted his eyes, and remained completely still. Yes, he got touched, and it hurt, but he remained unheard. Eventually the adversary zipped up, and went on his way. Mental discipline is one of the snipers’ best strengths. With time, his hand got better, and the stepper? He caught a .308 in the chest later that night.
So, we know that snipers lay in wait, hours on end, in the hide. And yes, my friends, it is somewhat of a lonely profession. What do they think about, as the hours while away, waiting for that perfect shot? What do they eat? Well, one sniper I read about said he would come up with song lyrics in his head. Supposedly he played guitar on his down time. Another sniper said he thought about what he was going to do the next time he got the opportunity to be with his children. Where they’d go and what they’d do: Grandma’s house and the zoo As for the grub snipers eat? Well, legendary Marine sniper Carlos Hathcock carried only some fruit and crackers when he was out in the bush of Viet Nam, stalking the NVA and the Cong. He said that anything more than that, and he’d get sluggish and sleepy. He credited the natural sugar in apples with keeping him alert. Generally, the modern sniper will take along a couple of MREs (Meals Ready To Eat). To the enemy, the sniper might seem like a ghost, but ultimately he is a human being. He gets hungry, and he gets tired. That is also something a sniper needs to contend with, as he waits on the perfect shot, and the go-ahead over the radio from the brass to take that shot: the need for sleep. Fortunately, snipers operate in teams of two: a shooter and a spotter. So when the daylight hours wane into the night, and beyond, they take turns catching shut-eye. To be successful in accomplishing the mission, they can’t take their eyes off the objective. So one of them is always watching, either through the spotting scope or the rifle scope, there is always a trained eyeball on the target, watching, waiting, observing and reporting back to base.
Snipers are modern ninjas, albeit green instead of black, but unlike ninjas, snipers can “reach out and touch someone” at distances that almost boggle the mind. Ma Bell would be proud! They are awesome force multipliers, and to the enemy, they are feared to the point that even the rumor of their nearby existence can cause roads, rivers, and villages to be avoided by the enemy. Silent, unseen and deadly, that’s how they roll. One shot, one kill, that is the sniper motto. Military snipers are the quintessential epitome of highly trained and professional soldiers, who carry out their mission with precision and attention to detail. So much precision, in fact, that a vascular surgeon would be proud. A properly trained, mentally disciplined, professional military sniper with a tuned and scoped, high-powered rifle is one of the deadliest warriors ever to crawl across the fragile skin of mother Earth.
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