By Chris Mark
Friday, January 16, 2015
About ten years ago, an employer of mine had an odd
request: I needed to delete an aspect of my military career from my
professional biography because it might “offend” a potential client or partner.
Recon Marine, infantry Marine, service-disabled veteran . . . those were a
boon.
But “Scout Sniper,” one of the greatest accomplishments I
had as a Marine — that had to go.
Sadly, that kind of slight is not uncommon for some of
our nation’s most elite warriors.
“Murderer,” “assassin,” “heartless”: The modern sniper is
an oft-maligned and largely misunderstood individual, and Hollywood has played
a part. For too long, it’s wrongly portrayed snipers as troubled men struggling
through a lonely life, anguished by their memories of too many “murders.”
The new biopic American Sniper, while taking artistic
license and departing a bit from the book of the same name, attempts to shows a
real sniper in an honest light — as the serious, patriotic professional he is.
Chris Kyle was not just a SEAL, or just a sniper. He was
a loving husband, father, and patriotic American fighting man who volunteered
for a very difficult and extremely dangerous job to best protect his brothers
in arms. He was not, as some have suggested, a “hate-filled killer.”
Chris was, by all accounts, a very charitable man who
readily helped those in need. Nor was he arrogant: “Chris was genuine and was
not attached to the glory regaled upon him as a hero,” Marine sniper Rudy Reyes
says of him.
Yet, naturally, sniper training and service is often the
high point of a career at arms, as it was for me. After joining the Marines and
serving in various roles for over a year, I finally passed the Scout Sniper
screening test, and attended and graduated from Scout Sniper School. After
attending Urban Sniper School in 1993, I then had the honor of serving as a
Marine Corps Scout Sniper as a part of Operation Continue Hope in Somalia in
1994. Serving as a Reconnaissance Marine brought me the opportunity to attend a
number of military schools, and the title of Marine Sniper is the one of which
I’m most proud.
The U.S. Marine Corps defines a Scout Sniper as a
“Marine, highly skilled in field craft and marksmanship, that delivers
long-range precision fire on selected targets, from concealed positions, in
support of combat operations.” A sniper’s goal, and the quality that makes him
dangerous, is the ability to operate undetected while delivering precision
fire. Regardless of the service, all military snipers are trained in the same
basic fundamentals of fieldcraft, patrolling, land navigation, and
marksmanship. And there are dozens of other skills a sniper must master to
graduate from a U.S. Armed Forces sniper school, too — it takes a lot more than
simply shooting well.
Sniper school — which begins a sniper’s career, and to
which he can return to be trained as an urban sniper, high-angle sniper,
sniper-team leader, etc. — is academically rigorous. Precision long-range
shooting in difficult conditions requires a person who can think quickly and
clearly, making demanding mathematical calculations and considering multiple
variables. The attrition rate for the eleven-week Marine Scout Sniper Course
averages around 50 percent, similar to other top sniper programs. Such courses
are arguably some of the most difficult military schools to successfully
complete and, in any service, graduating from a top-tier sniper program is a
major accomplishment. Interservice rivalries can always be intense, but all
snipers share a common bond of having suffered and survived some of the most
difficult military training there is.
Only the most driven volunteer for the job. The prospect
of living and sleeping in harsh conditions, being bitten by bugs, relieving
yourself in a bag, working in small teams without the security of your heavily
armed brothers, is hardly attractive for even the most hardened military
veteran. So snipers constitute a very small group of professionals. As of
November 2014, there were only 400 operational Scout Snipers out of the 185,000
U.S. Marines — just about 0.2 percent of the force.
They are an elite group of professional, skilled
warriors. But how does the job affect the men who do it? Make no mistake:
Looking through a magnified rifle scope and killing another human being is a
difficult job. It’s a burden many snipers bear long after their service is
completed. But contrary to what many believe, snipers are not mindless
murderers or killing machines. They’re intensely dedicated professionals
willing to do a very difficult, extremely dangerous job with the goal of
protecting others.
There is a distinct difference between having the
capacity for violent action and being a violent person. Professional snipers
deal that violence with great precision and serious intent — again, to protect
their compatriots and others the way no one else can.
While it is difficult to dispute that combat can have
lasting negative impacts for some, service also provides many a platform for
success. Just look around our ranks: Chris Kyle was a dedicated family man,
author, entrepreneur, and charity supporter, who died tragically while helping
others recover from the scars of war. Former Marine sniper Taylor White is now
a professional artist in Hawaii. Sniping “gave me the confidence to become my
own master, to apply every ounce of my creativity into my work,” he says. “Once
you’ve crawled a mile through a frozen, muddy ditch, everything is easy.” Rudy
Reyes is a well-known and successful media personality who’s appeared on
Ultimate Survival Alaska and numerous other television series and movies. Jerry
Hull is a now an author and certified counselor with a psychology degree. (His
latest book is Forgotten How to Live.)
That’s but a few individuals who represent the larger
community of snipers who have served their country or continue to do so today.
We are parents, teachers, authors, artists, and dedicated, patriotic Americans.
The desire to help our brothers and sisters in arms does not stop with the end
of active service. A group of Marine Snipers and Reconnaissance Marines recently
founded the R & S Foundation, which aims to provide assistance to those in
need and those still struggling with the lasting effects of combat.
Many of them do need the help. The prominence of American
Sniper, by portraying one of the finest from our ranks, does a service to
snipers everywhere. In fact, it’s a rare moment when Hollywood will get the
complicated lives of these crucial professionals basically right. If only it
happened a little more often.
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