Posted on 01/16/2015 10:34:34 AM PST by Steelfish
JANUARY 16, 2015 Smearing Snipers: What Many Americans Don’t Get about Our Warrior Elite We should be proud of men like Chris Kyle, not skittish or ashamed. By Chris Mark
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Just saw it. I liked it very much. They’ve “drama’d” it up a bit, but at least there are no stock characters from recent Iraq movies who kill kids for fun etc. Even Cooper’s thick Texas accent is unheard of for a heroic lead in a current Hollywood movie.
Nope, never got to go on an OT shot. Was scheduled to go on one but PCS’d. I watched several while at VAFB. I was a crewmember at Minot and in later years was an airborne keyturner on the old SAC Looking Glass. Involved in various aspects of nuclear ops for my whole AF career. Started out as an enlisted Marine.
Snipers are not in the danger of closing with the enemy that a line unit riflemen is. They do not charge or even assault bunker complexes. I suggest you serve in an Army Infantry or a Marine Rifle company before running mouth. I have and I have been wounded twice.
You are a fool. No sniper has the combat effectiveness of a Rifle company. Yes snipers have a purpose and Carlos Hatchcock was damn good.
You were not in combat that is for certain. REMF’s always glamorize the wrong ones. That combat Infantryman and Marine rifleman is the heart and soul of the military, and; it is HE who does the dirty work.
There are reasons and missions for both.
That is true and often we forget the cooks, clerks, supply types etc. All are valuable to the overall mission.
Do you even know who Gary Gordon was?
I could care less who Gary Gordon is. The subject that has people talking is the movie about the SEAL sniper Kyle. Frankly, the military today has more snipers trained then we ever heard of in the 60’s and 70’s.In fact a retired SF NCO and I went shooting at FT Campbell two years ago. He is five times the marksman I am as we never fired sniper rifles in SF during Vietnam.
Not saying that the combat infantry man is the lesser component nor am I glamorizing snipers. Snipers are specialized Marine riflemen and come from their ranks as do Force Recon Marines. It’s all dirty work, especially for the infantrymen. Was the work done by Carlos Hathcock or Charles Mawhinney any less dangerous or dirty? They were infantrymen, in the field. Hathcock didn’t start out as a sniper; like other snipers he was pulled from the ranks of Marine infantrymen. They are a part of the overall operation, not the most important part but certainly not a murderer or coward hiding at a distance like many portray them.
My son made it into the sniper class, most accurate and fastest but he stayed with the platoon because he was moving up the ranks faster.
The book on Hathcock was great. I recommend it highly. I lent that to my son at 17.
I was a bit confused by that statement too, lumper. What did you mean? Most every sniper I knew understood that he could instantly be a very close-in fight at any point in time. Snipers had to spend long and extremely dangerous periods of time getting into a decent position and then even longer periods of horrifying waiting for the right moment to arrive. They were precision weapons with a specialty that gave a special value in combat and if they did really well, the enemy was reluctant to expose himself anywhere near where they thought we were.
During one short period of my life with the grunts in Vietnam, I was assigned to escort a sniper to his hide position and then cover his rear approach with my automatic M-14. The concept was for him to do the precision killing of high value targets - which he did quite well - and I was supposed to provide massive "smash through the bad guys fire" if we were discovered. Luckily for us, we never had to test that theory.
Killing people's killing people, whether at 10 meters (which means you let them get too damn close), or 50-100m or 300m+.
Our job was killing them and getting us home - any argument with that?
Thanks for the job you did, and for your wise comments as well.
I am a firm believer in snipers, who are very effective in disrupting enemy operations. But the role, like several others, is one that civilians will never appreciate. This is not the fault of the men who do it.
Snipers are not alone in this, as many military elite forces can never feel free to discuss the unclassified parts of their jobs with civilians. Often when “talking shop”, the expression of horror on the face of some family member is enough to dissuade them from ever opening up again. And this even happens in peacetime.
Something ordinary and mundane to the soldier is beyond the ken of many civilians.
Wouldn’t a scope make things real close and sometimes you have to watch the enemy for days. That is kinda personal. Being face to face is also personal. Being on the other side of the world and hearing your son’s best friend who you never met has been killed is personal.
Pilots, even drone pilots, can have psychological hitches.
You were in Vietnam with what unit? What was your MOS?
Huldah, It could if one saw the man’s eyes through the scope. I would prefer to talk about fly fishing. I am off this subject.
The ‘sniper’, more correctly named ‘long range marksman’, has a long American history, not to be tarnished by those who neither understand their importance, or what their actions do to the hearts and spirits of those, ‘downrange’.
Remember, it was the ‘Colonial marksman’, armed with that devil’s tool, the Pennsylvania long rifle, that has the honor of downing a British officer in the field at, in those days incredible, 300 yards distance.
The man ‘on the line’, may have a face or two that remains with him, as may our long range marksmen. That is the price that is paid for doing their duty, and accepted as part of serving our country, for they are not the men who lie below the waves, unleashing weapons, or those who fly at all heights above the heads of the ground troops, delivering all sorts and types of ordnance, and never seeing the eyeballs of the recipient of their deliveries.
I always thought of snipers as kind of the goaltenders of the military. They’re a bit different, maybe even weird, but you really shouldn’t take the field without one.
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