Posted on 12/05/2023 9:11:31 PM PST by 11th_VA
The last class of Marine Scout Snipers is scheduled to graduate on Dec. 15, marking the end of the 0317 MOS and a long tradition of producing some of the deadliest snipers on the battlefield.
The last HOGs night will take place the night before, aboard Camp Geiger in North Carolina.
Marine scout sniper candidates are initially called Professionally Instructed Gunmen, or PIGs, but once they graduate from the course, they are called Hunters of Gunmen, or HOGs.
The HOGs night, a tradition for all scout sniper graduates including legends like Carlos Hathcock and Charles “Chuck” Mawhinney, is where scout snipers gather around a bonfire to receive their HOGs tooth, a 7.62 bullet on a 550 cord necklace. The rite of passage is traditionally attended by Scout Snipers past and present.
Jonathan Taylor is the executive vice president and COO of the USMC Scout Sniper Association… He’s helped put together the HOGs night for years…
“It’s usually just a smaller group with the graduates and then a few, you know, a few stragglers here or there. This one is scheduled to be big,” Taylor said. “We’re already getting emails from people. I think they are planning for 50 at the HOGs night, but that’s just off the top of the head of the staff NCOIC. I would say it’s closer to 60 to 70.”
…
Logan Stark, a former Marine Scout Sniper who deployed to Okinawa, Japan; and Sangin, Afghanistan, acknowledged that though there are mixed emotions, he’s confident that with the current state of the world, this won’t be the last we’ve seen of the Scout Snipers. He pointed out that the Marine Scout Sniper course has come and gone multiple times since the first course took place in 1918. …
(Excerpt) Read more at taskandpurpose.com ...
Bttt
This will not be the last Scout/Sniper class.
It’ll be back.
L
They need the instructors to help take down the DS.
They’ll be back. Pound for pound, snipers are one of the most effective anti-personnel weapons on the battlefield, and right up there as anti-equipment weapons as well.
They can seriously upset enemy operations and command.
SOOOOOOOOOO—Are the instructors going to open up private schools for snipers???
Or border guards.
And THAT highlights the demonic evil and anti-American treason behind closing it down. One does not complete scout-sniper school overnight.
“Insane”? yes, in many cases.
“Low IQ”??? No. (OK, Biden ...) The people really behind this aren’t idiots. They’re evil and they know what they’re doing.
Read it again, he was talking about the course returning, not how long it takes to graduate.
The Army has always broken up the Ranger units after every war, until recently, the arguments go on and on within the services.
I read it. More than once. The part you point out ALSO highlights the evil of shutting the program down.
You can't re-establish it "immediately". You can start to do so right away, but actually getting it up and running takes time. Then, students have to graduate. That also takes time.
All that time, is time you don't have enough properly trained personnel, when you desperately need them.
the arguments go on and on within the services.
Yes, they do. And the argument that training "special" troops is too expensive is what we call "penny wise and pound foolish". And that expression is obviously quite old ... people in various walks of life have exhibited that particular folly for a long time.
They are reversing the WWII Marine approach of being assault troops and this time making them be the dug in Japanese.
= = =
I have been reading Samuel Eliot Morison about Tarawa and Kwajalein.
And I had the exact same thoughts as you. Note - The Japenese lost those islands.
some arguments they used against Ranger units were expense, elitism, and the question of whether you concentrate your best soldiers or spread them around through the forces.
This was inevitable. The trans troops are not signing up.
You can’t get ghillie suits in pink.
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