The MacMillian Rifle discussed in the above story.
MacMillian Rifles webpage
Folks, this thing is hot. I want one.
Posted on 04/23/2002 4:56:01 AM PDT by Clive
The United States wants to give two teams of Canadian snipers the Bronze Star, a decoration for bravery, for their work in rooting out Taliban and al-Qaeda holdouts in eastern Afghanistan, but Canadian defence officials put the medals on hold, the National Post has learned.
The five snipers spent 19 days fighting alongside the scout platoon of the United States Army's 187th "Rakkasan" brigade last month, clearing out diehard fighters from the mountains near Gardez in eastern Afghanistan.
The Americans were so impressed by the Canadian snipers that they recommended them for medals after the battle.
Sources told the Post that U.S. General Warren Edwards had already signed the recommendation for five Bronze Stars for the sniper teams, drawn from 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, last month. Gen. Edwards, deputy commanding general of coalition land forces in Afghanistan, had recommended three Canadians for a Bronze Star and two for a Bronze Star with distinction.
The night before the troops were to be awarded the medals, about three weeks ago, Canadian military officials in Ottawa put the decorations on hold, according to a U.S. Army source in Afghanistan.
The Canadian military told their U.S. counterparts to wait before awarding the medals for reasons of "Canadian protocol."
Spokesmen for the Department of National Defence would not comment on the award last night, but a source within the department said the medals are on hold while the military decides whether or not to award the men a similar Canadian decoration.
However, Dr. David Bercuson, director of the Centre of Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, said the real reason for the delay was likely official squeamishness.
"Canadians don't kill -- they don't even use the word kill; that's the problem," he said. "I think the military is not sure that the government is prepared to accept the fact, let alone celebrate the fact ... that Canadian soldiers do sometimes end up killing people."
Many of the U.S. scouts who worked directly with the Canadian snipers were incensed that the Canadians did not get the Bronze Star, the medal for bravery the U.S. military usually gives foreign soldiers serving alongside its troops.
The snipers themselves, all of whom spoke on condition their names not be printed, have said they would prefer to receive a medal from their peers in the field rather than from National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa.
Dr. Bercuson said there should be no objection to Canadians receiving a U.S. decoration: As recently as the Gulf War, two Canadian CF-18 pilots were given the Bronze Star.
He said the medals would be a badly needed boost to the morale of the almost 900 Canadian soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan, especially after four of their comrades were killed and eight others wounded in last week's friendly fire incident.
"Absolutely they should get it," Dr. Bercuson said. "It would be good for the morale of the guys and good for the morale of the whole unit, and they need a morale boost right now."
Canadian snipers were reportedly outstanding in the fighting around the mountainous al-Qaeda bastion east of Gardez, code-named Operation Anaconda.
The battle pitted the two Canadian sniper teams against an enemy that showered the assaulting coalition troops with mortars and machine-gun fire as soon as they jumped from their helicopters.
One member of the team, a corporal from Newfoundland, said on his first night in combat he and his partner got an al-Qaeda machine gun in their sights as it was hailing bullets down on U.S. troops below.
Crawling up into a good position, they set up their .50-calibre rifle -- the MacMillan Tac-50, a weapon the corporal compares to having superhuman power in your hands. "Firing it feels like someone slashing you on the back of your hockey helmet with a hockey stick."
When he hit his first target, an enemy gunman at a distance of 1,700 metres, he said all that ran through his mind was locating his next target.
"All I thought of was Sept. 11th and all those people who didn't have a chance and the American reporter who was taken hostage, murdered and his wife getting the videotape of the execution; that is my justification."
A master corporal from Ontario, the lead sniper of his three-man team, said when they first landed in the combat zone "our spider senses were tingling.... It was night and we didn't know what to expect."
By daylight, after coming under enemy machine-gun fire, he managed to ease his rifle barrel between two rocks and quickly located an enemy sniper hiding behind a small piece of corrugated steel between two trees. He guessed the distance at 1,700 metres and fired one shot through the metal, killing the man instantly.
He said afterward he remembered thinking: "That's one less bullet that's gonna be coming at us, one less person we have to think about."
During the next four days of fighting, the Newfoundland corporal set what is believed to be a record for a long-distance shot under combat conditions, hitting an enemy gunman at a distance of 2,430 metres.
The days of crawling, shooting and long hours waiting in cover left the Canadian snipers exhausted. "You don't realize what you've done to your body and how tired you are till it's all done. I think we slept 14 or 15 hours when we got back," the master corporal said.
Three of them, along with U.S. special forces soldiers, also rescued a company of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division that was pinned down by enemy fire on the first day of Operation Anaconda.
They also participated in Operation Harpoon, with Canadian troops on "the whale," a mountain overlooking the Shah-e-Kot valley where al-Qaeda fighters were putting up stiff resistance.
Operation Harpoon, carried out in conjunction with Operation Anaconda, consisted of 500 Canadian and 100 U.S. troops under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Pat Stogran, who leads Canadian Forces in Afghanistan in the biggest ground offensive since the Korean War.
Lieutenant Justin Overbaugh, of the American scout platoon to which the Canadian snipers were attached, said it was a pleasure to work with the Canadian troops.
"Their professionalism was amazing," Lieut. Overbaugh said. "The Canadians were a very large asset to the mission. I would have loved to have 12 Canadian sniper teams out there. I'd have no problems fighting alongside of them again."
He said the Canadian snipers had equipment far superior to theirs. Their rifles had longer range than the U.S. weapons and better high- tech sights. Lieut. Overbaugh said if another mission comes up, he will request the Canadian sniper teams be sent with his unit.
Senior military officials in Ottawa made a point of praising their work at the time. "The sniper teams suppressed enemy mortars and heavy machine-gun positions with deadly accuracy," Vice-Admiral Greg
Maddison said after Operation Harpoon ended. "Their skills are credited with likely having saved many allied lives."
OTOH, as you have said, the government has not been so reluctant to allow knighthoods and peerages to be accepted (Conrad Black excepted).
Comparison of the equipment of snipers compared to the rest of the PBI is simply comparing oranges to apples.
Why distinction? What qualifies a distinction recommendation?
But in a nice, friendly, understated Canadian way.
Only on an exceptionally cold morning would a Canadian then cut open the quarry's belly to warm his hands. ;^)
Were we not just talking about this last night?
The Bronze Star is the war-time equivalent of the Meritorious Service Medal (MSM). If you are serving in a combat zone, and someone puts you in for an MSM (for meritorious service between this date, and that date), then what you get will be the Bronze Star.
Again, the Bronze Star is given for meritorious service during a span of time in a combat zone - that's it.
Now, the Bronze Star with "V" Device is an entirely different medal. The "V" stands for Valor, and this medal is given for specific acts, on a specific date, while involved in direct ground combat with an armed enemy of the United States.
The only "exception" is in the U.S. Navy, where (as I understand it) you can get a Bronze Star with what they call a "combat 'V'" if you were actually in combat, but did not necessarily perform a specific valorous deed. [You Navy vets please help me out here - I've never fully understood how your regulation works on this.]
Hope this helps - it's really a pet peeve of mine that all of those generic Bronze Stars floating around out there are looked upon as "hero medals," which they are NOT.
Stay Safe MJ, nice to see ya come up for air now an then........
One con for the McMillan and a pro for the semi-auto Barrett 82A1 series. The barrett has a recoiling barrel and a buffer along with an advanced muzzle break that is analogious of shooting a round of trap/skeet in my experience.
I have fired hundreds if not thousands of rounds (with free goobermint ammo of course :o) per session with the barretts but I lose points off my IQ with that number of rounds with an AMAC/Daisy or other single shot (non-semi auto) without a very good break design.......
Stay Safe !
Not to be nitpicky, but that seems a bit far. Most 10-14x optics would have a tough time resolving a man size target at that range, and I've never heard of anybody practicing at that extreme range to get the range indexing for the scope right. What are the come ups for 2400m?? Or was he just doping!
Just offhand, I think 50BMG would drop about 400-500 inches at that range - about 40ft of elevation adjustment. If the dude really hit a human target at 2400m, he deserves more than a medal. That's not a gimme shot for a tank main gun.
Any of you guys in the 50csa know of a rifle/scope combo that can make hits at 2400m reliably?
While they paint a much bigger target than something at 10-14x, a man is still a very small dot at 2400 meters.
That's a helluva shot under fire.
During the next four days of fighting, the Newfoundland corporal set what is believed to be a record for a long-distance shot under combat conditions, hitting an enemy gunman at a distance of 2,430 metres.
This is not even 1.5 miles. Where did you come up with your 5 miles???
Wow. No comment, just...wow. Just over a mile and a half, while under fire.You mean at a mile and a half someone was firing back at him?
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