Scott Tyler breaks down his approach to a hypothetical mission in Iraq.
The first thing you need to know is that no two sniper situations are the same. Even at the same location, things change: the sun, wind, people, objects. It’s the job of the sniper team — a shooter and spotter — to account for that. What you see here is a modified “range card” I drew, the kind of sketch I would put together on a piece of paper with the spotter’s help so we could quickly communicate and engage targets using a common perspective. The card can easily be handed over to a relief team.
This is a typical urban setting in Iraq, a place where IEDs have been set in the past along a military supply route. We’re trying to stop the people who are doing it. The arcs indicate the distances in meters from the shooting position. The 1, 2, and 3 indicate rubble or rock that the enemy might use for ambush. You need to scan those places continuously — there could be machine guns, RPGs. The X marks where an IED will most likely be placed. It’s a suspicious place, because in previous days people may have built fires there, dumped garbage, hammered, done something to break through the surface of the road. People often will use the same place for bombs once the surface has been breached. They tend to return to places that are familiar to them.
Our cover might be anything from bushes to a building to a trash pile. You want to have a place where you can see well. Ideally, you’re prone, but rarely does that happen. Comfort is not the norm. Bad positions are. You may be there for hours or even a day or longer. A member of my team once had to shoot leaning out of a building, with his rifle on metal grillwork. It was the only shot he had. Because the barrel was touching metal, it distorted the harmonics of the whole thing. The bullet path changed because of it, and he missed badly. He didn’t get another chance.
Return to “The Way of the Sniper”
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This article originally appeared in the December 2009/January 2010 issue of Men’s Journal.
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December 13th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Thanks to MJ for a very interesting article which covered this difficult subject quite well.
I wish to thank Mr. Scott Tyler for his honorable service to our country. I will mention that I was particularly impressed by his responsibility for and commitment to the men who served with him, no matter what the circumstances.
I was distressed to read that a skilled and honorable man like Mr. Tyler was conflicted by decisions of persons higher in the chain of command.
In closing, I thank GOD, who allows honorable men to do what they do in the battle for right and freedom. I sincerely thank every man, women, and child who bought the freedom that I am enjoying right now.
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AKS Reply:
January 1st, 2010 at 2:28 am
‘GOD’ already left the battlefields.
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