Synopses & Reviews
Military snipers are made, not born, and To Be a Military Sniper takes you through all the required drills with informative text and highly compelling photos. Initial training in the complex art of sniping takes five hundred hours over five weeks. This physically and mentally demanding schedule tests soldiers’ judgment and maturity in adverse conditions. As military snipers, they will have to make life or death choices while operating under the stress of exhaustion, hunger, isolation, and physical discomfort. All the field-craft skills they must master are covered: stalking, target detection, range estimation, recon and surveillance, survival, and many others vital for success and survival. Also covered are the marksmanship skills, such as evaluating distances, moving targets, elevation, and windage. But it takes more than accuracy; it takes teamwork. They will learn how to work in teams of shooters and spotters, the spotter being the most senior and experienced member of any sniper team. If students make it through the training, then they are ready for the real education, that which takes place in combat. They won’t know if they are really snipers until the first target presents itself under the rules of engagement and they are required to send a bullet downrange. After all, the essence of the military sniper’s mission is to precisely kill the enemy, one target at a time. To Be a Military Sniper covers how the military screens for and then trains those soldiers capable of shouldering the physical and psychological burdens of this truly unique form of warfare.
Synopsis
Aside from nerves of steel, pinpoint precise targeting skills, and uncanny adaptability, what does it take to be a military sniper? This book lays out the details of training and traits of character that make for success in one of the most challenging and mysterious jobs the military has to offer.
Author Gregory Mast, who has commanded both a rifle and a heavy machine-gun platoon, offers a clear account of what its like to be a sniper, required to stay in one position for days at a time, calling upon extensive training in camouflage and concealment, stalking and observation, precision marksmanship in a variety of operational conditions, and all those skills that, along with aptitude, turn a trainee into the deadliest of marksman.
The book includes fully illustrated descriptions of sniper training as forward air controllers (FACs) to direct military air strikes, forward observation officers (FOOs) in artillery target indication, and as mortar fire controllers (MFCs).
Synopsis
Aside from nerves of steel, pinpoint precise targeting skills, and uncanny adaptability, what does it take to be a military sniper? This book lays out the details of training and traits of character that make for success in one of the most challenging and mysterious jobs the military has to offer.
Author Gregory Mast, who has commanded both a rifle and a heavy machine-gun platoon, offers a clear account of what its like to be a sniper, required to stay in one position for days at a time, calling upon extensive training in camouflage and concealment, stalking and observation, precision marksmanship in a variety of operational conditions, and all those skills that, along with aptitude, turn a trainee into the deadliest of marksman.
The book includes fully illustrated descriptions of sniper training as forward air controllers (FACs) to direct military air strikes, forward observation officers (FOOs) in artillery target indication, and as mortar fire controllers (MFCs).
Synopsis
The training and character that make for success in one of the most challenging and mysterious jobs the military has to offer, clearly described and illustrated.
About the Author
Gregory Mast enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1978 and was commissioned in 1983. Following his active military service he worked in the defense industry on classified projects, as a web communications specialist at design studios, as a freelance graphic designer, and has owned a traditional Irish pub. He and his wife live in San Jose, California.
Hans Halberstadt studied documentary film in college and later took up writing, authoring or co-authoring more than fifty books. Most of his books have been on military subjects, especially U.S. special operations forces, armor, and artillery. He has also written extensively about farming and railroads. Halberstadt served in the U.S. Army as a helicopter door gunner in Vietnam. He and his wife, April, live in San Jose, California.
Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Shooter
Introduction Meet the Snipers
Chapter 1 A Brief History of Sniping
Chapter 2 Checking In
Chapter 3 Sniper Training: Week One
Chapter 4 Making the Long Shot: Ballistics and the Fundamentals of Marksmanship
Chapter 5 Sniper Training: Week Two
Chapter 6 Target Detection and Selection
Chapter 7 Sniper Training: Week Three
Chapter 8 On the Run: Survival, Tracking, and Counter Tracking
Chapter 9 Sniper Training: Week Four and Week Five
Chapter 10 Real-World Sniper Operations