A view inside the 2015 International Sniper Competition

From DVIDS:

FORT BENNING, Ga. – It was still dark outside the morning of Oct. 19, 2015, when 37 two-man teams came to the U.S. Army Sniper School on Fort Benning, Ga., to compete in the International Sniper Competition which ended Oct. 22.

Staff Sgt. Desmond McClellan and Sgt. Cameron Pope, both infantrymen of 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, as well as Sgt. Bryan Coslett and Sgt. Wilberto Garcia, both infantrymen of 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, represented 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team and 3rd Infantry Division, of Fort Stewart, Ga.

The competition consisted of 18 separate events and most involved much more than laying down and firing a rifle. Many of these snipers have experience, having been to the International Sniper Competition in previous years, or having won other sniper competitions in many cases. The teams came from conventional and special U.S. military units, law enforcement and foreign teams from various countries. Pope and Coslett participated in the same event last year and Garcia had competed in Australia. It is a rivalry of marksmen who are smart, fast, lethal and precise.

First day
That morning, teams gathered in a garage-like room with an open bay door and large grey lockers to collect equipment, weapons and ammo, and discussed the coming events of the day. This was a hub, not just for each day, but for the sniper classes who had been through the school in the past, with signed target silhouettes high on the wall like rockstar posters on a teenager’s wall, albeit with a fine layer of dust. Many teams donned ghillie suits as well, a suit designed to break up each man’s silhouette and is often covered with natural vegetation to blend into surroundings.

Teams were set on rotations so different groups were on different ranges, keeping them engaged as often as possible. For the teams of 2IBCT, or Spartan Brigade, the competition started with a stalk, a crucial skill for military snipers. Each of them had to move 1,000 meters, engage a target with a single shot, identify letters on buildings and go back to the start while remaining undetected. The target was being guarded, so to speak, by four sniper school instructors with high powered binoculars persistently scanning for competitors.

“It was a tough stalk with it all being uphill,” McClellan said. “We had to stay low to even get out of the starting point. We low crawled for quite a ways.”

During the event coaches, such as Staff Sgt. Tom Appledorn, the coach of the 3-7 Inf. team, stood in a group near the target hovering over a radio scanning the frequencies of the competition officials listening to what was said. It was like they were listening to a football game over the radio and the celebration was in knowing it wasn’t your team which was found. There was, of course, the agony of defeat as well when a team was identified, and many were.

The coaches spent time in between events discussing everything imaginable about the craft of shooting. Calibers, rifling, accuracy, grains, cleaning and maintenance. It’s like listening to a group of professors discussing in depth quantum theory because they think about and put into practice the best of what they know to the nth degree to have the most accurate shots possible in all situations, and these are just the advisors of the competitors.

Not all fun and games
The obstacle course presented a specific moment of concern for the team from 6-8 Cav. Coslett was navigating a tricky obstacle. This challenge was a wide wooden ladder with a rope tied to the top rung and attached to a second pole. To move from the ladder to the rope, snipers had to hang from the ladder, head down. As Coslett attempted to complete the transfer, his foot got stuck on a board throwing him off balance. He was falling onto the rope but he maintained his grip and flipped around the rope. As his feet came down, his head came up into a 2x4 board, hitting his nose and cutting his lip.

“I just remember rolling, and then BANG, and I hit the ground,” Coslett said. “I got to the first firing position and I just saw blood coming off my nose.”

Officials immediately rushed to see if Coslett was okay, but he continued the event, to include shooting pop-up targets with an M4 carbine. Emergency medical personnel inspected his injury after the event was completed and suggested his nose might be broken.

They recommended a hospital visit, one which could end his time in the competition if he was found unfit to compete further. Coslett made the trip after the next event leaving his partner, Garcia, to wait hoping Coslett would return.

“I just got everything prepped,” Garcia said. “If he shows up, we’ll keep going, if not, I guess I’ll try to do it on my own.”

Coslett confirmed his nose was broken, was cleared to continue the competition and immediately returned just in time to start the next event, something he was commended for later in the competition.

Fully engaged
The competition is tough on many levels and designed to keep competitors engaged in more ways than just shooting their sniper system, M4 carbine, and pistol. Throughout the competition, teams were tasked with observing specific types of items, such military equipment, which they would write notes for. At the start point of one event, there was a claymore mine, on another range there was a printout of an old military poster advertising for Fort Benning. They were also tasked with keeping the names of each event, which was not always put out, unless competitors asked for the information, and with everything else going on in their mind, sometimes it was never asked. This tested these snipers ability to collect information which might be useful, and yes, there was a test at the very end which required these little details to be specific and accurate.

“The little things are huge things in this environment,” Pope said, adding that with such intense competition, 10 points was the difference between middle of the pack, and top five at some points during the competition.

The amount of effort that went into these little things might have been most evident in the 3-7 Inf. team when they did a timed ruck march a little over 4 miles long. Seconds might have been the difference of 5 points or more. Appledorn ran the event with his team to motivate them. By the time they made it to the finish line it was difficult to distinguish if they had completed a ruck march, or gone swimming.

Fully challenged
Many of the events are designed to force snipers to take shots which would be very difficult. For instance, several involved intense physical activity prior to firing. Shooters would perform a task such as dragging a 195 lb. sled a short distance right into a firing position with limited time. Added physical activity made it difficult for competitors to catch their breath and control their racing hearts. While it is hardly noticeable to a bystander, this stressed states makes a shooter’s sight picture down the barrel of his weapon bob up and down, as if looking at the target aboard a rocking boat.

“If you know it’s going to be a bad shot, you don’t want to take it,” Coslett said. “Take 10 more seconds, regulate your breathing pattern and remember the fundamentals, and you have a lot higher probability of hitting your target.”

Another event which really showcased a balance of patience and skill was a shoot from an unstable platform. The platform was a sheet of plywood held up by ropes. When competitors would mount the board, it was already moving.

“After the first shot it was pretty hard,” Garcia said.
Most waited for the movement to slow before taking the first shot, but the recoil of each shot started the process over, at which point competitors realized they would have to take more shots with greater movement because of the ever present time crunch.

Gambling for points
“There’s a fine line between gambling and being conservative,” Coslett said. “You want to get as many points as you can, but then you don’t want to mess it all up and get nothing. We found ourselves in that situation a couple of times where we gambled and lost.”
“You have to risk it to get the biscuit, and sometimes, you don’t get the biscuit,” Garcia said.

The team from 6-8 Cav. started the competition in the middle of the standings. Feeling the pressure of representing their unit and division, as well as the drive to compete, a few times they stretched themselves to earn more points and move up in standings, but lost the gamble.

“You want to make yourself look good, you want to make your unit look good, so you want to put up as many points as you can,” Coslett said.

One such even had competitors shoot targets in a specific order gaining more points with each hit, but a miss meant the score was dropped to zero for the team to attempt again within the given time, if they had the ammunition to do so. Coslett had two successive hits, the point at which most teams stopped firing because the targets became considerably smaller, when the team decided to go for more. A miss ended any chance of scoring from the targets, having run out of ammunition to engage them.

Under pressure
There were many moments where the Spartan teams displayed poise under the stress of competition. In an unknown distance range, Coslett and Garcia had to identify targets, guess their range, and calculate corrections to fire on targets. Garcia had just fired on a target when Coslett checked his watch noting only 30 seconds left.

“We needed points and we had one or two rounds left,” Coslett said. “We have to do this now.”

The team quickly identified the next target. Coslett gave some quick estimated corrections and distance, adding at the end, “Just send it now.”

Garcia fired without a second to spare and the event official spoke the most desired word of the competition, “HIT!” This is as close to beating the buzzer as it gets in this 96-hour test.

The official called Coslett to the binoculars, pointed at the target to show him where the team hit and commended the team for their performance under pressure.

Game changing
In one of the final events, teams were allotted 100 pistol rounds to shoot three targets in order. Two shots to the first, two shots to the second, and one shot for the only target worth points, the third. Hits had to be successive and any miss resulted in a complete restart of the cycle.

Pope and McClellan made a game plan to take turns firing before they stepped up to the boxes in which the shooters were required to stand, but as in most of the events, plans changed on the fly. They followed the plan, but it became obvious the strategy was not working because Pope was not hitting the targets consistently. Only moments into the event McClellan was accomplishing hit after hit. Pope turned over shooting responsibility to McClellan who went on to score a great deal of points for the team.

“In a competition you get into a certain mindset of gaining points and being the fastest,” McClellan said.
These are just examples of the snap decisions and thinking which are prevalent in this competition.

Critical thinking
Although just being in the competition is an honor, the Spartan teams wished they had performed better in the end.

“I think that’s the worst part of it,” Pope said. “Knowing that you’re better than that, and you can do those things, but failing.”

Pope specifically went on to speak about cases where points weren’t earned because of something small such as taking a pistol shot with no knee on the ground or not having the team’s process streamlined enough to make the time constraints. Being so critical of themselves helped the team of 3-7 Inf. improve, even during the competition.

“You beat yourself up a lot,” McClellan said. “You learn a lot, though. I think it helps you develop your skills.”

Snipers can be a force multiplier in the field. They can disrupt enemy movement, collect intelligence, and provide security for soldiers with a view of rooftops and windows they can’t see on the ground. Even though neither team took first place in the competition, they appreciated the experience and the rare opportunity to learn from some of the best at their craft, as well as improve by learning from their own mistakes.

“It’s amazing how those four days can totally make you lose track of the outside world where you’re only focusing on the next event,” Coslett said.

And for many of these competitors, the next event they’re thinking about now is the International Sniper Competition next year.

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