Photo By Cpl. James Sauter | Lance Cpl. Brandon Sleeman, a scout sniper with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment and...... read more read more
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MARINE CORPS TRAINING AREA BELLOWS, Hawaii - The bright Hawaiian sun pierced through a drab, grey sky following a period of light rain showers that left the jungle covered in a thin coat of morning dew. The sun shone brightest at its highest peak, and the humid air became sticky and uncomfortable to the scout sniper’s skin, already covered in sweat and dirt from time spent concealed in the foliage of Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, Hawaii, Monday.
Scout snipers from 3rd Marine Regiment attending the School of Infantry West — Detachment Hawaii’s scout sniper leadership course began their culminating event.
Far off in the brush, the sniper peered through his scope at a town similar to those he saw in Afghanistan. He observed the town’s smallest details, such as the number of residents and building types, and took notes on what he saw to be analyzed later.
The snipers suspiciously watched two local nationals scanning the tree line, apparently looking for something or, possibly, his position. Trusting in his training to remain concealed or risk being captured by the enemy, the sniper continued spying on the town and gathered intelligence critical to a plan of attack.
“If the basic course is where Marines go to become scout snipers, then the leadership course builds on those skills to teach them how to lead scout snipers in combat,” said Gunnery Sgt. Timothy Tardif, the course’s staff noncommissioned officer in charge and native of Denver.
“Ninety percent of our job is reconnaissance and there’s a lot of hard work that goes into that.”
In addition to improving fundamental sniper skills such as surveillance and stalking, the Marines learned how to employ their teams on the battlefield, draft orders and create real-time maps of areas they surveyed.
“The Marines have to paint a picture of what they’re observing to the unit commander so he can make a decision based on the gathered intelligence,” Tardif said. “Small details like the number of windows, doors, population and demographics are all taken into account in the final course of action.”
An instructor described the course using an analogy. He said Marines learned the science of war, the fundamental skills of being a sniper, during the basic course. During the leadership course, they learned the art of war — taking the fundamentals and applying them to an evolving situation that requires the Marines to know their craft, and make decisions affecting their environment and fellow comrades.
In the course’s final week, three teams of five Marines were evaluated on their ability to survey a military operations on urban terrain facility from a concealed position. The objective was to collect information regarding population and architecture and send it to a command center by radio. As they received the intelligence, other Marines used the information to put together a real-time map and model of the facility.
“I grew up in the woods of Florida and when I came here, I found out that a lot of what they’re teaching came second nature to me,” said Cpl. Ian Cabanillas, a scout sniper with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment and native of Jacksonville, Fla. “I already had experience hunting, camping and hiking, but if you know your gear and skills, you’re prepared to accomplish the mission.”
The final day of evaluation is today. Tardif hoped the Marines learned how to be better leaders and perform more cohesively in teams, alone and in the field. For Lance Cpl. Brandon Sleeman, a scout sniper with 3rd Bn., 3rd Marines and native of Friendship, Wis., the most memorable experience was learning from the instructors’ experience and wisdom.
“When I first came here, I was oblivious to a lot of the mission planning and order writing,” Sleeman said. “But there was so much experience to learn from the instructors. I’m much better off now and I can’t wait to pass my experience on to other Marines.”
| Date Taken: | 02.12.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 02.15.2013 13:24 |
| Story ID: | 102080 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS TRAINING AREA BELLOWS , HI, US |
| Web Views: | 241 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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