Photo By Staff Sgt. Coltin Heller | Two students with the Royal Dutch Marine Sniper Instruction School work together to...... read more read more
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany – Snipers with the Royal Dutch Marines conducted marksmanship training as part of the sniper instruction school on Grafenwoehr Training Area, Sept. 24.
Joint Multinational Training Command hosted the training, providing the instructors and students with assets not available to them in their home country.
“We go to Germany, to this range, because we’ve got a lot of freedom out here,” said Sgt. Dewey, an instructor with the Royal Dutch Marines, whose full identity cannot be revealed. “We can do things here that we can’t do in the Netherlands.”
The snipers traveled to Grafenwoehr from the Netherlands to conduct marksmanship training, the first of a multi-phase school to become a qualified sniper.
“We provide long-range precision fire on dedicated targets. It’s our main task,” said Dewey. “The Americans are very cooperative, and we can do a lot out here that we can’t do in the Netherlands. The ranges are too short in the Netherlands to support long range precision fire with the type of ammunition we use.”
The terrain and weather of the ranges add the realism to the training.
“You’ve got a lot of bumps, and the bumps are really twisting the wind around so they really need to make good calls with the wind,” said Dewey.
The students operated in teams, one student behind the rifle, while the other spotted shot placement and provided his teammate with elevation and deflection adjustments. Once the shooter made adjustments to the scope, he fired another round.
“Marksmanship is a five-week course,” said Dewey. “They are shooting known distances, moving targets and doing rapid engagement drills.”
The class — comprised of seven students — trained as they fight, wearing tactical vests and handmade ghillie suits used to conceal them when stalking targets, giving the students near real-world experience.
“The terrain is very good here and the shooting areas are larger,” said Marine 1st Class Jurrean, a sniper student.
The students trained on various weapons systems including the Heckler and Koch 417 semi-automatic sniper rifle and the M82 Barrett .50-caliber anti-material sniper rifle. The students learn to accurately fire on different types of targets in addition to learning the weapons systems.
The instructors do their best to prepare the students for engaging the enemy in multiple scenarios.
“We’re doing different types of training,” said Cpl. CJ, also a sniper instructor. “We do short- to mid-range until 800 meters. Today we did 900 to 1,000 meters. We also do the UKD or unknown distance shooting and that's what they’re doing today.”
The snipers also shot the previous night, learning how to use night vision equipment.
“Most of our action is happening at night. For infiltration we use the cover of darkness most of the time as an advantage. We try to train our students with the night vision system to see the pros and cons of night shooting,” said CJ.
The students, all of whom have served several years with the Royal Dutch Marines, must complete the training to receive the title of Dutch sniper.
“We have five or six exams in the marksman period and then we go back to do the stalking part and we have different exams there too,” said Jurrean. “And then you can go train with English and American snipers. I want to do everything.”
“I think we are the best thing a commander can have in his hands. We are the eyes and ears of the commander,” said Dewey. “We can give precision fire at long ranges and be support for all the troops by going forward to scout the enemy.”
After completing their training at Grafenwoehr, the snipers will return home to learn field craft and survival skills, part of the second phase of the course, before continuing their training in other countries, which include Scotland and America to continue their training.
| Date Taken: | 09.25.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 09.25.2014 10:48 |
| Story ID: | 143251 |
| Location: | GRAFENWOEHR, BY, DE |
| Web Views: | 190 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, GTA provides better training, say Dutch snipers, by SSG Coltin Heller, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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