How Snipers are Viewed by Soldiers: "Unacceptable to ordinary footsoldiers"

[kpete]

How Snipers are Viewed by Soldiers
by mmankoff


I think it might be of interest to those attentive to the heated discussion regarding Clint Eastwood's film, American Sniper, and the varied responses to the protagonist to quote from Max Hastings' Armageddon on the perception of snipers from the perspective of the infantryman. Hastings, the pre-eminent military journalist/historian of WWII, author of many books on that conflict, focuses on the last year of the war in the European theatre and carefully examines the experiences and thoughts of those fighting on the ground for the American, British, Russian and German armies.

The following quotation is from page 88.

"Almost every soldier on both sides shared a hatred of snipers, which frequently caused them to be shot out of hand if captured. There was no logic or provision of the Geneva Convention to justify such action. Sniping merely represented the highest refinement of the infantry soldier's art. Its exercise required courage and skill. Yet, sniping made the random business of killing, in which they were all engaged, become somehow personal and thus unacceptable to ordinary footsoldiers."

The sniper is perceived as a different sort of person, even by fellow soldiers. That difference is not one which is admired, but produces a revulsion that crosses national boundaries.

If Hasting's observations from WWII still hold, when the infantrymen are volunteers and not simply conscripts, it may be that those who lionize the American sniper Eastwood depicts, only do so because they have not experienced him close and personal. If they did, they might have second thoughts.



http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/28/1360663/-How-Snipers-are-Viewed-by-Soldiers


btw, , sit down mr. eastwood, your chair is ready
mr pete read the book - says you left the TRUTH out.
He adds that it is also quite juvenile: "duck hunt with arabs".



from last year:
http://mpmacting.com/blog/2014/7/19/truth-justice-and-the-curious-case-of-chris-kyle

[braddy]

1. Do you think that our Infantry prefers to fight, without us having snipers?

[Malraiders]

3. Do you think our infantry prefers to fight illegal wars?

[braddy]

7. Since the topic is soldiering, tell us if you think our Infantry wants to eliminate the Sniper MOS

from the United States military, and prefer to operate with that protection and capability, and without them hunting the enemy and gathering intelligence for us.

[Malraiders]

11. I remember reports and investigations of snipers placing a length of wire

on the ground within their sniping area and sniping any civilian who picked it up. They justified this action because the length of wire might be used in the future to fabricate a remotely detanated bomb.

I would think that any infantry soldier would see this as putting his life in more jeaprady because of the actions of the sniper.

[braddy]

15. One can hear just about any story, or even make one up, stories don't count for much.

There is a rumor that Lee Marvin was a sniper, IMDB claims it for instance.

[Malraiders]

51. A story based on fact:

U.S. Aims To Lure Insurgents With 'Bait'

Snipers Describe Classified Program
By Josh White and Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, September 24, 2007; A01

A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of "bait," such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, according to military court documents.

The classified program was described in investigative documents related to recently filed murder charges against three snipers who are accused of planting evidence on Iraqis they killed.

"Baiting is putting an object out there that we know they will use, with the intention of destroying the enemy," Capt. Matthew P. Didier, the leader of an elite sniper scout platoon attached to the 1st Battalion of the 501st Infantry Regiment, said in a sworn statement. "Basically, we would put an item out there and watch it. If someone found the item, picked it up and attempted to leave with the item, we would engage the individual as I saw this as a sign they would use the item against U.S. Forces."

In documents obtained by The Washington Post from family members of the accused soldiers, Didier said members of the U.S. military's Asymmetric Warfare Group visited his unit in January and later passed along ammunition boxes filled with the "drop items" to be used "to disrupt the AIF [Anti-Iraq Forces] attempts at harming Coalition Forces and give us the upper hand in a fight."

Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said such a baiting program should be examined "quite meticulously" because it raises troubling possibilities, such as what happens when civilians pick up the items.

"In a country that is awash in armaments and magazines and implements of war, if every time somebody picked up something that was potentially useful as a weapon, you might as well ask every Iraqi to walk around with a target on his back," Fidell said.

Soldiers said that about a dozen platoon members were aware of the program, and that numerous others knew about the "drop items" but did not know their purpose. Two soldiers who had not been officially informed about the program came forward with allegations of wrongdoing after they learned they were going to be punished for falling asleep on a sniper mission, according to the documents.

Army officials declined to discuss the classified program, details of which appear in unclassified investigative documents and in transcripts of court testimony. Criminal investigators wrote that they found materials related to the program in a white cardboard box and an ammunition can at the sniper unit's base.

Read more: http://www.stopdown.net/Iraq__rudy__snipers__rudy__bait.htm

Charges Against Snipers Stir Debate on 'Baiting'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/25/AR2007092502136.html

Pentagon encouraged "baiting" in Iraq, snipers say

http://seattletimes.com/html/iraq/2003900614_iraqbait25.html

[braddy]

52. Those are from 2007, what did the research into the claims end up revealing?

[Malraiders]

53. Research reveals that "stories" of snipers baiting innocents for death is

a good recruiting tool for the enemy.

[braddy]

54. Well, there are a few other frivolous posts on this thread, I guess there is no update or research.

[Adrahil]

57. So, were these reports mere hearsay?

Snipers are an important element of war. They are not going away. But that's not to say that one can't go bad and commit a war crime.

[whatchamacallit]

9. We get it

Just pay attention to the TOS and you can hang out indefinitely, mouthing wingnut military obsessions.

[Malraiders]

12. Thank you for the kind advice. nt

[braddy]

13. Huh?

[Tom Ripley]

55. ^^^THIS^^^

Someone really luvvvvvvvs a man in uniform!

[Bandit]

23. Yes most definitely I do

We have other means.. Snipers are a form of terrorism.

[braddy]

32. You have other means of what? The biggest portion of their mission is gathering intelligence

and protecting their fellow infantrymen, If you watch the movie you will see the snipers doing oversight, as they cover the infantry. Do you think that the military and the GIs want to give up our snipers, how about our hostage rescue teams (like the SEALs)?

This anti-sniper thing is getting crazy.

[Bandit]

33. We had LRRPs and Special forces teams for that

And anyone out gathering intelligence did not EVER want their position revealed especially by firing at enemy soldiers unless it was absolutely necessary.

[braddy]

35. You also had snipers gathering intelligence, it has been described as up to 90% of their mission.

If you mean Vietnam, did you really want to give up Carlos Hathcock, and Mawhinney, or Waldron, or all the other snipers?

[hack89]

42. The Marines call theirs Scout Snipers

tells you something about their mission, don't you think?

[Bandit]

36. You get your information from movies, I get mine from real time action.

Snipers are not needed PERIOD.....

[braddy]

44. I get my information from reading and my military associations from my Army service from

during the Vietnam war and later serving in a LRRP/LSR company a decade later.

Sniper were very big during the Vietnam war, in fact while Carlos Hathcock was the most famous sniper of Vietnam, the actual top Marine sniper was Mawhinney, with his 103 kills, and the most prolific sniper of the Vietnam war was Army Staff Sergeant Waldron with 109 confirmed kills, it was his record that Kyle beat.

[sarisataka]

64. *snort*

[sabrina 1]

37. What were we doing in Iraq do you think?

[Brickbat]

2. Well, they certainly didn't like the other side's snipers.

[riderinthestorm]

4. This is what Michael Moore was referring to in his own family

And was excoriated for it.

[Maedhros]

63. Nah - he was excoriated for being Michael Moore.

The sniper comments just provided the justification.

[riderinthestorm]

67. Yeah. Ok. His personal experience and family lore

That matches the OP are shit..

Got it.

[Maedhros]

72. You misunderstand.

I think the people who excoriated Moore for his comments were simply using them as an excuse to heap criticism on the man.

[riderinthestorm]

74. Oops! So sorry!

Big apologies and yes, I fully agree with you.

I noticed the biggest critics of MM were noticeably absent from the thread outlining his troop support.

[HereSince1628]

5. It's my experience soldiers don't see themselves as warriors

or Armies of One.

That view is silly propaganda from most soldiers points of view.

Soldiers understand their strength comes from being one among many. They work as a team and subordinate their personal views to orders that control the whole. The worst failures are those that fail others. It's really all about the team.

So...

Snipers may seem different to them.

Single or paired, sniper/sniper teams are guys out there making unique contributions. More like assassins or knights errant. Guys whose jobs are about individual effort rather than teamwork, even if there is a lot of teamwork involved in putting their sights on a target.

The notion of the Warrior/Army of One seems more consistent with snipers than it does with routine soldiering.

[Marr]

14. I don't think it's that at all. Snipers were considered cowardly and cruel.

At least, that's how they were spoken of by my grandpa and uncles who were in WW2. They had no respect for them and the tactics they employed-- like wounding rather than killing, and killing would-be rescuers.

[braddy]

16. A Navy SEAL, Scout Sniper, is hardly a coward. American Snipers tend to be braver, for instance

going on deep penetration missions, and operating without a unit, and facing capture as one of the military occupations least favored by the enemy, the kind of thing that all elite forces face.

"Probably his most daring and important active-duty mission was when Hathcock shot and killed a North Vietnamese Army general from a range of about 700 yards. Hathcock literally spent days crawling, inches at a time, to get within range of the general’s command post.

A magazine article by Green Beret veteran Charles W. Sasser details that event. Hathcock finally took the shot in an open field, vulnerable to the enemy amassed at the compound."

[Marr]

21. I think you've watched too many Rambo movies. /nt

[Locrian]

25. movies - "Suddenly"

There was an interesting movie in 1954 with Sinatra as an ex-soldier (sniper?) trying to assassinate the president. Unusual role as he played quite the villain.

Frank Sinatra steals the show here as the ruthless criminal mastermind behind the want-to-be assassins - a man named John Baron. He is downright brutal and nasty in the role--an utterly detestable villain who does remind us the it was the army that created him and made him into a killer or maybe deep down, it's just that he was always a killer at heart. An outstanding multi-dimensional performance from Sinatra.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047542/

[braddy]

27. No, just a student of the military, warfare, and a veteran, that knows something about the duties of

SEALs and Scout snipers. This new claim that SEALs, and the SEAL snipers are cowards, is brand new, and it sure doesn't make any sense.

[Marr]

30. Show me where I said that SEALs or snipers are cowards, please.

I said that snipers were undeniably viewed as such by my relatives who fought in WW2 (and Vietnam), and that their views on the matter seemed to line up with the one described in the OP's citation.

You're punching at shadows here.

[braddy]

34. Fine, if you never claimed that, then you would be correct, they are exceptionally brave.

[haele]

56. I'm a retired Vet. SEALs aren't snipers unless they absolutely have to be. Nor are Rangers.

Sniper is a Marine or Army infantry MOS, not a Special Forces MOS. Now Special Forces members are required to be qualified as a Sniper in cases like "our position is blown, and we have to take out the oncoming platoon's leader to make our escape", but they are not expected to be assigned to a platoon to act as look-outs and path-clearance for a typical patrol.

Special Forces hate, hate, hate to be used in operations like the first battle of Fallujah. That's not their job. Their job is to go in unseen, do one (or at most two) specific operational tasks, then get the F*** out without being noticed. And killing, especially indiscriminate killing, gets you noticed really damn quick.

Reservists I work with who were in Iraq and Afghanistan don't generally consider the unit snipers as part of their "comrades in arms". The problem many infantry soldiers have with snipers is that the sniper doesn't operate on the same level as the rest of the unit does. There's also competitive "glory" that some snipers cultivate because they're better shots and get to set themselves up out of the way to be the savior of the unit if something goes down, far different than the corpsman who has to get covered with blood and bone and risks the same IEDs and attacks the rest of the unit does. The average grunt also hates watching two or three buddies being picked off by the opposing sniper they didn't know was there before the unit sniper reacts quickly enough to take the enemy out (if he can) before more soldiers or marines get shot.
On edit - I'm not saying the reservists complained about the snipers in their units for doing their jobs, nor did they call them cowards - but the snipers were not "part of the unit", and not generally trusted much past their ability to snipe at the enemy.

As far as I know, Kyle was an average grunt blessed with good shooting skills who's job was to position himself out of the way where he could get a clear view of the operation and pick off any threats to his unit. A lot of his claims are typical of a young man who begins to believe himself to be the difference between success and failure of his mission; such boys begin to think of themselves as Superman; above regular people.

BTW, as a military historian, you know there difference between SEALs who actually earn that NEC or Special Warfare rating and someone who went through BUD/S training; just as there's a difference between Snipers and someone who went all the way through Ranger training for that MOS.

Haele

[braddy]

58. Good Lord man, of course not all SEALs, or Special Forces, or Rangers are snipers, or

even capable of being a top level sniper like Kyle. Sniper is a specialty, and at Kyle's level, only a few can qualify for such a specialty.

Kyle was a top sniper and a Navy SEAL.

As far as Army Special Forces.

"After a week of competition, a team from the 1st Special Forces Group was named the winner of the 14th annual International Sniper Competition at Fort Benning.
Sgt. 1st Class Travis Croy and Staff Sgt. Rudolph Gonsior of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state topped the field of 36 two-man teams from around the world to win the competition that started Monday.
Sgt. 1st Class Terry Grower and Sgt. 1st Class Neil Hudspeth of the 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Campbell, Ky., placed second and the team of Master Sgt. Sean Wiseman and Staff Sgt. Stephen McAuley representing U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., rounded out the top three."

During the competition, the last 48 hours were the most challenging for the teams because it allowed no time for sleep, said Staff Sgt. Matthew Fox, a team sergeant for the U.S. Army Sniper Force.
"They were up the entire time," Fox said. "Every event rolled into another event, 48 hours of competition from Wednesday to Thursday. In the end, the Special Forces group took it."

The competition included teams from the Army, Army Reserve, National Guard, U.S. Marine Corps, Homeland Security, the Pentagon Emergency Response Teams and the Department of Justice. International teams came from the United Kingdom, Denmark and Germany. From Georgia, the Covington Police Department also competed.
"All the teams did exceptionally well, including law enforcement and international teams," Fox said."

[sabrina 1]

47. Why was that a brave act? What were we doing there? If shooting a General like that is a heroic

act by invaders, then surely those defending their country shooting one of our Generals for a far more moral reason, in defense of their country against foreign invaders, would be even more heroic?

Unless of course you subscribe to the notion that the US is never wrong, no matter how egregious the act. Such as invading other people's nations in order to steal their resources.

I suppose it takes a little courage to rob a bank eg. I know I don't have that kind of courage.

But it is a crime.

[HereSince1628]

20. The soldier's goal in war is to survive. Striking from outside the enemy's range

Last edited Wed Jan 28, 2015, 05:05 PM - Edit history (1)

represents Darwinian-like adaptability and success for militaries.

OF COURSE it looks asymmetrical and thereby unfair to strike from 1/2 a mile away, or several miles away from modern artillery or even more than a thousand miles away if operating a predator drone or cruise missle.

The operator of the drone or the sniper isn't at risk But then, no soldier in his/her right mind wants to be at risk.

Being safe from enemy fire while in range either defines either cowardice or weapons' superiority. The definition depends on whether your side is at risk.

In the war I served, some poor north Vietnamese radio operator sent to me a finger print of his transmitter, and a compass bearing of where he was everytime he acknowledged a message from his/her headquarters. Togther with similar bearings usually taken from naval surveillance that pinpointed his antenna's location...within working areas... army, navy, airforce intelligence teams worked out who was that guy's controller.

Those co-ordinates gave the B-52s locations to bomb...from the safety of many miles in the air.

Collectively, very very few of us were at risk. We were NOT snipers. We were MODERN war-fighters working on a battlefield that included radio-emissions.

We bombed the FUCK out of enemy command and control antennae sites. Were were NOT snipers, were we cowardly? Every fucking body I knew was anti-war but also pretty damned HAPPPY to be a pretty much SAFE coward.

Here is a song made up by members of my unit acknowledging our cowardice

[Marr]

26. We're talking about lionizing snipers here.

I never said it wasn't an effective tactic-- obviously it is. But there's a big difference between effective and heroic. I don't see how snipers are anything like a 'knight errant', with a 'warrior code' the average soldier just can't grasp or appreciate.

[HereSince1628]

39. The concept behind sniping is high-value and critical targeting

It's EXACTLY the concept that guided my (ARMY) unit's effort to get bombs (AIR FORCE EFFORT) on command and control targets.

Is war worthy of admiring? NO. War is not worth admiring.

Is the concept of Army of One worthy of admiration? Not in my mind.

Still, you can't sell the glory of any war, let alone the mundane realities of strategic targetting, on the notion of one guy intercepting morse code and another guy doing maintenance to keep the first guy's keyboard available for data input, so that a third guy could figure out that the message came from or went to the enemy's command
so that a bombing mission could be mounted to eliminate an enemy headquarters.

Glory -IS- personal. It depends upon the existence of a Warrior, an Army of One, and in many ways that reduces to someone pretty much like a sniper.

Sad and true, I am afraid

[oneshooter]

65. So he was talking about American snipers, or the other sides?

[FLPanhandle]

6. Lets put down our weapons and kill each other like civilized men

War isn't about playing fair

[braddy]

8. "Our artillery . . . The Germans feared it almost more than anything we had." - Ernie Pyle

"I do not have to tell you who won the war. You know, the artillery did."
Gen George S. Patton

[Marr]

10. That lines up with what my grandfather and uncles used to say.

They bore no ill will to the German soldiers, and said so often. But when they talked about snipers, they practically spat the word. It was clear they had no respect for snipers.

That's not saying it isn't a very effective tactic-- but there's an enormous amount of ground between 'effective' and 'heroic'. Drone pilots are effective, after all, but few would call them heroic.

[braddy]

17. Are you kidding? Comparing a drone pilot back at base, with a man operating behind enemy lines?

[Marr]

19. Are you insulting our heroic drone pilots? /nt

[braddy]

22. One can be cutsy, but comparing sitting at a desk with being the kind of elite soldier that operates

behind enemy lines, is too cute by half.

[Adrahil]

59. Honestly, "heroism" is a kinda ridiculous to argue about.

War is a nasty brutal thing. "Heroes" are romantic and all, but honestly, war is about killing people and blowing shit up. One could (and many have) argued that pilots are "cowards." And others before them argued that men using firearms are cowards.

Screw all that.. War is ugly. Sometimes necessary, but always ugly.

[dilby]

18. The old, "unless it was hand to hand with a knife it was not real warfare" argument.

Sorry but sniper serve a valuable purpose in warfare, if they did not then we would not use them.

[Bandit]

28. We did not use them when I was a grunt

We were not supposed to engage the enemy. When we made contact we pulled back and brought the entire world down on Charlie. We would call in guns and artillery and even jet strikes if that is what it took but we never used nor needed sniper killers. Special Forces sent out small five man teams to gather information and never a sniper was needed. They did not want their position to be jeopardized by firing at anyone unnecessarily.

[dilby]

29. Which war was this? n/t

[Bandit]

31. Charlie didn't tip you off I guess

It wasn't even called a WAR but a Conflict or Police Action. Vietnam where we were engaged with the third largest army on the face of the earth and lost over fifty thousand American soldiers. And NEVER heard of any snipers being used.

[Telcontar]

41. Man named Hathcock would like a word

[Bandit]

43. Bring him on...

His was not a known name in any of the units I was in or around. We valued Cobras and Guns, they were far more effective.

[Telcontar]

46. Heh, ok keyboard commando

If you don't know who is was, you probably never served

[Bandit]

50. Ever heard of Major Maguire or a Maguire Rig

If not then you might just be a keyboard commando. There is not a single Special Forces member that does not know about Maguire rigs. Your post was asinine.

[Adrahil]

60. Ummm there WERE snipers in Vietnam Nam.... n/t

[oneshooter]

66. Here he is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Hathcock

[dilby]

45. My step father was a sniper in Vietnam.

He was in the 9th infantry division and when my step brother enlisted in the Army in the 90's my step father told him not to show how well he shot or he would end up a sniper like he was.

[braddy]

49. You never heard of snipers in Vietnam?

Snipers were very big during the Vietnam war, in fact while Carlos Hathcock was the most famous sniper of Vietnam, the actual top Marine sniper was Mawhinney, with his 103 kills, and the most prolific sniper of the Vietnam war was Army Staff Sergeant Waldron with 109 confirmed kills, it was his record that Kyle beat.

[DustyJoe]

62. INFANTRY ?????

What unit were you in you were not supposed to engage the enemy ? Certainly not an Infantry unit.
I sure got into the wrong unit. The 199th Light Infantry was an Airmobile unit that were specifically flown to hotspots to interdict, engage and kill the enemy. Not flown in, look around, withdraw and call for help.

During TET 1968 the 199th was the only major reaction force in and around Saigon during the first days of Tet, they were charged with clearing the infamous Cholon district of Saigon including the Phu Tho Racetrack. Hardly making contact and pulling back, but routing them out of their stronghold and chasing them all the way back across the Cambodian border.

Line companies of the 199th usually had a complement of 2 snipers that carried M14 or Remington Model 700 or Winchester Model 70. These guys were not looked down on by their mates, but called on for very important anti-sniper and long range targets.

Seems like a few here talk the talk, but never walked the walk.

[Codeine]

24. And yet those same soldiers

rise to run militaries all over the world, every last one of which uses snipers.

I think it's fair to say soldiers hate enemy snipers.

[LanternWaste]

38. In Harry Craig's non-fictional work, Enemy at the Gates

In Harry Craig's non-fictional work, Enemy at the Gates (an account of the battle of Stalingrad), even one of the more quoted soldiers, a German sniper by the name of Major Koenig, states of himself that he's "no true fighting soldier of the Wermacht, and less a man because of it."


In Citizen Soldier, Ambrose interviews a GI (chapter 10, Night on the Line) who says, "...but we all hated the sniper. Jerry's, Joe's and Tommy's (Germans, Americans and British solders respectively) alike thought little of those guys. During Elsenborn especially, we made it a point to break them down like rag-dolls if we could get our hands on 'em."

But if Clausewitz was correct when he wrote that "the only purpose of war is to prevent the enemy from waging war", we have to realize that each progression of military tactics, regardless of how efficient or effective that tactic may be, can be seen as less than honorable. The American militia, refusing to fight in standard battle lines, were seen as cowards by the British, the Vietnamese, practicing those same tactics were seen as cowards by the Americans 175 years later, and the terrorist bombing of civilians today are referred to as cowards by the majority of the west. But in each case, the tactic was effective, forced the opposition to react rather than act, and can easily become a standard itself.

War sucks. No way to rationalize it as anything other than the greatest og human weaknesses.

[hack89]

40. Soldiers hate the other side's snipers.

they love their snipers because they save lives.

[Adrahil]

61. Double plus this. n/t

[hack89]

48. Misleading OP

Hastings is talking about soldier's feelings about the enemy's snipers - hence the take no prisoners. Nowhere does Hastings say that soldiers hated their own snipers - which makes sense when you consider that in WWII sniping was much more adhoc and less specialized than it is now. WWII snipers were for the most part simply infantry men who were good shots - they were given a scope to put on their rifle and were called snipers. They were not separate from their fellow infantry and it is hard to believe that they were hated or despised.

[oneshooter]

69. The USMC had dedicated snipers and special rifles for them before WW2.

They used a star gauged National Match 1903 with a Unertl 10X scope. This program started in 1942.


https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=Marine+snipers+ww2&vid=da1c3e9265494f583f591524bff4e3db&l=42%3A14&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts4.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DVN.608018505994406063%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DEGQycodaxUE&tit=Snipers+-+Marine+-+Full+Documentary&c=7&sigr=11bosg981&sigt=113nodosp&sigi=11rmlqiis&ct=p&age%5B0%5D=1385220106&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av%2Cm%3Asa&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=mozilla&tt=b

[hack89]

73. Marine Scout Snipers were envisioned primarily as reconnaissance units

which is how the were mainly used. But you are right thst they did receive specialized sniper equipment. But my point still stands - they were not hated or despised by their fellow Marines.

[NuclearDem]

68. Yeah, we get it, you didn't like American Sniper.

Soldiers hate the other side's snipers.

[MisterP]

70. even in Team Fortress they're disliked (NSFW)

http://denimecho.deviantart.com/art/yacanthitmatinyhead-259186755

[Zorra]

71. A large part of a sniper's value in war is her/his ability to terrorize the enemy.

Last edited Thu Jan 29, 2015, 03:12 AM - Edit history (1)

It's brutal psychological warfare. You're walking to the mess with one of your friends, and all of a sudden your friend falls over dead, with a bullet hole in his forehead. 1000 meters away on a hillside, the sniper that shot your friend fades into the jungle. No one knows when sh/e may return; but s/he will return, and everyone knows they may be the next one to keel over dead with a bullet in their head. The sniper gets into your head; you're always nervous ~ "is s/he out there right now, does s/he have me fixed in her scope?". Consequently, you can never really relax, maybe find it hard to sleep; maybe you can't sleep. You think about her/him when you go to take your morning dump in the latrine, you look around, even though you know s/he's too far away to see, or not even there s/he's the grim reaper, waiting in the darkness, waiting for the morning light that will allow her/him to take more souls at will. Maybe your soul next time.

A few days go by. No more sniping. Maybe you're safe now; it's war, maybe someone got the sniper. You start to relax a little, breathe just a little easier. Another day passes. S/he's gone, you think.

1500 meters away, in a different hide, the sniper squeezes a trigger. The corporal who was half finished with her/his coffee is dead before s/he hits the ground.

The sniper is out there, moving to safety.

Fuck.

Soldiers have good reason to hate snipers. It's not rocket science.

[madokie]

75. I've met a sniper from my war

and I wouldn't trust that animal for a second. Those cold far away looking eyes gives me the chills. He lives here in my town. Heavily medicated to say the least.
fuck a bunch of cold blooded killers and thats exactly what a sniper is. IMHO

[Paladin]

76. Whole bunch of sniper worship is evident in this thread. Unfortunate, but nothing new. (nt)