ATD Blog
Tue Apr 14 2009
(Tom Vanden Brook and Oren Dorell, USA TODAY, WASHINGTON) Navy SEAL snipers endured some of the military's most rigorous training to enable them to carry out missions such as killing three Somali pirates holding a U.S. hostage with three precise shots Sunday.
The making of a SEAL sniper involves more than three years of training, and that's only if the SEAL survives a process that culls three of four volunteers, said Cmdr. Gregory Geisen, spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, Calif.
It is training that allowed the three snipers on the USS Bainbridge to make one of the most difficult shots imaginable: shooting simultaneously 75 feet away from the swaying deck of a warship at three moving human targets bobbing at dusk in a lifeboat on the swells of the ocean.
"It wasn't a long-range shot at all, but it was a very difficult thing to do," said Chris Sajnog, 39, a former SEAL instructor. "There's no one else in the world who can do that," he said.
Geisen said there are only 2,600 SEALs, an acronym for their ability to fight on "sea, air and land."
"Hell Week" culls many who aspire to be SEALs. It is six days of constant physical activity. Trainees are permitted only about two hours of sleep, Geisen said. It takes three years of boot camp and training before a SEAL deploys, he said. Only after that deployment are SEALs selected for advanced sniper training. They spend six months learning the craft, Geisen said.
The Navy has its own instructors for SEAL snipers, but they also work with Marine and Army trainers, Geisen said. "After that, you have to prove yourself every time you take a shot," he said.
There are four SEAL teams of 120 sailors on each coast, Geisen said. They generally operate in eight-man squads, one of whom is considered the sniper.
Snipers continue training throughout their careers. The Navy recently contracted with a company in Washington state for week-long SEAL sniper training "conducted on terrain that included thick wooded areas, large open fields, cliffs, canyons, swamps, lakes, a deep-water river and water ranges," according to a Pentagon document.
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