The Army’s Specialized New Training Course Is Designed To Make Snipers Deadlier Than Ever

During large, multi-unit exercises, the average sniper can end up overshadowed by the men and machines roving the battlefield.

To correct that, Staff Sgt. Joe Bastian — a former active-duty sniper who is now a sniper observer/controller/trainer with the First Army's 1st Battalion, 335th Infantry Regiment — designed a special 10-day training course for snipers during the 33rd Infantry Brigade's Exportable Combat Training Capability, or XCTC, at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin.

“The course is designed to get all of the snipers from the brigade together to train, broaden their horizons and share tactics, techniques, and procedures,” he said in an Army news story.

Bastian called on two former instructors from the Army's Sniper School at Fort Benning in Georgia, and their course filled the 10-day exercise with weeks' worth of training for soldiers from Illinois' 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team and Puerto Rico's 1st Battalion, 296th Infantry Regiment.

The course teaches snipers how to design their own training courses, as well as how to work with ammunition, targets, and ranges, and how to use camouflage and stalking techniques during training.

Below, you can see some photos of Army National Guard snipers getting the specialized instruction they need to seek out and pick off their targets.

Staff Sgt. John Brady, a sniper instructor at the 10th Mountain Division's Light Fighter School at Fort Drum, New York, explains why a sniper from Illinois' 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team was spotted while stalking during a 10-day sniper training course at eXportable Combat Training Capability 17-02 at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, June 4-24.Photo via DoD

Mr. Tarrol Peterson, a U.S. Army Sniper Association instructor and former instructor at the U.S. Army's Sniper School at Fort Benning, Georgia, and Staff Sgt. Joe Bastian, a sniper observer/controller/trainer with First Army's 1st Battalion, 335th Infantry Regiment look for snipers during the stalking portion of the 10-day sniper training course at eXprotable Combat Training Capability 17-02 at Fort, McCoy, Wisconsin, June 4-24.Photo via DoD

Staff Sgt. John Brady, a sniper instructor at the 10th Mountain Division's Light Fighter School at Fort Drum, New York, instructs snipers from Illinois' 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team on hasty scope maintenance during a 10-day sniper training course at eXportable Combat Training Capability 17-02 at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, June 4-24.Photo via DoD

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