Note. The last Scout Sniper course for the USMC has been run. A common theme seems to be that they'll be back (I'm positive...the idea of disbanding them was stupid in the extreme) but another common theme seems to be that they got too big for their britches.
I find that weird. Scout Snipers have ALWAYS had to walk a jagged line between being Special Ops and Conventional. From the outside looking in they do all kinds of stuff with SOCOM only for Regiment or Division trying to yank them back for...nonsense (remember I'm on the outside looking in, I could easily be wrong).
The real problem for this community is that jagged line. When they come back and they will, I hope that the USMC situates them to win rather than to lose. They need to be told where they fit in within the bigger scheme of things and that needs to be hammered into every commander that wants to use them as an additional rifle platoon. Don't waste this resource. Don't abandon the resource. PROPERLY UTILIZE THEIR SKILLSET!
Rant over. Great article. Read it all.
Scout Snipers have a mantra.
I learned that mantra years ago when I was assigned to lead a platoon of these Marines. My chief scout in the platoon, a title held by the most experienced Scout Sniper, was Damon.
When we met in 2012 on Camp Lejeune, Damon was in his late twenties. His guys were at-home in the woods and with a load on their backs; they rarely complained about being dirty, tired or uncomfortable. I learned quickly that Scout Snipers were the best in the battalion, regular infantrymen who had started out carrying an assault rifle or lobbing mortars but aspired to something sleeker, freer and more elite. Before graduating the arduous Scout Sniper Basic Course to earn his new, coveted title, Damon himself had carried a machine gun on a deployment to Anbar province. I remember the front of his uniform was covered in ribbons and medals earned on combat tours. On his back were the words “Scout Sniper.” They were branded into his skin.
Similar to most competitive people, Damon didn’t like following rules, including the rule that required him to buckle the chinstrap on his Kevlar helmet. Like a kid who refuses to put on a helmet before riding his bicycle, I couldn’t get him to listen. Whenever we went to the field for training, I’d see that nylon strap dangling off his sideburns. “I know, sir,” Damon would say. Until the next time it happened, and the time after that. If only he hadn’t been so good-natured (and good at his job), I might have been more insistent that he fall in line.
But I wasn’t.
Recently, the Marine Corps decided its infantry battalions no longer need Scout Snipers. The final class graduates today from the Scout Sniper Basic Course. Soon, Scout Sniper platoons will disband and transform into so-called “scout platoons.” They will observe the enemy, but not shoot him. Some argue the loss of formally-trained precision marksmen will make infantry battalions less lethal. Others, including military brass, say the cuts will help build a lighter, more “commando-style” infantry.
Either way, they had this coming.
A little more from me.
This opinion piece and others seems like a quiet admission that this was a batshit stupid idea.
It's also an acknowledgement that Scout Snipers will be back.
Long story short? Berger overshot with his "back to the sea" idiocy and while trying to justify this move its being admitted that it was a terrible idea. Even his supporters are walking a jagged line.
