No need to explain why troops hate snipers. A sniper recently claimed to me that snipers targeted officers and NCO’s, instead of lower enlisted. He pointed out that sniping soldiers prevented collateral damage.
How many here think that a sniper will pass up any target that shows up? Or that pot-sotting guys on the other side will lower the level of civilian damage? Or that it’s preferable for any civilian population that the lower ranks have no officers or NCO’s to keep an eye on them?
Military needs and goals are very limited, after all; kill and die, take and hold territory. Anybody who tries to stretch their capabilities — and manpower — into building schools or carrying water for drought-stricken villages is just misusing and overworking them.
When my dad was in Basic, he was very pleased to show off his superb shooting skills. An old veteran sergeant took him aside and gave him two good pieces of advice.
First, he told him to shoot only well enough to qualify. Second he told him to never, never, NEVER let anyone give him a sniper’s rifle.
He witnessed a very sad demonstration of the wisdom of the second item. A “90-day wonder” lieutenant was looking for a volunteer to go forward with a sniper’s rifle. Finally, someone stepped up. Dad tried to talk him out of it, without success. When the Germans realized that they were being sniped, they called in an artillery strike on the man’s position.
Nearest says: “I’ve seen that happen. Not only an artillery strike, but an air strike. The troops in the area that were pinned had to stay pinned and the others put a parameter around the corner of the woods the sniper was in and waited until a Fox 4 Phantom come up from Danang and brought in high explosives. Wasn’t napalm, it was high explosives. I’ve seen one sniper pin down an entire unit. More’n once. We were in sniper alley, between Khe Sanh and Lang Vei. I thought Lang Vei was more dangerous than Khe Sanh. Hell, I was snipped at re-fueling at Lang Vei.”
“Anything else?”
“Isn’t that enough?”