Forty six candidates arrive at the US Army's
Sniper School in Ft. Benning, Georgia every seven weeks. Typically only 4 graduate. Think you have what it takes? That’s what we’ll find out today, in this
episode of The Infographics Show- how to become a US Army sniper. Pulling the trigger is only half the battle. You're going to need to know more than just
guns; excellent proficiency in physics and mathematics is a must-have for any would-be
sniper. When your only job on a battlefield is to
be accurate, and a single shot could turn the tide of a battle, a US Army sniper must
be able to calculate the effect that wind, gravity, distance, and even the Coriolis Effect-
the effect of the earth's rotation on a moving object- will all cumulatively have on a bullet
as it travels through the air. Before you even get to sniper school though,
you'll undergo the Army Physical Fitness Test with your home unit, and you’re expected
to earn top marks. You'll also need experience as an infantry,
cavalry, or special forces soldier, and you must have earned an extremely high score in
the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery. Next, you'll undergo a thorough psychological
evaluation, since you'll be spending most of your career alone in a 2-man crew, and
the US Army needs to know that you have the mental fortitude to handle the pressures of
the job and isolation both. Let's say you pass all those requirements
and make it to day 1 of sniper school though...well, the first thing you can expect is yet another
physical fitness test followed by a marksmanship test with the M-4 assault rifle using only
iron sights. Fail either test and that’s it for you,
you go home. At the start of your second week, you'll be
faced with your next pass-or-fail test: you and your class will camouflage yourself on
one of the school's wilderness courses and maintain your position for hours while instructors
search for you with high powered optics. You'll be expected to ignore the scorching
Georgia heat, crawling ants, spiders, snakes and other creepy crawleys; if you move or
are spotted, you automatically fail the course. You'll also undergo target detection training,
and you’ll be taught to use your eyes, binoculars and rifle scope to detect targets. These skills will be tested throughout the
week, and failure means you go home. Weeks three through five will pair you with
another student, and you'll both swap as shooter and spotter. The spotter is responsible for calculating
wind and other environmental effects, feeding his shooter the critical data needed to make
an accurate shot. Throughout these three weeks, you'll spend
your time either in the classroom are at the range, testing your mental fitness and marksmanship
both. If you fail any of your marksmanship tests,
you go home. You'll spend week six learning how to shoot
from different positions, as a sniper rarely ever shoots from the famous prone firing position. You'll be forced to contort your body uncomfortably,
hold the position for hours at a time, and still deliver an accurate shot to a predetermined
target. Failure means you go home. Your final and seventh week will be a test
of all your previous lessons. You will plan and execute a sniper and countersniper
mission, undergoing urban infiltration and hide setup techniques. You'll then move to the woods and learn to
build subsurface hides, meticulously camouflaged holes in the ground where a sniper may live
for days at a time in a real-world mission. Finally you'll undergo a final culmination
exercise which will test your skills in stalking, detecting a target, estimating range, and
accurate shooting. Failure in any element of the course means-
you guessed it- you go home. The US Army employs some of the deadliest
snipers in the world, and of all that apply, only a tiny percentage will ever reach graduation. Think you have what it takes? Who do you think was the deadliest sniper
of all time? Let us know in the comments. Also, be sure to check out our other video
called A day in the life of a US Marine. Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t
forget to like, share, and subscribe. See you next time!
