Army Sniper Requirements

Looking into different MOSes and Army Sniper seemed like a possible one...I need info./experience/tips.If anyone here could help me out, I would be very much abliged to yeh.What are the requirements? What are possible points of rejection?What would help me get the commanders reccommendation?
 
C/1Lt Henderson said:
Looking into different MOSes and Army Sniper seemed like a possible one...I need info./experience/tips.If anyone here could help me out, I would be very much abliged to yeh.What are the requirements? What are possible points of rejection?What would help me get the commanders reccommendation?

"Army Sniper" isn't an MOS. It is an ASI (Additional Skill Identifier). You're awarded the B4 (Benning school) ASI if you complete and pass the course.

You have to be an E-3 through E-7 and it is a requirement that you have the commanders recommendation. You also have to have a consistent 75% on your APFT and consistent experts in weapons quals, a psych eval and 100 GT score, vision correctable to 20/20 and your nose has to be sqeaky clean (ie, no getting into trouble).

It's a volunteer school, but not everyone that wants to go (and meets the qualifications) gets to go. You'll have to have some line time and have proven yourself a capable infantryman/marksman before they'll waste a slot at sniper school on you. You also need to remember that there are a thousand other young guys that have decided sniper school is cool so slots are hard to come by.

A lot of getting to go is just being at the right place at the right time, learning your job as an infantryman inside and out and being able to shoot that 40 on the range regularly.

Don't hang your hat on getting to go, choose an MOS that you'll enjoy even if you don't, the last thing you want to do is focus on schools because that's a sure way to get disappointed right out of the gate. Besides, when you don't expect it and aren't putting all of your eggs into one basket, it makes it all the more sweeter if/when it actually does happen.

 
My best friend in the whole world was a sniper and then a SF weapons sergeant. He said the psych eval is what bolo's most of the guys who want to be snipers. He got out to save his marriage and has been chomping at the bit ever since... I'm pushing for a reunion. :)
 
bulldogg said:
My best friend in the whole world was a sniper and then a SF weapons sergeant. He said the psych eval is what bolo's most of the guys who want to be snipers. He got out to save his marriage and has been chomping at the bit ever since... I'm pushing for a reunion. :)

Yup, the psych gets a lot of guys. Whenever we have to take ours, I just cheat off of the other guy. :mrgreen:
 
PJ, how are you so knowledgable? Seriously, you're in the AF, but you've answered Army,Navy, and Marine Corps questions on here too...Are you secretly Donald Rumsfeld? Or Colin Powell? Or another militarily "in the know" person? And..uh...nvm, i dont wanna know how you cheat off a psych test...hahahaha...On a serious note, are they expected to know the SWS inside and out before they get recommended?
 
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C/1Lt Henderson said:
PJ, how are you so knowledgable? Seriously, you're in the AF, but you've answered Army,Navy, and Marine Corps questions on here too...Are you secretly Donald Rumsfeld? Or Colin Powell? Or another militarily "in the know" person? And..uh...nvm, i dont wanna know how you cheat off a psych test...hahahaha...On a serious note, are they expected to know the SWS inside and out before they get recommended?

1) I was in the Army before I joined the AF. 2) I work in a joint enviroment, I work with teams from the Navy, Army and Marine Corps, so I have resources available if I don't know the answer to something and 3) I have attended many Army, Navy and Marine Corps schools.

And no, you aren't expected to. They'll teach you everything you need to know. If you are familiar with the system, yes, it will help you, but it won't hurt you if you don't. The less bad habits you have with shooting/weapons, the better. So "clean slates" aren't always a bad thing.

Just to add, a lot of units will have fam courses (little work ups) before they send you to the course to make sure you're up to par. If you get a slot, your unit is going to do everything to help you prepare so that you don't fail and a) waste their slot and b) make them look bad.
 
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1)oh.2)oh.3)oh.

OK, sounds good, so I can just empty my mind. haha, thats always a good thing. Another question, what kind of things are on the psychological exam?
 
Dude, you can't study for a psych test. Its an evaluation to make sure you aren't a nut job.
 
Posts have been removed.

Some of you need to become reacquainted with the sticky posted at the top of this forum.

Since it seems some of you are also having trouble comprehending what it says....2 day temporary bans will be handed out from this point on... perhaps that will help you.
 
bulldogg said:
Dude, you can't study for a psych test. Its an evaluation to make sure you aren't a nut job.
I know, I just wanted to know if they like, made you assemble a rifle while firing a weapon...To put stress on you...thats psychologic...
 
No, it is a battery of questions that delve deep into your psyche to determine if you are balanced and able to handle the job of looking at another human being so close you can see if he has food in his teeth and then pull a trigger and kill him without freaking out.
 
PJ24

Im becoming an army soldier as we speak and my goal in the army is to be an army sniper and its all good to want to be an army sniper and its all good to talk about being one but most guys like some have said pretty much to give it up because you have to know this or that and the fact that its hard to get a spot in the sniper school.... thats all bs the main thing you need to be concerned about is how much you want that right to call yourself a sniper and if you want that right you have to earn it and be deticated in the army creed and several other branches says "I will never accept defeat." and "I will never quit" i wanted to be an army soldier and i am on my way to become one because i live by the army creed.
 
Never heard of the Army creed....I've heard of the soldiers creed though. You haven't earned the right to call bs on what is and isn't when it comes to Army schools...yet. Get some salt behind those ears and then we'll talk.
 
Im becoming an army soldier as we speak and my goal in the army is to be an army sniper and its all good to want to be an army sniper and its all good to talk about being one but most guys like some have said pretty much to give it up because you have to know this or that and the fact that its hard to get a spot in the sniper school.... thats all bs the main thing you need to be concerned about is how much you want that right to call yourself a sniper and if you want that right you have to earn it and be deticated in the army creed and several other branches says "I will never accept defeat." and "I will never quit" i wanted to be an army soldier and i am on my way to become one because i live by the army creed.

How's bout this? You shut yer freakin cake hole like the Lieutenant told you and go read the ROE's? Hows that work for ya?
 
this is good reading and very interesting but what i would like to know is; has anyone writing on this subject been thru army sniper school or have been a army sniper in combat except me? i can say that any sniper that has his book full is screw up for life as far as phsyc go's plan on logging lots off time at the va hospital
 
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Want to join the army

Im currently looking to be motor operator transport for the army I can realy benifit the skills I would learn after military I have a family now and realy looking out for them so if i can get tuned in the right direction. Anything will be helpfull
 
this is good reading and very interesting but what i would like to know is; has anyone writing on this subject been thru army sniper school or have been a army sniper in combat except me? i can say that any sniper that has his book full is screw up for life as far as phsyc go's plan on logging lots off time at the va hospital


I looked at your profile and it says that you were 5th SFG in Vietnam, yet you entered service in 1974. Even if you joined SF on 1 Jan 1974, how on earth did you make it through SF school/ sniper school in time to be in Vietnam by the evacuation of Saigon in April of 1975. Of course, I suppose it doesn't matter since ALL of the US combat forces were out of Vietnam by the end of 1972 and 5th SFG was back at Ft Bragg by March of 1971.

Of course, as you should know, SF personnel may be sniper qualified, but they are not snipers in the sense of say, the Marine Corps scout snipers. That's not the types of missions they did regularly in Vietnam. Something just doesn't seem "right" here, I smell b******t.
 
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