CHAPTER 4

Becoming a Sniper

On returning from Iraq, I was still utterly determined to try again for sniper selection. This time I was successful, being one of twelve who passed out of the seventeen candidates who attempted selection.

I was so proud to have been accepted into the Sniper Platoon although I never became what is known as a ‘badged’ sniper, something that was always a source of great disappointment to me. I was so very close, but on the Badge Tests I just always seemed to be a few points short. There was always a huge degree of pride and achievement attached to being ‘badged’ and to some of the older members of the platoon, you were considered an incredibly good ‘sharpshooter’ rather than a sniper. Despite this, I was now a member of the platoon, doing exactly the same as everyone else. It was probably more just me, but I felt that maybe I lacked the same level achievement as the ‘badged’ guys. That said, as time went on and with us doing exactly the same job, my attitude was that, sharpshooter or sniper, I was still in the platoon, wearing a ghillie suit and carrying an L96A1 sniper rifle – I had passed selection and felt I could consider myself pretty damned good because of it.

I remember the first day I met Alex again, along with Teddy. We were in a four-man room together. Apart from some periodical changes of personnel, we all found life in the platoon relatively easy. Deano, Cas, and Kingy had passed selection as well and came from C Company. CD and Burney came from A Company. TM and Teddy both came from B Company. Jock and OB both came from HQ Company and LC joined from the Brigade Surveillance Company. Two other members were Robbo and Spud had been in the platoon for years, both being ‘badged.’

We would go down for muster parade at around 8.00 am in the morning and then head off for our platoon training. One subject, for example, was observation training. We would be given an hour to sketch a panoramic view of what we could observe. We would need to enter detail facing north, south, east or west, marking in the left and right of arc of fire and our location. We would observe and note key ranges where there might be a prominent road or a fallen tree. In addition, we had to locate certain items of military equipment pre-positioned in the area under observation for us to spot, such as a bayonet stuck in the ground, a radio antenna poking up from amongst reeds or a bush, or other items such as rifle magazines, radio batteries or a flare launcher. Using binoculars and telescopes, we would have to search for and log anything we saw, being awarded points for items observed, measuring bearings correctly, plotting arcs of fire and logging other information. Attention to detail was always paramount in the Sniper Platoon.

I would have liked to have spent more time on the ranges but, when you consider that we used almost a year’s allocation of 7.62mm sniper grade ammunition during a single badge test, it is probably understandable why this was not possible. We shot at ranges of up to 900 metres and were awarded ten points for a hit on a target at 900 metres from a cold barrel. Out of all the times I attempted this, which was only perhaps eight occasions, I succeeded six times. We learned to shoot in all weather conditions; one of the few times I failed to hit the target was in pouring rain with a very high wind.

I remember that we all wanted to practise shooting from helicopters, but our NCO instructors just laughed, because that was not going to happen. Life in the Sniper Platoon was different to that in the rest of the battalion, as was the mentality of the NCOs who treated us with a lot more respect. I noticed other subtle changes too, such as the way the guys from the rifle companies looked up to us. They would not admit it of course, but one could tell, particularly on those occasions when the whole battalion was assembled and the Sniper Platoon was formed up together. This was probably because we were one of the elements in the battalion that you had to be selected for, which made it all just a little different and somehow special. I really loved being part of it.

I had just turned twenty years of age and was really quite happy with life because I had done a tour of Iraq, had succeeded in joining the snipers on merit and was where I wanted to be. Looking back, I do not think I would have been able to imagine life becoming much better until I was put forward to be selected for promotion to lance corporal, which was what eventually happened. Out of around sixty people who went for promotion, only thirty-two passed and I came ninth. I was one of the more junior on the list, so this was quite an achievement for me. Unfortunately, the Commanding Officer was only selecting the top eight candidates for promotion on that particular occasion. I did not have to wait long because only three months later I was promoted.