Navy snipers' 'outstanding' shots no easy feat, local experts say

By Brian Bethel
Monday, April 13, 2009

Abilene police Sgt. Gerald Moran and the five other countersnipers on the department's SWAT team probably won't have a chance to duplicate the shots heard around the world that ended a hostage situation off the coast of Africa.

With three simultaneous shots, Navy SEALs, so called because they fight by SEa, Air and Land, saved hostage Capt. Richard Phillips from Somali pirates in an act of heroism that sounds like something out of a movie.

The Navy sharpshooters eliminated their three targets with ease, shooting at a lifeboat in increasingly choppy seas under the cover of darkness. Phillips was unharmed.

Moran, leader of Abilene's trio of two-man sniper teams, said the work was flawless.

"These guys are professionals, and they are very good at what they do," he said. "I couldn't be more proud of what they did."

Retired Sgt. Major Stanley Griffith, who lives in Abilene, worked with snipers when he was in the U.S. Marine Corps, and he also lauded the SEALs' work. A number of branches of the U.S. military, including the Air Force, have snipers.

Snipers must master their weapon, knowing their rifles every bit as well as they know themselves, said Griffith, who though not a sniper himself taught marksmanship for about five years in the Marines.

"Your rifle comes first, then your fellow Marine, or fellow soldier, whatever unit you're with," he said. "It's an elite group. These guys depend on one another to get a mission accomplished."

And Griffith said that in his opinion, the shots taken in the ocean by the Navy snipers were "outstanding."

"You can't call for a better shot in the ocean when the water is moving," he said.

Griffith said that military sniper training started at 100 meters and went to the weapon's maximum effective range. When he retired 10 years ago, that meant hitting a target more than 1,000 yards away without being seen.

The current longest range recorded for a sniper kill is 1.51 miles, accomplished by Master Corporal Rob Furlong of Newfoundland, Canada, in March 2002, during the war in Afghanistan.

The APD's snipers are actually countersnipers, Moran said. Like military snipers, they are used to gather intelligence about ongoing situations, ideally going into a situation first.

"We're trained in stalking methods just like the military does because that's what the FBI teaches for rural areas," he said. "We're accurate with our rifles all the way to 700 yards."

The Remington 700 rifles Abilene's countersnipers use, with a .308-caliber round, will fire 900 to 1,000 yards with accuracy before the bullet starts to tumble.

Griffith said that despite spectacular shots like those that felled the Somali pirates, snipers' abilities are not supernatural.

"It's an ability that you instill into the shooter to make himself better," he said. "Sometimes your target may be the size of a pencil, sometimes it may be the size of a window."

Much of what is required to be a sniper comes down to natural skill, Moran said, honed through training. Body placement, breathing and discipline are all vital to success.

Careful consideration must accompany every shot, he said. In the case of the Navy snipers, an opportunity emerged where the three hostage-takers were observed with their heads and shoulders all exposed at once.

An avid hunter, Moran, who has led the countersniper team for four years and been an operator for eight, said that Abilene's SWAT team is called to assist in roughly 17 counties throughout the area.

"We can have as little as two calls in a year to the most I can remember is 15," he said. So far, there have been three call-outs this year, he said, and as far as Moran is aware, the countersniping team has never discharged its weapons in the line of duty.

But they train constantly in case that day comes.

Abilene police use FBI basic and advanced countersniper training, Army marksmanship training and regular exercises, including training weekly, with periodic full training days, in everything from close shots to long-distance firing to target discrimination, he said.

Military sniper teams are usually made up of a sniper and a spotter.

Both members of each of the three APD teams are trained to be accurate with their weapons as part of the FBI's law enforcement guidelines, Moran said, largely to combat inevitable eyestrain.

"After 45 minutes, things start to blur because you're constantly looking through a scope," he said.

Moran said that after so many years as a countersniper, he understands well the deliberate but diligent pace required for military snipers to get the job done.

"You have to be willing to lay behind a rifle for hours on end," he said, recalling one 11-hour ordeal on Arnold Boulevard, probably the longest stint he was ever called out to.

Ellie