Modern American Snipers

by Chris Martin

  With MSOAG dissolved, all three battalions ostensibly focused on direct action, special reconnaissance, and foreign internal defense—again, positioning them somewhere between SF and SEALs. However, until the pipeline more fully repopulated and balanced each of the MSOBs, the 3rd continued to have an FID bent while the 1st and 2nd were designated DASR (direct action/special reconnaissance) battalions.

  The rapid evolution on the young command has continued with additional significant changes. Most recently, after a long, consistent push (and informal internal adoption), the “Raider” tag was officially brought out of retirement. While the overall command retains the MARSOC tag (similar to the Army’s USASOC), its subordinate units are now Raiders—for example, the Marine Raider Regiment, and the 1st Marine Raider Battalion.

  The growing confidence of the Raiders inside SOCOM was made evident in ’09 when the 1st Raider Battalion (then still 1st MSOB) assumed control of all CJSOT-A’s SOF units and operations in northern and western Afghanistan.

  Following continual deployments since its ominous debut, a number of Raiders have won glory or made great sacrifices—and all too frequently both.

  * * *

  In March 2012, Gunnery Sergeant Jonathan Gifford was deployed to Badghis Province, located in the northwest of Afghanistan and sharing a border with Turkmenistan.

  The thirty-four-year-old Gifford had nearly fifteen years of specialized experience and training with which to help guide and protect the men of MSOT 8232.

  He was actually a pre-9/11 Force Recon Marine. He got out in July 2001 and moved back to Florida, only to see the world change and his talents in demand two months later.

  By 2003, he was back with 2nd Force Reconnaissance and operating in the mountains of Afghanistan. His proficiency as a sniper was recognized in 2006, when he was assigned to serve as the chief instructor for the Marine Special Operations Forces Advanced Sniper Course (MASC) in the formative days of MARSOC.

  MASC is a four-week course that prepares MARSOC Scout Snipers to effectively operate as special operations snipers. It not only refreshes them on the basics, but it also instructs on the use of advanced ballistic computers and weapons technologies, untraditional techniques, tactics, and positions, along with aerial sniping and urban and vehicle hides.

  In ’09, the CSO was made Team Chief for Team 8232 of the 2nd MSOB—the same battalion that got off to such a rocky start in ’07—and deployed to Afghanistan in that capacity in 2010 and 2012, earning two Bronze Stars for valor for his actions.

  Only July 29, Afghan Commandos from a Special Operations Kandak (battalion) who were being trained by Gifford’s MSOT were struck by enemy fire. A half mile away at the time, the CSO raced to their location on an ATV, performed first aid on the downed soldiers, and then transported them to a location where they could be medevaced out.

  He raced back across the field once more, this time to take the fight to their assailants. He eliminated an insurgent who was shooting through a window and then scaled the Taliban-held compound and put a grenade down through the chimney.

  Gifford continued to press the advance until he was ultimately hit by fatal small arms fire.

  Gunnery Sergeant Jonathan Gifford was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross—the second highest award for valor, ranked only behind the Medal of Honor.

  * * *

  Numerous Marine Scout Snipers from the conventional Scout Sniper Platoons have also demonstrated remarkable bravery in Afghanistan.

  2/8 SSP Team Leader Lance Corporal Joshua Moore received the Navy Cross for his bravery in March 2011, when he scooped up and threw a live grenade that had been tossed into their besieged compound back out the window to protect two wounded Marines. He then charged out of the building and countered with M4 and M203 fire of his own.

  3/5 SSP Team Leader Sergeant Matthew Abbate was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for the extreme heroism he displayed in October 2011 when a Marine patrol came under ambush. Matters were made considerably worse when they discovered they were standing in an unswept minefield and three members of the patrol were incapacitated by the explosives. Abbate raced through a minefield to draw enemy fire and repelled the ambush. He then cleared a landing zone so the wounded could be extracted and subsequently led another counterattack to fend off yet another ambush.

  Abbate was killed in action less than two months later.

  The Scout Snipers did not escape their share of controversy either, sparking a pair of international incidents. The ugliness of war, especially an unending one waged against a fanatical enemy, prompted even more ugliness. The same hate and anger that are often leveraged to fuel passion and bravery are not always easily confined in a neat little box. Nor are the realities of mortal conflict always easily understood by those living continents away.

  Scout Snipers from 3/2s SSP were filmed urinating on the bodies of the corpses of Taliban fighters and the video later surfaced online, creating widespread uproar in January 2012.

  Earlier, a different sort of image of hate caused outrage as photos leaked of Charlie Company, 1st Recon Battalion Scout Snipers posed in front of a flag displaying a Nazi Schutzstaffel SS logo in 2010. Additionally, it was discovered 1/7 SSP Scout Snipers were photographed using the logo as early as 2004. While believed to be indicative of ignorance rather than anything deeper, the usage was a very public black mark on the misunderstood and often maligned profession of sniper.

  * * *

  The formation of MARSOC sealed the fate of the 1st and 2nd Force Reconnaissance Companies, which were deactivated in 2006 as its Force Recon Marines formed the core of the 1st and 2nd MSOBs. The remaining Force Recon Marines were funneled into Division Recon Battalions in the form of D Companies. These D Companies consisted of DRPs (Deep Reconnaissance Platoons), so that the USMC could retain direct control over at least a small organic Force Recon–style capability even as it handed off MARSOC to SOCOM.

  By 2008, the D Companies had reconstituted to the point they were formally redesignated Force Recon, allowing USMC to have its cake and eat it in a way. However, the overlap also created confusion and competition, while further muddying MARSOC’s place as it attempted to find its way, both in the larger SOF world and in service of the Marine Corps.

  Those concerns were not in the minds of the Marines on the ground in 2008, certainly not during the course of a multihour chaotic clash that took place over the disputed village of Shewan in Farah Province.

  A 2/7 Marine infantry platoon had been driven from the village located in southwestern Afghanistan. In response, an experienced team of Force Recon Marines was called in to reclaim it.

  Despite fully expecting scathing resistance, the Marines had no idea they’d be facing down 150 organized Taliban insurgents as they cleared the village and rooted out the guerrillas.

  As the force approached the village, they were subjected to a salvo of RPG and small arms fire from an entrenched force, emboldened by their recent rout of the Marine platoon.

  With the team pinned down in a disabled Humvee and in the kill zone, Corporal Franklin Simmons braved the gunfire to established a superior position on a nearby berm.

  The Force Recon sniper then proceeded to dispatch eighteen Taliban fighters over the next twenty minutes with his Mk 11 Mod 0 SR-25, despite rounds repeatedly impacting mere inches from his position.

  He added two more kills to his tally that day as the Force Recon Marines—aided by the overwhelmingly effective close air support from a pair of USAF F-15E Strike Eagles—roundly defeated the enemy during a battle that raged for the next eight hours. In the end, sixty to one hundred Taliban were left dead versus no losses for the Marines and the village was reclaimed.

  Simmons was awarded a Silver Star for his lethal accuracy and courage under fire. Another Force Recon Marine, Captain Byron Owen, also received a Silver Star, while twenty-eight awards for valor in all were earned in the battle.

  * * *

  Throughout the long and sometimes overlooked engagement in Afghanista
n, the contributions of the venerable Army Special Forces and Navy SEAL Teams have sometimes been overlooked. However, both have made obvious the extreme value of marrying special operations skills with sniper training.

  These versatile force multiplier assets have routinely separated not only victory from defeat, but life from death. Countless American and allied troops’ continued existence has relied directly on the ability of the men glassing and sending rounds downrange in their protection.

  Besides anecdotes of feats that come across more like scenes from an action movie than real-world combat—such as the triple kill pulled off by a SEAL Team Three sniper who waited until just the right millisecond to pull the trigger, cleanly piercing a single round through three insurgents who were sitting alongside one another in a moving Toyota Hilux—there are also countless larger tales of such tremendous valor they would test credulity if portrayed on the silver screen.

  The story of Marcus Luttrell, the “lone survivor” of his SDV-1 sniper team during Operation Red Wings, is not a solitary case. Rather it serves as an example of the level of heroism that’s been demonstrated by SOF snipers in Afghanistan since 9/11.

  * * *

  When the Afghanistan War was still in its relative infancy, Sergeants First Class Josh Betten and Andrew Lewis planned a six-day sniper mission to get a bead on a suspected enemy force so that they might provide early warning to their firebase ahead of an attack.

  On the opening night of their op, they found themselves nearly overrun.

  The two men hailed from ODA-2072 of the 20th Special Forces Group—one of two SFGs belonging to the Army National Guard—but they certainly didn’t perform like part-timers in combat.

  Lewis, who served as a Marine during the First Gulf War, immediately took out an attacker with a claymore mine and then dropped another with his sidearm. Betten, meanwhile, eliminated three others as the gun battle broke. The Guardsmen dumped rounds and grenades with abandon to keep the closing pack at bay, the two alternating between firing and reloading.

  With machine-gun fire tracking them from both sides, the two sprinted to a cliff and slid five hundred meters down the side of the mountain to make their escape and report back to base.

  Both were awarded Silver Stars. A decade later, they remain with the National Guard. Betten, in fact, remains with the 20th SFG’s 3rd Battalion. Lewis went on to serve with the Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group and later became Deputy Director of the DoD’s Counter Narco-Terrorism Task Force.

  * * *

  In March 2004, Sergeant First Class Stephan Johns from the 3rd Special Forces Group was in heliborne sniper overwatch during an assault on an al-Qaeda and Taliban force in Northeast Afghanistan.

  His helicopter was hit and forced down between the two combating elements. All on his own, he fended off numerous attempts to rush his position. Holding his ground more than a half hour, another bird was finally mustered to retrieve him. The Green Beret from ODA-334 killed nine fighters before finally making his escape.

  Johns was also awarded a Silver Star.

  * * *

  Another Silver Star was awarded to an SF sniper in July 2006. Sergeant First Class Eric Horton of ODA-776 disrupted an attempted ambush in Helmand Province with remarkable efficiency—and later grit.

  The Green Beret immediately tore into the guerrillas with multiple killing strikes. He then repositioned himself to acquire a better vantage point and removed fifteen insurgents from the battlefield in thirty pulls of the trigger. That accuracy prompted a concentrated counterattack in his direction and was slammed by machine-gun fire in the shoulder. He was not out of the fight yet, however, initially refusing aid and engaging the enemy with a mounted M-240B machine gun and his one good arm, even as others attended to his wounds. Horton was credited with thirty-five sniper kills that night alone.

  * * *

  Remarkably, Staff Sergeant Seth Howard of the 3rd SFG was just one of ten Green Berets from ODA-3336 to be awarded the Silver Star in a single battle in April 2008.

  The team, joined by a squad of thirty Afghan Commandos, leapt several feet down from their hovering CH-47 Chinook helicopters and onto the snow below that draped the Shok Valley’s jagged cliffs. Deep within the foreboding Nuristan Province valley, the daring assault plan called for them to penetrate the desolate mountain fortress never successfully invaded by U.S. or Soviet forces.

  The target of Operation Commando Wrath was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin—a violent militant group that had made a most unwelcome resurgence in the preceding months.

  The element of surprise was short-lived for the SOF assault team as the stronghold proved even more heavily fortified and defended than feared. While scaling the near-vertical cliffs in an attempt to reach the objective, they were attacked by an overwhelming force of nearly two hundred, who issued a flurry of RPG, small arms, and sniper fire.

  Howard led a force of Afghan Commandos and fought through searing fire coming from multiple directions to reinforce critically wounded members of his ODA who were under threat of being overrun.

  After climbing into position, Howard took cover behind the body of their slain interpreter, and, through the effective use of his sniper weapon and a recoilless rifle, personally accounted for the elimination of upward of twenty enemy combatants, including four trained snipers.

  The team’s attached USAF CCT, SrA Zachary Rhyner of 21STS, created the conditions to allow for the team’s escape, directing close air support from F-15E Strike Eagles and AH-64 Apaches. During the seven-hour Battle of Shok Valley, Rynher controlled fifty dangerously close strikes, despite being wounded and trapped on a sixty-foot cliff.

  Howard then defended the team’s retreat down the mountain by providing precise overwatch fire before finally descending himself.

  The team made a three-hour march to the extraction zone—which was only reached by helicopters that flew beneath power lines and took heavy fire, wounding one pilot.

  Despite multiple injuries, every American soldier escaped with his life. All but three of the partnered Afghans survived.

  Along with the ten SF soldiers, the ODA’s Combat Cameraman was also awarded the Silver Star. And Rhyner, the CCT, received the Air Force Cross—just the third CCT to ever earn the medal. Two other Americans earned the Bronze Star.

  * * *

  SEAL Team Seven Platoon Leading Chief Petty Officers Joseph Molina and Thom Shea were each awarded Bronze Stars with V devices for leading SEAL sniper teams in defense of a pinned-down SF ODA in July 2009.

  Their QRF stormed over a ridgeline and, following a day-long battle, the ODA was able to escape unscathed. The SEALs accounted for twenty-two kills, including a high-angle, eleven-hundred-yard shot by Shea.

  During that deployment Shea’s BRAVO platoon was credited with 174 kills and six HVT captures. Shea also received a Silver Star during the deployment and returned to the States to serve as the Officer in Charge of the SEAL Sniper Course. Now a CEO and ultramarathon runner, he retired in 2014 following twenty-three years of service as a SEAL.

  Molina too earned a Silver Star on that tour. The Southern Californian led his platoon through a two-day battle in which they eliminated fifty-six insurgents while taking no losses. His platoon was credited with 181 kills during their six-month deployment.

  * * *

  SF soldier Chad Brack—an unapologetic nontheist existing in an overtly religious domain—earned his Silver Star with a series of life-saving and heroic actions over a three-day period in May 2011.

  ODA-3332 was paired up with indigenous SOF of the 1st Company 2nd Commando Kandak, who cleared the Nuristan Province villages of Awlagal and Chapo. However, they were outmaneuvered by Taliban insurgents who had the team trapped in the valley below, utilizing the high ground supplied by three enveloping cliffs.

  Sgt. 1st Class Brack gave up cover to throw down suppressive fire with his Mk 13 Mod 5 .300 Win Mag—including keeping the heads of two enemy snipers down—allowing the combined SF/Comman
do force to scramble to a more defensible position.

  After fending back another attempted ambush, the SF sniper put the enemies nearby command and control position on notice by sending precise fire their way. He then swapped to his M4 to cover the retrieval of a wounded friendly solider and again set about denying the enemy snipers—this time buying time for the arrival of AH-64 Apaches which promptly obliterated their hide—as directed by Brack.

  Later, the insurgents cleverly attempted to shoot and set off explosives left on a nearby roof during the initial clearing operation. Brack braved the fire to snatch them.

  Finally, he braved the way up front to lead their escape from the valley—urging forward the Afghan SOF whose performance had instilled little confidence throughout.

  In addition to the Silver Star, Brack has twice been awarded the Bronze Star, as well as a Purple Heart and numerous other commendations.

  * * *

  While American SOF across the board enjoyed more than its share of victories in Afghanistan, the undisputed champion of the AO was the Naval Special Warfare Development Group.

  SEAL Team Six had waited a long time for this … its entire existence in fact.

  While Delta Force and DEVGRU notionally ranked side-by-side atop the nation’s counterterrorism hierarchy as its preeminent direct action components, history spoke loudly to the contrary.

  Whether down to merit or the men in command who made the call, Delta traditionally got the coveted mission taskings while SEAL Team Six got the consolation prize, if not the shaft altogether.

  Even its position as the dominant hunter-killer unit in Afghanistan that it had been “gifted” was—well, not exactly a stocking full of coal, but perhaps at the same “gee, thanks” level of a package of socks from Grandma.

  When JSOC gave its initial order after September 11, two Delta Force squadrons rotated through the country, one of them getting the first shot at bin Laden.