Sniper Elite

by Rob Maylor

  Of course, sometimes the body will just simply give up. One of the lads in my syndicate passed out with exhaustion but then got back on his feet and finished selection.

  By the end of the ordeal in early March I was absolutely exhausted and very happy to finish. We had to wait until the following day before they told us who had passed and who hadn’t. Then suddenly I was in. Strangely, it felt like a bit of an anticlimax, probably because I was so knackered. I’d expected to feel much more excited about passing. George was really happy for me. In fact she was more excited than me. She did know of the potential dangers of the job as I didn’t keep any secrets from her about what would–or could–happen if I got selected. I wanted her to know exactly what we were getting into and she supported me. Being in the regiment probably gave her a sense of security as well, because this would mean we could live in Perth for as long as I stayed in the army.

  George brought some beers, pizza and chocolate biscuits to the main gate of Campbell Barracks and I shared this with RS. I put the biscuits in the fridge for the next day but RS decided to have a midnight snack and ate the whole packet. I was annoyed; he is a bloody eating machine.

  Selection just gets you through the door. Waiting on the other side was the ‘reinforcement cycle’ where the real training occurs. Some blokes from the previous selection, which ran in September 2002, had joined us for the start of the ‘reo cycle’. We started by learning to operate the majority of the weapons the unit owned, from the 5.56 mm M4 to the Javelin rocket launcher. Directly after that we went on to the patrol course to learn special reconnaissance and close country warfare. Other specialist courses followed and the entire reinforcement cycle was to take us 14 months to complete, but that time flew by as we were always busy.

  My knee was giving more trouble and I had to have an operation on it three months into the cycle. This meant I had to miss roping course, which I had to pick up later on. There were complications with the operation that gave me no end of trouble during the most feared course on the reo cycle, close quarter battle (CQB). The standards were exceptionally high and extremely hard work, the instructors took no prisoners. I’d be driving home at the end of the day mentally and physically exhausted. Christmas leave was rapidly approaching and I was looking forward to the break. A few didn’t make it to the end of the cycle, and one was sent on his way shortly after it completed.

  When you join the regiment you lose whatever rank you previously held from your parent unit, and have to earn your stripes at a new level. But there’s mutual respect between officers and operators and the organisational pyramid is quite flat, which means there are a lot of chiefs and not many Indians. If someone comes up with a job, everyone has an idea of how they want to conduct it. There might be a few arguments but inevitably the result will be a better plan. There are highly motivated soldiers at all levels and opinions are valued and listened to. Some of the lads have degrees behind them in a variety of subjects, and some more practical than others, but it’s the way they apply themselves to soldiering that makes them better than everybody else.

  A sense of humour is important. Sometimes it can be pretty black, but that’s inevitable in the work we do. When you’re out on a live job you concentrate on the task at hand. If you’re not concentrating you won’t last the distance and you might take some of your mates with you. If there’s a sudden attack it’s got to be dealt with there and then, but you have to have the ability to relax again afterward and have a laugh.

  The other hallmark of the SAS is controlled aggression. You’ve got to develop the ability to remain calm and relaxed but to turn on the aggression in a flash, and then to turn it off just as quick. If you don’t already possess this attribute it is built into you during the reinforcement cycle when live firing or conducting close quarter battle.

  After the reo cycle I was posted to 3 Squadron and familiarised myself with the normal regiment routine. The squadron was running a mobility course and I was panelled on it as a student. This was to become my insertion skill. Generally you will only pick up one insertion skill; some may get lucky and become multi-skilled. There are three insertion skills in SASR: mobility, which deals with all types of motorised transport and special reconnaissance from all terrain vehicles (ATV); water ops, the divers with the ability to insert by boat or submarine and can provide coastal reconnaissance; and freefall, covering specialised parachutists who are inserted by aircraft at varying altitudes.

  Every operator in the unit is basic parachute qualified, which means we have the ability to insert from an aircraft using the round static line parachutes only. These are deployed at an altitude of 800–1,000 feet. We generally parachute into the ocean as the unit cannot afford to lose blokes due to injuries sustained when landing on hard ground.

  My first exercise with the regiment was a mobility exercise, part of a wider ADF exercise that ran during June and July 2004. At the start, we had a fair amount of planning and preparation time, which meant we could mix business with pleasure. As usual we started crawling before we could run and conducted a couple of overnight patrol-sized activities, and then built up to squadron size. The primary objective was to square away our mobility and special reconnaissance capability, but we also managed to conduct several live fire exercises.

  I hadn’t seen so much ordnance in my life. But we needed this to be able to train to the high calibre of the regiment, and also to remain very proficient in our vast array of weapon systems. We conducted plenty of live fire vehicle-mounted and foot patrol break contacts withdrawing from an enemy engagement under fire and then culminated in a live fire deliberate attack (DA) combining the two. Because I was the driver of our long-range patrol vehicle (LRPV) one of my weapon systems was the Carl Gustaf, an 84 mm Swedish recoilless anti-tank weapon. I placed this on the outside of the vehicle just by the steering wheel for easy access, so if need be I could rapidly remove the 84, grab two high explosive (HE) rockets and move off to a flank, then in quick succession send each rocket into the target.

  In between activities we were stood down for the weekends and were able to catch a taxi into the centre of Darwin for a few well-earned beers.

  The main exercise was starting and it was time for us to insert into the field. Nev, my patrol commander, had decided we should use the 6 x 6 Polaris ATV instead of our traditional LRPVs to keep a low signature and to increase our mobility. There was a downside to this: we were up against an armoured unit with Leopard tanks. We packed the ATVs to carry six days rations, water, fuel, spare parts, field kit and an assortment of weaponry and ammunition. This wasn’t enough to keep us going for the whole 10-day exercise, so we had to organise a resupply for the night of day five.

  It was late in the afternoon as the patrol loaded the four ATVs onto the waiting C130 Hercules at RAAF Base Darwin, and would be dark before we inserted onto a private airfield in the Katherine region. We prepared our night vision kit for the drop-off before departure, making sure it was focused and had fresh batteries. Once in the air, the pilots turned off the white light and started tactical flying–keeping the aircraft low, almost contouring the ground. It’s not a smooth way to fly and it wasn’t long before I started to feel a little nauseous and wishing it would come to an end.

  Soon the back ramp of the aircraft was cracked, letting a rush of warm air into the fuselage and we got the two-minute signal from the aircrew. We started the vehicles to ensure a smooth and rapid deployment and I sucked in as much fresh air as possible to try to stop myself from being sick. The engine revs dropped right off and suddenly we felt the thud of the C130 touching down on the dirt airstrip. As it braked hard the back ramp fully opened, filling the back end with dust and we came to a brief stop. On the load master’s signal we drove the vehicles down the ramp and entered the orange dust. Initially it was very difficult to see into the night through our night vision goggles (NVGs) as our eyes weren’t adjusted to the dark and the aircraft had disturbed a lot of dust from the airstrip. The air temperature was about 26 degre
es and relatively humid as we watched the C130 turn around then take off in the direction that we had arrived. We had found some dead ground just off the runway that was big enough to conceal the ATVs until we felt secured enough to start patrolling.

  The hum of the aircraft engines was fading away under the sound of frogs and crickets when Nev put up one hand splaying his fingers, indicating to each patrol member that we were moving in five minutes.

  We travelled cross-country all night through the varying Northern Territory bush, tackling natural obstacles and dodging termite mounds to insert deep inside the exercise AO, and just before first light we found a suitable LUP where we could harbour up for most of the daylight hours. Once we deemed the LUP was secure, JB and I refuelled and checked the maintenance of the vehicles while the other patrol members were either on sentry duty (piquet), conducting communications checks or making a brew.

  After a good rest we decided to make a move midafternoon to find another LUP that would be suitable for us to conduct a night foot patrol to seek enemy activity. Unfortunately, once in that LUP the enemy found us. The 2IC didn’t do his job of covering our tracks properly where we crossed a small single-vehicle track that had looked like it was regularly used. An enemy Land Rover used as a light reconnaissance vehicle saw the tracks and decided to follow them up. We were compromised, but got over it by using some stealth and aggression and ambushed them as they headed on foot towards our LUP.

  We had to move from that location, which meant travelling all night to a different area where we would get some rest and then conduct some reconnaissance patrols by day.

  During another move we found a tank troop harbour. I was the lead scout and on foot for our six-man patrol, ATVs trailing quietly behind. Suddenly to the left at about 40 metres from the corner of my eye I saw a main gun barrel from a Leopard 2 slightly protruding from a heavily vegetated area. We back-tracked slowly taking each step deliberately, making sure we didn’t step or drive on anything that would make a noise and alert the enemy to us. It was a very slow process to move the hundred or so metres away from where we initially saw the enemy. We went into all-round defence and conducted a listening stop for approximately one hour to try to pick up some of their routine.

  These tanks have to start up every now and then to recharge their batteries, so you can count how many tanks or at least get a rough idea of how many there are when they start up one after the other. Once we had a fair idea we quietly slipped away even further and Dave called a notional air strike onto them.

  By now we needed a resupply so we headed off to a pre-designated area that Nev had organised for the C130 to drop our requested supplies to us by parachute. It was very dark that night but everything ran smoothly.

  Soon we were coming towards the end of the exercise and had to make our way to our extraction point. Pick-up was by C130 at night, and as I drove my ATV up the back ramp and into the belly of the aircraft I felt quite proud that I was part of the regiment and finally doing something where I felt a sense of achievement.

  After the exercise, 3SQN was going to drive back to Perth cross-country via the Canning Stock Route. I had to miss this, as I needed to get back for the start of the SF sniper course. This was by far the best sniper course I had been on. We covered all the basic principles at the beginning and then rapidly moved on to more advanced tactical applications and a variety of sniper weapon systems, including the 7.62 mm semi-automatic, the .338 and the .50-calibre suite. As well as collating ballistic data in log books we also used a personal digital assistant (PDA) to calculate firing solutions. This uses specifically designed software to give you elevation and windage settings by analysing the data you input. Some of the data you need to apply is range, wind strength and direction, muzzle velocity and projectile weight. Of course it’s only as accurate as the data you program into it but if done correctly you can safely guarantee a first-round hit at 1,000 metres. The percentage of hits will start to drop after that range; for example at 1,200 metres it generally drops to about 85 per cent. But even then if your round misses it would still be close enough to make a very small adjustment and hit with your second shot.

  We spent a lot of time on the ranges shooting out to 1,000 metres with the 7.62 mm weapons, and out to 1,800 metres and 2.5 kilometres with the larger calibre rifles. I gained valuable knowledge on different wind conditions at the Perth ranges as the sea breeze gets quite strong and is never constant. It even does a complete 180-degree turn at about 1100 to 1200 hours at certain times of the year. This is all very valuable experience for the sniper. Learning about wind can quite easily turn into what seems like a science: for example, if the rifle bore has a right-hand twist, the projectile will spin clockwise on its trajectory and if the wind is coming from 9 o’clock it will push your round slightly low and to the right, while a wind at 3 o’clock will throw the round a little higher to the left as it climbs the fingers of the wind. How far the round is pushed depends on the wind strength.

  We also incorporated shooting with a spotter as much as possible, rotating between tasks after each shoot. This gave the spotters confidence in adjusting the sniper onto a target, calling wind strengths, directions and ‘mirage’ with increasing accuracy. A lot of time was dedicated to shooting moving targets; this was a big part of the counter-terrorism (CT) phase.

  The course ran for eight weeks and encompassed the ‘green’ (field) side of sniping, and domestic CT. We shot a lot at night using thermal imagers (TI), and image intensifiers (a night observation device that amplifies ambient light). We also experimented shooting through different types of glass with a variety of rounds and studying the effects.

  Apart from the first stalk, every one was a ‘live fire’ stalk, by day and night. This is where we really needed to calculate the trajectory over the range of the shot, because if the round didn’t have a clear path through foliage or buildings it would be deflected and you wouldn’t hit the target. As the course progressed we did more in an urban environment, learning different applications for camouflage and concealment, tactical movement and approach shooting. We also practised helo (helicopter) sniping from a Blackhawk.

  Much of the course was centred on Lancelin and Bindoon. Lancelin is full of saltbush intertwined with a really fine vine, like a creeper that runs through the scrub at ankle level. It is public land but there’s a naval gunfire impact area and the live fire range extends out to several kilometres. It’s really ideal for the task except for the ticks–little red ones–which are absolutely everywhere and in plague proportions. They get in mostly around your belt area, we’ve tried many methods of prevention and extraction but nothing seems to work. You are supposed to twist them off so they don’t leave their head buried inside your skin, but this never works either. Some blokes do get a bad reaction from them, but generally you’ll end up with a small and very itchy sore that can last up to four weeks. They feed on the kangaroos and often you’ll come across a mob that will be in very poor condition; some may not even hop off like the others because they’ve got so many ticks sucking the life out of them.

  At the end of the course we were presented our crossed rifles–my third–and proceeded to get pissed at the bar. On return to 3SQN we concentrated on overseas recovery operations, similar to what the American Delta Force does. The OC did an exceptional job raising our capability on overseas recovery to a comparable standard to that of the US and British Special Forces. Obviously, we would never get right to the top without the kind of assets and weaponry they had but we were improving our capability all the time. We trained aggressively and tried to cover every scenario.

  Then suddenly in Iraq the Australian businessman Douglas Wood was taken hostage. We reckoned the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

  12

  Mission Aborted

  We heard about Douglas Wood’s capture on the news the day before we left Campbell Barracks for a hostage rescue exercise in Adelaide. Initially, I thought, ‘He’ll be released very shortly,’ but when we got to
the airport at Adelaide and came together as a group the CO was there. He told us the good news–good for us because it was looking highly likely that we would get the chance to execute the regiment’s first overseas recovery job; not so good for Douglas Wood at the time.

  This was a big deal for the Australian Government also. The setup we had been developing was untested in combat conditions at the time so Adelaide was a good exercise for us to prove our capabilities. It was more along the lines of a domestic CT response, which involved the police, emergency services and others. But we could still include what we had been working on.

  The police were the first responders. They evaluated the situation: hostages were taken in a violent fashion and automatic weapons were involved; that meant the threat to the hostages was quite high. If the captors threatened to shoot them or had shot one and thrown him out the door as a statement, then we would respond.

  In the event, the exercise was successful; our tactics worked well under pressure and we learned some valuable lessons. We returned to Perth and prepared to embark four patrols to Baghdad. We were all raring to go. Then suddenly four patrols were cut to just two and we wondered how we were going to handle the job with so few of us.

  When they announced the names of the two patrols, I was glad to see mine there. We conducted further training together to get back ‘on net’ because as a patrol we had not worked together directly. We went through the specialist skills designating each operator to particular tasks and I was designated the patrol sniper. I was armed with my M4 and a USP 9 mm hand gun, I also took my SR25, a 7.62 mm sniper rifle. This gave me the ability to either shoot at long range or conduct close quarter combat.