By Tommy Guns
Finally, I came to that part of the story that is always the most difficult to tell to someone who has not been down that road themselves. I had been selected for advanced sniper training based solely on my performance during firearms training in Boot Camp. Being from New York, I had never fired a weapon before that first day, but I seemed to have an uncanny ability to put three rounds in a very tight grouping at 300 yards. My DI recognized my raw marksmanship skills immediately, and soon was lying down next to me on the range. He asked me how long I’d been shooting, and didn’t believe me when I replied that I had never fired a weapon before in my life.
My DI took the M14 rifle from me and made a couple of adjustments to the sight and windage setting, and gave it back to me. I zeroed in on the target down range and squeezed off three more rounds that went dead center and were so closely grouped that you could cover them with a quarter. This apparently impressed my DI to the point that he left me there to fire off the rest of my magazine. When I finished off, instead of returning to the rear area to clean my weapon, my DI instructed me to remain where I was. He had a new target placed on the frame, handed me a fresh magazine, and instructed me to take my time and fire off all 20 rounds in single shot.