Photo By Sgt. Sarah Goss | Command Sgt. Maj. Lance Lehr, 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss command sergeant...... read more read more
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FORT BLISS, Texas - When it comes to shooting, snipers are the best of the best. According to the Department of Defense, the sniper’s job is to deliver discriminatory, highly accurate rifle fire against enemy targets that cannot be engaged successfully by the regular rifleman.
Over the course of five days in January, Soldiers from Fort Bliss competed in the Iron Sniper competition. While nine teams began the competition, only five completed it, with four teams falling out in the first due to injuries, proving it’s no easy feat.
Pfc. Adam Garcia, a native of Los Angeles, and Sgt. Michael Pomerening, a native of Farmington, Minn., both infantry Soldiers with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, placed top in the competition.
Both Soldiers have yet to attend sniper school. They are scheduled for class in late March.
“It’s always better to have better knowledge,” said Garcia. “But I guess I got good training from my leaders.”
Garcia, who has only been in the Army for a year and a half, is scheduled to go to sniper school at Fort Benning, Ga., in March, with his partner, Pomerening.
Though the team worked in nearly perfect sync, they only paired up a week before the competition, shooting hundreds of rounds at the range in early January, in the snow.
“I think we did well,” said Pomerening. “We talked it through each other and it worked out.”
Second place in the competition went to Spc. William Macphee, a native of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and his partner, Spc. Trevor Freeman, a native of Little Elm, Texas. Both are infantry Soldiers in 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st AD.
“I just came out of sniper school, as well as my partner, so that is good preparation,” said Macphee. “We knew exactly what we were doing.”
Freeman, who was also Macphee’s partner in sniper school, agreed, saying that because they had just completed sniper school, they had not yet developed any bad habits, and they worked well together.
Staff Sgt. Gamaliel Ortiz, one of the cadre and evaluators from 2/1 AD and a native of Vernon, Texas, was pleasantly surprised by the competitors’ abilities.
“I was very impressed with the caliber of shooters and snipers we had,” said Ortiz. “The motivation they had was good and they continued to push forward, and I was very happy with that.”
One of the more difficult tasks for the competitors proved to be the long-range marksmanship, due to the high winds in the desert.
Most people were having a problem with the 700-meter target, said Pomerening. While they fumbled around at the start, they ended up picking themselves back up and hitting the target several times, despite the harsh conditions.
The shooters were put to the test not only physically, but mentally, as well.
“In terms of learning, the biggest thing from the competition, I would say, is that your body will never quit on you,” said Macphee. “It’s your mind that will quit first.”
For these teams, neither their minds nor bodies quit.
| Date Taken: | 01.30.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 02.05.2015 11:37 |
| Story ID: | 153639 |
| Location: | FORT BLISS, TEXAS, US |
| Hometown: | BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, US |
| Hometown: | CAPE COD, MASSACHUSETTS, US |
| Hometown: | FARMINGTON, MINNESOTA, US |
| Hometown: | LITTLE ELM, TEXAS, US |
| Hometown: | LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Hometown: | VERNON, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 347 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Iron Sniper takes aim at competition, by SFC Kristen Duus, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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