I attended Sniper School in October of 1986. I entered the course as a PFC, which was pretty rare. In fact, I was the lowest ranking member of the class. My partner from 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines was a Corporal from Charlie Company.
Entering Sniper School was less intimidating than you might imagine. I would suspect my time at ARS helped prepare me for the course. You can see why they don’t want junior Marines attending and how the failure rate was so high.
For your basic infantry Marine skills, it was sprint to the finish line. Immediately upon arrival to Sniper School you are tested with a short land navigation course. They expected you to
