'You can’t put a price tag on running this course': International Sniper Competition held at Fort Bragg this week

As white vans pulled up to multiple Fort Bragg ranges on Tuesday, snipers quickly got out and were given one minute to ask questions before shooting.

The snipers are participating in the U.S. Army Special Operation Command’s International Sniper Competition at Fort Bragg this week.

The annual competition saw a decrease in international teams the past couple of years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but has several foreign teams at Bragg this year, organizers with the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School said.

Of the 21 teams, there are special operations forces from France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

U.S. special operation forces including those from the Navy Seals, Marine Special Operations Command and USASOC are also making up the two-man teams, along with Marine scout snipers and Army Rangers.

“The biggest thing that we’re accomplishing here is really knowledge sharing and seeing where our partners are,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Chuy Almonte, the senior enlisted advisor for the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Special Warfare Training Group.

Almonte said an example of how that partnership is important was when he deployed in 2009 to firebase Anaconda in Afghanistan.

It was around the time of Afghanistan's second election, and Almonte said help was needed in the “kinetic” environment.

A platoon of soldiers with Czechoslovakia's 601st Special Forces Group showed up with a sniper team to reinforce American troops.

Years later in 2018 when he was focused on a mission that concentrated on Africa, Almonte ran into one of the Czech soldiers.

“I am directly partnered with him, focused on a totally different continent and area of the world, but because of our previous relationship together we were able to pick up exactly where we left off,” Almonte said.

That’s why he considers competitions like the one held this week huge for relationship building.

Partners are able to take back what they learned to their countries, Almonte said.

“And then with our sister services, it’s great to have our Navy Seals brothers here collaborating with our Green Berets, our Marine brothers, our Ranger regiment brothers — it's great to see all those folks come in one room and compete with each other, but then also what they’re doing is they’re sharing some of their ideas,” he said.

The events are created by instructors of the Special Forces sniper course and change each year.

Competitors couldn’t talk to anyone or see the stages prior to arriving at each range. Teams compete using their own sniper rifle, carbine and pistol. Each event had time limits, along with a limited amount of ammunition.

Almonte said a company-sized team, which is several hundred people who are mostly civilian staff, is making the competition possible. Most are retired Special Forces and sniper-qualified veterans, he said.

“You can’t put a price tag on running this course,” Almonte said.

The lead instructor served in the military for 25 years and has been an instructor for another 15 years.

“They make sure that we don’t do the same thing twice,” Almonte said. “So if you did the competition last year and come this year, and think you’re going to take some of those tricks – start over.”

Rick Cuza was one of those instructors who was on the range with 10th Special Forces Group competitors on Tuesday.

As the sounds of ricocheting gunshots filled the air, Cuza said that Tuesday’s range task was shooting at targets 500 to 800 meters away with .308 caliber rifles.

Small targets were worth 20 points, medium were worth 10 and large targets were worth five.

At another range, Marine Raiders were tasked with communicating to each other what targets looked like.

The carbine shooter on a platform described images on cards like goats with collars, without collars or with horns and a “green hilly background,” as a spotter in a Humvee had a paper that depicted the image and a coordinating target like a “yellow circle” that the sniper was supposed to shoot.

Ranges rotated with new competitors about every eight minutes, as it took competitors about eight minutes to get to the range, one minute to be briefed and ask questions and about five minutes to complete the task. A range where 7th Special Forces Group soldiers stopped was described as an observation and target discrimination range by the sergeant first class who helped oversee it.

The sergeant first class, whose name can’t be used because of the nature of his job, said that the objective of the range was for shooters to identify if targets were threats or non-threats while shooting from a building at targets that range from 385 meters to about 650 meters away.

One of the challenges was a table was set up to distract participants.

“The windows are a certain height, and based on the tables in there, you can’t shoot from the table, because you don’t have a lot of height,” he said.

Some participants moved the tables around before realizing they needed to shoot from a tripod during the timed five-minute event.

Another factor, the instructor said, was what equipment the participants brought with them, with the ideal setup being a rifle and spotting scope.

At another range, Marine Scout snipers had the choice of shooting at small, medium or large targets ranging from 2 inches to 18 inches in size.

The noncommissioned officer in charge of the range said that one shooter on the team needed to replicate shooting what the other teammate shot.

The challenge, he said, is if the first shooter chose a small target and made the shot, but the other shooter was unable to make the same shot.

He said that the team could not move to the next target until the rifle shooter replicated hitting the same target as the carbine shooter and that both shooters were given a limited amount of ammunition.

The goal, he said, is for both shooters to know their limitations based on target size and wind factors.

“I’m very passionate about capabilities and knowing when to take your shot and when not to take a shot,” the noncommissioned officer said. “It’s something I tell everybody because it’s very near and dear to me. I’ve had ISIS fighters strap children to their chests and hold babies in front of themselves, and I cannot take that shot.”

Almonte said tasks at each range are created with intentional challenges so that snipers aren’t able to perfectly hit all targets

“It’s not really so much about just shooting – laying on your belly and looking at winds or looking at conditions,” Almonte said. “That’s expected for all of the snipers to be able to do that. It’s really to be able to problem-solve.”

Almonte said it’s about managing stress when a shooter misses a target, working from unstable platforms or knowing details about a target.

Almonte and organizers said that the competition continues through Friday as competitors will participate in different tasks each day and at night.

“When you realize you can’t hit the target on the first round, but can see how (you) missed and hit target definitely on the second round, and not let emotions control that second, third and fourth shot, I think that’s where you really get to see our guys shine,” Almonte said.

Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.

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This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Army Special Forces host international sniper competition at Fort Bragg