Quote Originally Posted by William F. Owen View Post
Why is that? Is it because the sniper and recon roles are poorly described? I believe/know (as I am sure do you) that 99% are not actually stupid. Poor educated maybe, and this should not apply to officers.
Education is not the issue at all. They get it. The problem is that they hate it. It takes a certain kind of person to spend three days under glass in a hide watching a target that you may not even get to shoot at. Most guys would much rather be on the assault. You can order regular infantry guys to do the S/O mission and most will do their best but it takes a level of patience and focus to be a good sniper that not everyone has. Tell most infantrymen, or most anyone for that matter, that their job will consist of laying in hide looking at a target through glass for up wards of several days, that while they are in that hide they can't move or even get up to void their bowels, that they have to keep eyes on that target for the entire time that they are there which means little to no sleep and that at the end of all that they may not even get to engage the target even when the assault kicks off, and they will tell you that you need to find someone else for the job.

SFC W