An Army National Guard team took second place in the 2017 U.S. Army International Sniper Competition Oct. 15-20 at Fort Benning, Ga., while two other Army Guard teams placed in the top six. It was another strong performance for the Army National Guard, which fielded the winning sniper team in the 2016 competition. In the 2017 event, SSG Jaime Jimenez and SSG Joshua Cavalier, both of the Army National Guard’s Warrior Training Center, took home the second-place award. SGT Daniel Rilett and CPL Trent Devos, both of the Michigan Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 125th Infantry Regiment, came in fourth place while the “All-Guard” Team, also of the Michigan Army National Guard, SGT Nicholas Mitchell and SGT Saykham Keophalychanh placed sixth.
SSG Jonathan Roque and SGT Brandon Kelley, a team from 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, won first place in the competition.
The event included 29 sniper teams from throughout the U.S. military, foreign militaries and civilian law enforcement agencies. Teams were tested on their physical fitness, target acquisition abilities, long- and short-range shooting skills, camouflage techniques and attention to detail. An aerial event assessed the snipers’ ability to fire from a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.
“The intent of most of the courses of fire is to put you in an uncomfortable position, under stress, and evaluate your problem-solving and marksmanship ability while [working] as a team,” SGT Mitchell said.
SGT Mitchell and SGT Keophalychanh won the 2016 International Sniper Competition while representing the Michigan Army National Guard’s 3rd Battalion, 126th Infantry Regiment. The pair also won the 2017 sniper competition in the annual Winston P. Wilson Rifle and Pistol Championship, which tests the top marksmen from throughout the Army and Air National Guard.
For SGT Keophalychanh, the international competition allowed him to learn new approaches to putting rounds on target in a variety of situations. “Every team is going to approach it differently,” he said. “It lets you compare and contrast different thought processes and mindsets in terms of approaching the problem [of engaging the target].”
SGT Mitchell added, “There’s the prizes, there’s the spirit of competition. But in the end, it’s always a learning event – learning different things from different people.”
The competition also teaches participants about maintaining focus while testing their physical and mental endurance.
“These competitions stress your mind and your body a great degree while getting little to no sleep and very little to eat,” SGT Mitchell said.
“Being able to stay mentally focused when you are stressing your body out to the max daily and getting very little sleep is one of the biggest challenges,” said CPL Devos.
He emphasized that preparation and teammate support are vital ingredients to overcome those challenges.
“Keeping focused is a team task,” CPL Devos said. “We try to stay vigilant with each other when one or the other starts to lose focus.”
SGT Mitchell agreed that teamwork is of the utmost importance. “We have to work off of one another and constantly keep each other in check – whether it’s reminding each other to eat or drink every so often, the constant equipment and ammo checks, or just reminding each other to stay calm and keep putting one foot in front of the other until the job is done,” he said.
SGT Mitchell said he was grateful for the chance to take part in the competition again.
“We are fortunate to get to compete against some of the most talented snipers in the world today,” he said. “Just being able to share the misery and the bliss, the triumphs and the defeats, the honor, admiration and the respect of the man fighting valiantly to your left and to your right keeps me putting one foot in front of the other no matter the internal struggle I may be facing in the moment.”
He emphasized that all of those factors help make him a better Soldier. “Pushing myself to my potential, eliminating my ego and understanding my individual strengths and weaknesses makes me a better Soldier, a better sniper and a better leader,” SGT Mitchell said.
It also helps the Soldiers back in his unit.
“By realizing my weaknesses, I realize where the focus on my training needs to increase,” said SGT Mitchell. “If, as a leader, I am weak in a specific area, chances are my lower enlisted Soldiers are also weak in that area. This gives our training direction and increases our strength and combat readiness together as a team.”
That becomes especially important when deployed, SGT Mitchell added.
“These [Soldiers] are the ones who are going to be to my left and right when I or someone else needs them most,” he said.
With teams from Canada, Denmark, Germany and Norway in the competition, there was also an opportunity to learn different techniques from international competitors.
“Being able to share and collect information from the other [competitors] from around the nation, military and world allies – that’s what these competitions are all about,” CPL Devos said. “Competing is the obvious [focus], but being able to share and learn from one another is also a huge part of these competitions.”
As part of the “All-Guard” Team, SGT Mitchell said it was a special opportunity to represent the Army National Guard as a whole.
“For us, that was an incredible honor and responsibility, and kept us completely focused and driven to do our best to represent such an outstanding organization,” he said.
BY SFC Jon Soucy and Markeith Horace, NATIONAL GUARD BUREAU
