• The Alabama National Guard recently posted a picture of a snake slithering over a sniper's rifle as he remains perfectly still. 
• The Alabama National Guard is even using the photo, which has gone viral, as a recruiting tool. 

The Alabama National Guard recently posted a photo of a sniper remaining still as a non-poisonous southern black racer snake slithers across his rifle.

The picture of Pfc. William Snyder practicing "woodlawn stalking" was taken in early April during a 1-173 infantry training exercise at Eglin Air Force Base.

"Our snipers are trained to remain perfectly still for hours on end when in position and remain invisible to enemies and even wildlife," the Alabama National Guard wrote in the caption of the photo on Facebook. Here's just how close the snake got:

“It’s by far our best-performing post,” Maj. Andrew Richardson, a public affairs officer for the Alabama National Guard, told the Northwest Florida Daily News. 

The Alabama Guard is even using the picture as a recruiting tool, the Northwest Florida Daily News reported. 

You can check more of the photos from that day here. 

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• A man who injured two people when he opened fire at cars on a Georgia highway idolized the Parkland shooting suspect and saw him as a "hero," the Hall County Sheriff said.
• Rex Whitmire Harbour, 26, fired at least 17 times and struck seven vehicles on Friday before turning his gun on himself.
• Authorities said they found "hate-filled" writings by Harbour that called Nikolas Cruz a "hero" who gave him "courage and confidence."

A sniper who killed himself after firing on cars and injuring two people on a Georgia highway idolized the Parkland, Florida school shooting suspect, a sheriff said Saturday.

A sheriff says 26-year-old landscaper Rex Whitmire Harbour of Snellville, fired at least 17 times and hit at least seven vehicles traveling northbound on Georgia 365 outside Atlanta around noon on Friday. Two people were wounded and a third was hurt by broken glass. None of their injuries were life-threatening.

Hall County Sheriff Gerald Couch told a news conference that a deputy chased after a suspicious car pulling out of a wooded area adjacent the highway on Friday. He said the suspect shot himself in the head, and his car rolled to a stop. Harbour later died at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Couch said investigators found three 9mm handguns, a 12-gauge shotgun, a BB-gun, and more than 3,400 rounds of ammunition inside his vehicle, none of which appeared to be stolen.

Authorities then searched Harbour's home, where he lived with his parents, and found "hate-filled" handwritten documents. Couch said state and federal intelligence checks showed that Harbour had no recorded criminal or violent history, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

WSB-TV Atlanta reported that the sheriff said Harbour's mother told investigators her son was mild-mannered and quiet. But the writings suggest he viewed Florida suspect Nikolas Cruz as a "hero" who gave him "courage and confidence," the sheriff said.

Cruz killed 17 people when he opened fire on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine's Day. He is currently being held in the Broward County jail on first-degree murder charges, and prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty.

Couch said it's unclear whether Harbour had any motivation for the shooting, other than hatred.

"What his motivation was other than just hate, we don't know at this time," Couch said. "He had the weapons, the ammunition, and obviously the will to inflict a lot of harm and a lot of hate."

SEE ALSO: Teenage girls are sending the Florida shooting suspect love letters and bikini pictures — and his lawyers refuse to show them to him

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• One Quora user once asked the world what service he should join if he wanted to be a sniper. 
• And one Marine veteran gave the young asker a rather grueling exercise to try out. 
• The exercise included laying in and crawling through a swamp on a hot, sunny day, with little food and water. 

Quora is the ultimate resource for crowdsourcing knowledge. If you're unfamiliar, you ask the Quora world a question and anyone with expertise (and some without it) will respond. One user asked the world what service he should join if he wanted to be a sniper. One Marine veteran gave him some necessary information.

Choosing what branch to join can be tough for anyone. Different branches have different lifestyles, they come with different job opportunities, and they each have their own difficulties. If you're 100-percent sure you want to be a sniper, that doesn't narrow your selection. At all.

SEE ALSO: The NRA helped promote this deadly Russian sniper rifle that has the US military worried

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(Reuters) - A New Jersey teen pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to terrorists in what media called an ISIS-inspired effort to kill Pope Francis in 2015 during a public Mass in Philadelphia, according to a statement by federal prosecutors.

Santos Colon, 17, admitted on Monday in a federal court in Camden, New Jersey, that he attempted to conspire with a sniper to shoot the Pope during his visit in Philadelphia and set off explosive devices in the surrounding areas.

Colon engaged with someone he thought would be the sniper from June 30 to August 14, 2015, but the person was actually an undercover FBI employee, according to prosecutors. The attack did not take place, and FBI agents arrested Colon in 2015.

"Colon engaged in target reconnaissance with an FBI confidential source and instructed the source to purchase materials to make explosive devices," prosecutors said in a statement on Monday.

A U.S. citizen from Lindenwold, New Jersey, Colon was charged as an adult with one count of attempting to provide material support to terrorists on Monday and faces up to 15 years in prison.

What motivated the attempted attack was not immediately known to Reuters. NBC News reported that prosecutors said Colon admitted the terror plot was inspired by the Islamic State.

Prosecutors and the defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Colon also faces a fine of $250,000, or twice the amount of any financial gain or loss from the offense, prosecutors said. No date has been set for sentencing and the investigation is ongoing.

The Pope visited Philadelphia on Sept. 26 and 27, 2015, to hold a public Mass, attracting hundreds of thousands of people during his biggest event in the United States.

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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America loves a hero sniper.

Consider Chris Kyle, the veteran Navy SEAL who became the stuff of legend well before publishing his 2012 autobiography “American Sniper,” with more than 160 kills confirmed by the Pentagon during his four tours in Iraq.

Or Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart, the Delta Force snipers posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their bravery during the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, actions immortalized in “Black Hawk Down.”

Or Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Hathcock II, who established a Scout Sniper School at Quantico, Virginia, after returning home from the Vietnam War. Alone with his rifle, the sniper is the embodiment of the one-man army.

Now, Iraq has its own expert marksman to celebrate: Yousef Ali, a 20-year-old Iraqi federal policeman who, with the help of a Russian-made Dragunov sniper rifle, is helping Iraqi security forces and the U.S.-led coalition take back the city of Mosul inch by inch, block by block.

Since Western-backed forces began their advance on Mosul in earnest in February, six months after the initial military offensive by Iraqi forces, ISIS has put up fierce resistance with their own barrage of mortar shells and sniper fire — constant threats lurking behind burned-out houses and mountains of rubble.

USA Today’s Igor Kossov embedded with Ali to get a first-hand look at the task facing the warfighters of the multinational coalition:

Through the small hole in the wall of an abandoned hotel, Ali saw the labyrinth of the Old City’s narrow streets stretch before him.

Less than 300 yards away, the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, prepared for another sneak attack, surrounded by civilian human shields. “The (ISIS fighters) are out there,” said the 20-year-old Iraqi federal policeman, taking his eyes off the scope for a moment. “Just behind those buildings.”…

“Two or three days ago, (ISIS) set some fires to make a smokescreen, then some of them came at us with suicide belts,” Ali said. “I killed two of them.”

Tales of incredible marksmanship in ongoing campaigns against the ISIS caliphate have become the equivalent of war porn for faraway observers. In January, British tabloids ran the thinly-sourced story of a SAS sniper who took out three ISIS fighters “prepared to fire into a crowd of women and children they had told to halt.” And who can forget the tale of 63-year-old Abu Tahseen, Iraqi veteran of five wars, who claimed last year to have killed more than 173 fighters since May 2015?

But that’s the beauty of the Kossov’s profile of Ali. The young Iraqi policeman is less a superhuman marksman and more a courageous young man doing his job — and following his training:

Ali said it had been his dream to become a sniper since he joined police basic training.

After 45 days of basics, he was accepted into sniper training, spending six months becoming acquainted with the specialization under Iraqi and Italian trainers in Baghdad and Fallujah. The training paid off when he was thrust into the Mosul offensive with his M-16 and Dragunov rifles, Ali said.

Of course, Ali maintains a friendly rivalry with his fellow snipers: After all, who doesn’t want to be the next Chris Kyle?

“We always hear everything that’s going over the radio. So sometimes we’ll say, ‘Oh, I killed more (ISIS fighters) than you, you better try harder,'” he told USA Today. “But we all treat each other as brothers here.”

SEE ALSO: Meet the 62-year-old sniper who has over 170 ISIS kills

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Snipers are a special breed, warriors with a combination of shooting skill, cunning, and patience. Military history has shown that a single sniper in the right place at the right time can change the course of battle, even in the face of overwhelming odds.

Here are five of the most legendary among them.

1. U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Norman Hathcock

During the Vietnam War Hathcock had 93 “confirmed” kills of North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong personnel, which meant they occurred with an officer present (in addition to his spotter). He estimated the number of “unconfirmed” kills to be upwards of 400.  His warfighting career ended when he was wounded by an anti-tank mine in 1969 and sent home.  He later helped establish the USMC Sniper School.

2. U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant Chuck Mawhinney

Chuck Mawhinney served from 1967-1970 in the Marine Corps. According to a 2000 Los Angeles Times article, he spent 16 months in Vietnam. After leaving the Marine Corps, he worked in the United States Forest Service.

Mawhinney’s youth was spent hunting, and he chose the Marines because they allowed him to delay his entry until after deer season. Some Marine recruiter did his country a service with that call.

Mawhinney noted that every one of his kills had a weapon — with one notable exception: A North Vietnamese Army paymaster who he took out from 900 yards away.

3. U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Adelbert Waldron

As a member of the 9th Infantry Division, he was assigned to PBR boats patrolling the Mekong Delta, at one point making a confirmed kill from a moving boat at 900 yards. He set his record of 109 kills in just 8 months, which was the record until Chris Kyle broke it during the Iraq War and is perhaps even more remarkable considering he was fighting in a dense jungle environment that didn’t always provide easy sight lines.

4. U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Chris Kyle

Navy SEAL Chris Kyle served four tours during the Iraq War, and during that time he became the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history with over 160 kills officially confirmed by the Department of Defense. Kyle’s bestselling book, American Sniper, was made into a movie directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper as Kyle.

On February 2, 2013, Kyle was shot dead at a shooting range near Chalk Mountain, Texas along with his friend, Chad Littlefield. The assailant, Eddie Ray Routh, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

5. Finnish Army Second Lieutenant Simo Häyhä

Nicknamed “White Death,” Simo Häyhä tallied 505 kills, far and away the highest count from any major war. All of Häyhä’s kills of Red Army combatants were accomplished in fewer than 100 days – an average of just over five kills per day – at a time of year with very few daylight hours. He was wounded late in the war when an explosive bullet shot by a Soviet soldier took off his lower left jaw. He lived a long life, however, dying in a veterans nursing home in 2002 at the age of 96.

When asked if he regretted killing so many people he replied, “I only did my duty, and what I was told to do, as well as I could.”

SEE ALSO: Four of the deadliest sniper rifles used in World War II

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A federal judge on Friday tossed out life prison terms for one of two men convicted in a deadly Washington, area shooting spree, saying he must be re-sentenced in light of a US Supreme Court ruling, the Washington Post reported.

Lee Boyd Malvo, 32, was one of two men found guilty in the series of sniper shootings in the fall of 2002 that killed 10 people, wounded three others and left residents of Washington, suburbs traumatized.

His co-defendant, John Allen Muhammad, was sentenced to death and executed in 2009.

Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In 2012, the US Supreme Court ruled such sentences unconstitutional for juveniles and later found that the ruling should be applied retroactively.

US District Judge Raymond Jackson cited that Supreme Court decision in ordering that Malvo be re-sentenced, the Post reported.

The ruling does not affect Malvo's convictions or the six life sentences that he was given in Maryland, the paper reported, although his attorneys are appealing those as well.

In the years following his conviction Malvo said he was sexually abused by Muhammad from the age of 15 until the time they embarked on the shooting spree from inside a blue Chevrolet Caprice.

They were arrested in October, 2002 after police discovered the pair sleeping in the car at a rest stop in Maryland.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by James Dalgleish)

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A Canadian military sniper took out an ISIS fighter with a record-breaking shot from more than two miles away, according to a report in The Globe and Mail, though some initially cast doubt on the claim.

The unnamed sniper who carried out the feat was a member of Joint Task Force 2, an elite unit in the Canadian army similar to the US Navy's SEAL Team 6. The shot, according to the paper, disrupted an ISIS attack on Iraqi security forces.

"The bad guys didn't have a clue what was happening," one source told the paper.

The report said the kill was verified by video and other data, though it was not made public. The kill shot from 3,540 meters, or about 2.2 miles, beat the previous sniper record set by British army sniper Craig Harrison from a range of 2,475 meters, or 1.5 miles.

Soon after the Globe and Mail story was published, Canada's Special Operations Command released a statement confirming the shot.

"The Canadian Special Operations Command can confirm that a member of Joint Task Force 2 successfully hit a target at 3,540 metres," the command said. "For operational security reasons and to preserve the safety of our personnel and our Coalition partners we will not discuss precise details on when and how this incident took place."

Prior to the statement's release, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, a reporter for The Washington Post who served as a US Marine Corps sniper, expressed skepticism about the claim in a tweet. At such a long distance, he said, the tiniest adjustment to the sniper's windage or elevation settings on the scope could result in a bullet being wildly off course when it got to its target.

There's also the question of the power of the rifle's optic and whether it could make out a human at such an incredible distance.

Still, the shot is possible. The rifle used was a McMillan TAC-50, a long-range sniper rifle that fires a .50-caliber bullet at 2,700 feet per second.

This post has been updated with a statement from Canadian Special Operations Command.

SEE ALSO: Watch this ex-Green Beret run through ISIS gunfire to save a little girl

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A video of a Kurdish YPJ (Women’s Protection Unit) sniper almost getting shot the face while fighting in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa is going viral and not because it’s like two centimeters away from being featured in Faces of Death Vol. 2, but because of her reaction, which is basically: “Oh, hey, so this funny thing just happened.”

This is probably not the first time this young woman has nearly been shot in the head.

The YPJ is the all-female wing of the Kurdish YPG (People’s Protection Unit), a guerrilla army based in northern Syria that has been fighting ISIS since the terrorist group’s formation, while also occasionally duking it out with Turkey. The group is backed by the U.S.-led coalition and is currently taking part in the bloody campaign to wrest Raqqa from ISIS control.

In the video, the YPJ sniper takes aim at a target — human, presumably — and pulls the trigger. Less than a second later, a round cracks into the wall right over her head, appearing to have come from right outside her sector of fire. And that’s when we see that million watt smile. According to BBC, the sniper then tells whoever is filming her to stop, saying: “Enough, enough filming.”

Of course, people are already calling the legitimacy of the video into question, and rightfully so. The battlefields of Iraq and Syria have yielded no shortage of doctored footage. Propaganda from both sides has played a big role in this war. But Maximilian Uriarte, better known as Terminal Lance, whipped up a quick illustrated diagram to show how this totally could have happened:

Seems legit. Now we just need to find out who this sniper is so we can send her a camouflage headscarf. Or maybe a helmet.

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During large, multiunit exercises, the US military's snipers can be overshadowed by the men and machines roving the battlefield.

To correct that, Staff Sgt. Joe Bastian — a former active-duty sniper who is now a sniper observer/controller/trainer with the First Army's 1st Battalion, 335th Infantry Regiment — designed a special 10-day training course for snipers during the 33rd Infantry Brigade's Exportable Combat Training Capability, or XCTC, at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin.

"The course is designed to get all of the snipers from the brigade together to train, broaden their horizons and share tactics, techniques and procedures,"he said in an Army news story.

Bastian called on two former instructors from the US Army's Sniper School at Fort Benning in Georgia, and their course filled the 10-day exercise with weeks' worth of training for soldiers from Illinois' 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team and Puerto Rico's 1st Battalion, 296th Infantry Regiment.

The course teaches snipers how to design their own training courses, as well as how to work with ammunition, targets, and ranges, and how to use camouflage and stalking techniques during training.

Below, you can see some photos of US Army National Guard snipers getting the specialized instruction they need to seek out and pick off their targets. 

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XCTC is the Army National Guard’s program to provide an experience similar to an Army combat-training center at a home station or a regional training center, like Fort McCoy. Soldiers from the 502 Infantry Regiment stood in as opposition forces.

"I had to call in a couple of favors because of the scope of this course," Bastian said. "My two co-trainers bring a breadth of knowledge and experience that is unparalleled and gives these soldiers an opportunity that they won't get otherwise."

Source: US Army

"The Army has a multitude of systems and professionals to continually train everyone, except snipers," Peterson, one of the co-trainers, said. "When these guys go back to their units, there's not a lot of personnel that can train them properly. This course will help them continue their education and properly train themselves."

Source: US Army

First-person shooter is one of the most popular perspectives among gamers, but these simulations can be used for much more than entertainment — specifically military training.

And thanks to new the Indoor Simulated Marksmanship Trainer III, Marine Corps marksmen are about to take their sharpshooting skills to a whole new level.

Though the Corps has been using virtual reality to train Marines for two decades, the systems for marksmanship have become exponentially better.

With the ISMT III, Marines have access to multiple weapons: the M9 service pistol, M4 carbine, and wireless weapons, including the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle, M32A1 Multi-Shot Grenade Launcher and M72 Light Anti-Tank Weapon.

This latest iteration, modeled off the Firearms Training Simulator (FATS), also boasts three-dimensional projections and features enhanced training modes, “giving Marines a better, more realistic training experience as they prepare for the complexities of modern warfare,” the release said.

In 2016, Marine Corps Times reported that the system’s immersive high-fidelity sound and visuals will help close the gap between the inherent limitations of an indoor simulation and the real thing.

“In the evolution of this training system, it went from a specific one to two weapon system and now pretty much covers the full spectrum of small arms weapons that are used by the Marine Corps today,” Chief Warrant Officer 4 Matthew Harris, the ISMT III project officer, said in a Marine Corps press release. “ISMT helps to build fundamentals of muscle memory for Marines so that when they hit the range, they are ready to respond to real-life scenarios.”

The reason the Marine Corps is investing so heavily in simulation technology is that it helps build muscle memory without costing millions.

Herbert Gray, the director of the MCIPAC Tactical Training and Simulation Support Center, told the Marines in 2016 that he believes repeated practice in realistic combat simulations allows them to develop automatic responses to a broader array of scenarios.

“It’s better to drop bombs in a simulated environment than to drop bombs on a range all over the place,” Gray said. “It saves us a lot of money.”

The Corps has ordered 490 ISMT III systems destined for major Marine Corps bases, reserve duty sites, amphibious transport docks, and amphibious assault ships worldwide, according to the release. So far, 200 have been distributed, with all land installations to be completed by September 2018.

In recent years, the Corps has invested heavily in simulation across a number of different aspects of training. Beginning in 2017, officials began distributing the Marine Tactical Decision Kit, an augmented reality system designed to put infantry Marines through the rigors of battle without ever leaving their barracks. And the same is now essentially being done with marksmanship training.

“Marksmanship is embedded in the Marine Corps,” said Carrillo. “As technology advances and weapons get better and more accurate, we need to teach Marines how to use those weapons and improve their marksmanship, so that we can continue to be the best marksmen the military can offer.”

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NOW WATCH: An Army Ranger describes the toughest exercise at the US military’s elite sniper school

Despite a brief period of ambiguity wrought by budget-jousting among lawmakers in Congress, the Army’s new and improved sniper rifle is alive and well.

Heckler & Koch showed off its M110A1 7.62 mm semi-automatic sniper rifle, selected for the Army’s Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System (CSASS) program on the floor of the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference and exposition in Washington this week, a first up-close-and-personal look at the lightweight rifle.

The M1101A1 HK CSASS is a lightweight version of H&K’s G28E sniper rifle, one of which was also on display at the company’s AUSA spread. The company got to work after Army Contracting Command awarded the gun manufacturer a $44.5 million contract in 2016 for a version with a baffle-less OSS suppressor.

At just 16 inches long and 8.7 pounds with an empty magazine, the HK certainly meets the Army’s CSASS requirements size and weight requirements. It boasts a Schmidt & Bender 3-20X50 PMII Ultra Short Scope for improved optics and accuracy.

And with a similar look and feel to the standard M4 and M16 assault rifles, the M1101 will also be familiar to infantry soldiers who may end up wielding it downrange: In September, the branch announced plans to field a modified version specifically for regular infantrymen serving in a designated marksman role.

“The [engineering contract proposals] for the CSASS were implemented in response to user feedback and test results conducted by other government agencies,” PEO Soldier Debi Dawson told Task & Purpose of the late-September contract adjustment. “The modifications improve reliability, durability, ergonomics and extended range performance.”

The Army contract for the HK CSASS came with a maximum order of 3,643 rifles, although it’s still unclear if Congress’ ongoing budget tribulations will affect future acquisition.

And although there’s no word on when the lethal new rifle will end up in soldiers’ hands, the promise of a souped-up 7.62mm sniper rifle for a squad-level marksman is still worth looking forward to.

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At the US Army's Sniper School at Fort Benning in Georgia, students undergo some of the most grueling training the force offers.

"Sniper school is one of the hardest schools in the military, not physically, but mentally," Staff Sgt. Brian Moran, one of the 11 instructors who oversees the training, told the Army News Service.

Army snipers face demanding missions and often operate with little or no support, and the training at Fort Benning tests their ability to work in isolation and under pressure.

Below, you can see some of the rigorous and, for many, overwhelming training that Army sniper candidates endure:

SEE ALSO: Take a look at how Army snipers zero in on their targets during specialized training

Over 300 candidates start the seven-week Sniper School course at Fort Benning each year. In early August, 46 soldiers were on hand for the first day. Each had already met demanding criteria, including navigation and marksmanship evaluations, physical-fitness tests, and psychological examinations.

Source: US Army

"Snipers are often deployed in small two-man teams, which requires a great deal of mental fortitude to remain focused on the task at hand," said Moran, the Sniper School instructor. "If individuals have difficulty being isolated, there is a potential for mission failure."

Source: US Army

After a battery of physical-fitness tests on the first day, candidates are taught to make a ghillie suit — a camouflage suit that uses foliage to break up the outline of the soldier's body.

Source: US Army

The 5.56mm M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle has remained a favorite rifle of the Marine Corps for the better part of this decade.

Based on the Heckler & Koch HK416 assault rifle and adopted in 2011 to replace the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, it’s widely considered more versatile and accurate over a longer range than the average weapon — so much so that the Corps has even discussed replacing every infantry Marine’s M4 carbine with an IAR variant in coming years.

Now, it seems the beloved M27 is getting a deadly update. The Corps is reportedly testing a specialized version of the IAR, the M38 Squad Designated Marksman Rifle, according to photos published by the Department of Defense. (Distinct from a sniper, who is typically trained to operate independently, the squad designated marksman moves with his infantry fireteam and fulfills its sharpshooting needs.)

Adapting an M27 variant for that role could be a major step towards broader adoption across the Corps.

DoD photos published in early December show Marines with 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment conducting live-fire weapons exercises with the M38 at Camp Lejeune on Dec. 8.

Soldier Systems first surfaced the photos late last month, identifying the weapon’s optics as a Leupold TS-30A2 Mark 4 2.5-8x36mm Mid-Range/Tactical Illuminated Reticle Scope, a vast improvement over the fixed 3.5x magnification of the Trijicon TA11SDO-CP Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight (ACOG) sights atop the M27s that the Corps has previouslytested.

The new optics aren’t the only added muscle tacked onto these IARs. Each M38 appears to be decked out with a suppressor to cut muzzle noise.

The Marines have already experimented with suppressing all the weapons in a deployed infantry company, so they know it can be done. But in an era where Secretary of Defense (and mythologized former devil dog) James Mattis says more conventional troops will be doing more special-ops-style work, there are other interesting possibilities, too.

Last June, the Corps carved out an “uber squad” in Camp Lejeune’s 1st Battalion, 6th Marines for a 18- to 20-month experiment with… suppressor-equipped M27s, as well as Ops-Core helmets typically reserved for U.S. special operations forces.

So is the Corps turning all Marine infantrymen into operators? Not exactly. But the Marines sure seem interested in giving more of them the flexible capabilities that a 17-year-old, broadening War on Terror so often demands.

“In Iraq, the daily routine of patrolling in dense urban areas demonstrated a need for fast, but precision rifle fire against fleeting targets,” Joseph Trevithick writes in The War Zone. “In Afghanistan, militants often initiated engagements beyond the effective range of standard infantry weapons, especially those without magnifying optics. Repurposing the M27 with a new scope is a relatively easy way to provide this type of capability.”

And don’t forget: It’s still, like, a squad machine gun, even if it doesn’t immediately look the part. Some of the first Marine automatic riflemen to receive M27s noted, for example, that the M27’s upper and lower receiver profile blend in nicely with everybody else’s M4s — so “if you come into contact, the enemy won’t know who the machine gunner is,” one satisfied grunt told Marine Corps Times back in 2012.

So maybe there’s a new corollary coming to the old maxim, “Every Marine is a rifleman”: With the M27/M38, it’s possible every rifleman is a machine-gunner and sniper, too.

The Marine Corps and Heckler & Koch did not immediately respond to request for additional information. We will update this story with new details as they become available.

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For years, military sharpshooting instructors taught their students to close their non-dominant eye as a fundamental of shooting. The idea behind this practice is to lower the activity of the half of the brain that isn’t technically being used, freeing it from distractions.

Over the years, well-practiced shooters have determined that closing one eye helps you line up your target more easily. So, why keep both eyes open?

Former Army Green Beret Karl Erickson will break down for you.

When a hectic situation arises, and you need to draw your weapon, you’re going to experience physical and physiological changes.

Most noticeably, the gun operator’s adrenaline will kick up, prompting the “fight or flight” response.

During this response, the body’s sympathetic nervous system releases norepinephrine and adrenaline from the adrenal glands, which are located right above your kidneys, as shown in the picture to the right.

Once these naturally produced chemicals surge through your bloodstream, your heart rate increases and your eyes dilate and widen.

These physical changes occur because the human brain is screaming to collect as much information as possible.

When these events take place, it becomes much more challenging for the shooter to keep their non-dominant eye closed.

Thoughtfully attempting to keep that non-dominant eye shut can potentially derail the shooter’s concentration, which can result in a missed opportunity for a righteous kill shot.

So, how do we practice shooting with both eyes open?

When using shooting glasses, spread a coat of chapstick across the lens of the non-dominant eye. This will blur the image and help retrain the brain to focus a single eye on the target, and, over time, will eventually lead to good muscle memory.

Check out Tactical Rifleman’s video below to learn the technique directly from a Green Beret badass.

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NOW WATCH: An Army Ranger describes the toughest exercise at the US military’s elite sniper school

The Marine Corps is throwing down cash to test-drive the same compact sniper rifle the Army has pursued in recent months. But while its 7.62mm rounds pack the punch required by scout snipers facing increasingly protected enemies downrange, its effective range falls well short of the sniper systems used by both foreign militaries and militants — a limitation that makes it unclear just what the Corps could do with this new weapon.

The Army’s proposed fiscal 2019 budget includes $46.2 million to field 5,180 M110A1 Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System (CSASS) rifles for infantry, scout, and engineer squads, with the goal of eventually buying as many as 8,711 of the lightweight 7.62mm arms. PEO Soldier told Task & Purpose in January 2018 that the Marine Corps also was “committed” to adopting the CSASS.

And lo and behold: The Marine Corps’ $40.8 billion proposed fiscal 2019 budget includes just under $1 million for the service to procure just 116 CSASS rifles. The Marines’ line item says the CSASS, based on the Heckler & Koch G28E sniper rifle with a baffle-less OSS suppressor, could replace the venerable M110 with “enhanced shooter ergonomics and increased operational availability time” and “improve the sniper’s ability to rapidly engage multiple, moving targets.”

Don’t get too excited just yet, though. The Corps isn’t fully sold on the CSASS, Marine Corps Systems Command spokeswoman Barbara Hamby told Task & Purpose in an email. “Should leadership decide to conduct a one-for-one replacement or just buy them to replace M110s for sniper billets, the quantity would be greater than 116.”

Marine scout snipers have deployed with Vietnam-era M40 sniper systems as Corps officials have struggled to adopt a much-needed replacement, despite introducing upgrades to the M40 pattern following the start of the Global War on Terror in 2001. As Marines are increasingly pivoting from the urban warfare of Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria to sprawling firefights in mountains and deserts of Afghanistan, they’re looking for a boost in range and lethality.

It’s not clear the CSASS meets those needs, though.

It does offer a significant boost in lethality: The rifle was selected by the Army to rock 7.62mm rounds, like the new M80A1 round the service whipped up to defeat 5.56mm-resistant body armor downrange. For soldiers and infantry Marines facing a rise in combat casualties abroad, the extra lethality offers a chance to cut a firefight short before a prolonged engagement yields more injuries.

But what the CSASS offers in punch, it lacks in reach. Its maximum effective range of around 800 meters (875 yards), on par with the 7.62mm Soviet-made Dragunov sniper rifle used by the Russian military. That’s well below the 1,000-yard reach of the upgraded M40 variants currently used by the Corps. And it’s nowhere near the Army’s 1,300-yard M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle and US Special Operations Command’s 1,600-yard Precision Sniper Rifle, let alone rifles in use by foreign militaries, as the Washington Post pointed out in 2015.

That would seem to make the CSASS exactly the wrong weapon for the Marine Corps’ highly-trained snipers. “It doesn’t matter if we have the best training,” one Marine recon sniper told Washington Post reporter and Marine vet Thomas Gibbons-Neff in 2015. “If we get picked off at a thousand yards before we can shoot, then what’s the point?”

So what is the Corps’ plan for the CSASS, long-term? Hard to say. The Army plans on adopting the CSASS in a squad designated marksman role — a sharpshooter attached to a combat team that generally has lower range requirements than the classic two-man sniper team. The Corps has squad designated marksmen, too, but it already plans to adopt a new variant of the beloved M27 for that role.

“The M110A1 will not be issued as an Squad Designated Marksman Rifle,” Hamby told Task & Purpose. “The decision on what billets and units the weapon will be fielded to has not been finalized.”

That leaves open the possibility that the CSASS could actually end up in the hands of the service’s most capable scout snipers, hampering their effectiveness and lethality.

“The M110A1 was never intended to replace the M40A6, but to replace the M110,” Hamby told Task & Purpose. “The bolt action M40A6 has a different purpose from the semi-automatic M110A1, which is used for rapid engagement … The M40A6 remains a program of record for the Marine Corps.”

This is the sort of bureaucratic procurement two-step that drives grunts nuts.

The Corps has recognized a sniper capability gap when it comes to foreign fighters, both conventional and unconventional: In March 2017, the service announced it planned on overhauling its scout sniper training to increase graduation rates and rapidly field sharpshooters downrange. But that training may be moot without the right tools.

Based on Marine officials’ comments, interim testing of the CSASS may help the Corps finally figure out appropriate requirements for future sniper systems — like, say, being able to fire on your target from beyond their effective range. But in the meantime, scout snipers may have to grin and bear yet another imperfect weapons system for their next plunge into America’s forever wars.

SEE ALSO: Take a look at the grimy and grueling training the Army uses to turn soldiers into snipers

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A senior Army modernization official today said that the service's new Squad Designated Marksman Rifle will be the 7.62mm Heckler & Koch G28.

The Army selected the G28 as its new Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System in 2016 to replace its M110 Semi-automatic Sniper System — a move that will provide snipers with a shorter rifle that doesn't stick out to the enemy as a sniper weapon.

Now the Army plans to start fielding the G28 in 2018 to infantry squads as the service's standard SDMR, Lt. Gen. John Murray, deputy chief of staff for Army G8, told Military.com.

The Army has money in the fiscal 2018 budget earmarked for the SDMR program, said Murray, who did not have the exact figure listed in the budget.

Equipping squads with a new 7.62mm SDMR is the first step in a two-phase effort to ensure units have the capability to penetrate enemy body armor.

Last May, Gen. Mark Milley testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee that the service's current M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round will not defeat enemy body armor plates similar to the U.S. military-issue rifle plates such as the Enhanced Small Arms Protective Insert, or ESAPI.

The revelation launched an ad hoc effort to acquire new 7.62mm Interim Service Combat Rifle, mainly for infantry units, but the idea quickly lost momentum.

Then in early February, Murray told members of Congress that the new SDMR is a phase one; phase two would be to field a more powerful replacement to the M249 squad automatic weapon, which is chambered for 5.56mm.

The presence of a 7.62mm rifle in the squad formation is nothing new, but units currently have to turn in their SDMRs at the end of a combat deployment.

Since 2009, the Army's SBR has been the Enhanced Battle Rifle 14, a modernized M14 equipped with a Sage International adjustable aluminum stock with pistol grip, a Leupold 3.5x10 power scope and Harris bipod legs.

The Army adopted the EBR concept, first used in 2004 by Navy SEALs, in response to the growing need of infantry squads operating in Afghanistan to engage enemy fighters at longer ranges.

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The US Army will begin fielding roughly 6,000 Heckler & Koch G28E rifles as the service's new Squad Designated Marksman Rifle before the end of fiscal 2018.

A directed requirement, based on the needs of US Army Forces Command, will ensure that every squad in infantry and other combat units will be outfitted with the G28E, the weapon the Army selected to become the Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System (CSASS) in 2016, according to Daryl Easlick, the small arms deputy for the Lethality Branch at Fort Benning's Maneuver Center of Excellence.

"It specifically called for the Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System, which is the H&K G28E," Easlick told Military.com in an interview this week.

The directed requirement — which is being pushed by Lt. Gen. John Murray, deputy chief of staff for the Army G8 — calls for a new 7.62 mm SDMR to ensure that squads have the capability of penetrating enemy body armor at ranges out to 600 meters.

Last May, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told lawmakers that the service's current M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round will not defeat enemy body armor plates similar to US military-issue rifle plates such as the Enhanced Small Arms Protective Insert, or ESAPI.

In its fiscal 2019 budget request, the Army asked for $46 million toward CSASS, but Easlick would not confirm if that money would go toward buying SDMRs as well as outfitting sniper teams with the CSASS.

Military.com reached out to Program Executive Office Soldier, the command responsible for handling the fielding of the SDMR, but did not receive a response by deadline.

"We are ready; it will have its own capability production document," Easlick said. "The authoring of that document is complete, 100 percent complete. All I am waiting for is them to say I need it.

"The basis of issue for SDMR ... is one per squad in the infantry, engineer and scout formations. Right now, we are roughly sitting at 6,000 rifles."

The G28E will replace the Enhanced Battle Rifle 14 — an SDMR the Army has fielded since 2009. The modernized M14 is equipped with a Sage International adjustable aluminum stock with pistol grip, a Leupold 3.5-10 power scope, and Harris bipod legs.

The Army adopted the 15-pound EBR 14 under an operational needs statement in response to the growing need of infantry squads operating in Afghanistan to engage enemy fighters at longer ranges.

"That is exactly what it is designed to do, replace the EBR 14," Easlick said. "Because it was based on an operational needs statement, there were never any fielded for home-station training. You fell in those weapon systems in theater."

The CSASS weighs just under nine pounds without its optic or magazine and features a 16-inch barrel, he said.

But in its SDMR version, the G28E will not be a sniper rifle, Easlick said, explaining that the Army doesn't intend to equip designated marksman with a sniper optic.

"A sniper optic is intended to be used by a very highly trained sniper," he said. "It is suitable for sniper engagements; those aren't necessarily rifleman engagements.

"For close-quarters battle, stuff like that, you don't want to have to clear a room with a weapon that has a sniper optic on it," he added.

The CSASS is equipped with a Schmidt and Bender 3-20 variable power sniper optic. The SDMR will likely be equipped with simpler optic capable of quick adjustments between zero and 600 meters, Easlick said.

"What we are looking at would be in the realm of a 1-6, variable-power illuminated reticle," he said. "The concept would be if I am doing anything under 50 meters or even 100 meters, I am on one power and I can execute those tasks that I would normally do with a [close combat optic] very well."

Also, snipers using the CSASS will shoot M118LR sniper ammunition. The SDMR will shoot the M80A1 Enhanced Performance Round, which will give the designated marksman accuracy that is "as good or better" than the M4, Easlick said.

The G28E "gives you an optic that is better suited to do rifleman tasks, and it gives you a weapon system that is just like your M4A1 in that the controls are nearly identical," he said.

"It has a collapsible buttstock so you can still change length-of-pull, but it still provides that capability of using 7.62mm NATO to get after targets that are extended range," Easlick said. "It is suppressed, so you are able to do that without calling a lot of challenges to your squad because it is a [7.62], it's not a 5.56 — it's a louder report.

"Suppression gives you that ability to make that guy more survivable by not being as easily identifiable on the battlefield," he said.

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• The Alabama National Guard recently posted a picture of a snake slithering over a sniper's rifle as he remains perfectly still. 
• The Alabama National Guard is even using the photo, which has gone viral, as a recruiting tool. 

The Alabama National Guard recently posted a photo of a sniper remaining still as a non-poisonous southern black racer snake slithers across his rifle.

The picture of Pfc. William Snyder practicing "woodlawn stalking" was taken in early April during a 1-173 infantry training exercise at Eglin Air Force Base.

"Our snipers are trained to remain perfectly still for hours on end when in position and remain invisible to enemies and even wildlife," the Alabama National Guard wrote in the caption of the photo on Facebook. Here's just how close the snake got:

“It’s by far our best-performing post,” Maj. Andrew Richardson, a public affairs officer for the Alabama National Guard, told the Northwest Florida Daily News. 

The Alabama Guard is even using the picture as a recruiting tool, the Northwest Florida Daily News reported. 

You can check more of the photos from that day here. 

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• A man who injured two people when he opened fire at cars on a Georgia highway idolized the Parkland shooting suspect and saw him as a "hero," the Hall County Sheriff said.
• Rex Whitmire Harbour, 26, fired at least 17 times and struck seven vehicles on Friday before turning his gun on himself.
• Authorities said they found "hate-filled" writings by Harbour that called Nikolas Cruz a "hero" who gave him "courage and confidence."

A sniper who killed himself after firing on cars and injuring two people on a Georgia highway idolized the Parkland, Florida school shooting suspect, a sheriff said Saturday.

A sheriff says 26-year-old landscaper Rex Whitmire Harbour of Snellville, fired at least 17 times and hit at least seven vehicles traveling northbound on Georgia 365 outside Atlanta around noon on Friday. Two people were wounded and a third was hurt by broken glass. None of their injuries were life-threatening.

Hall County Sheriff Gerald Couch told a news conference that a deputy chased after a suspicious car pulling out of a wooded area adjacent the highway on Friday. He said the suspect shot himself in the head, and his car rolled to a stop. Harbour later died at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Couch said investigators found three 9mm handguns, a 12-gauge shotgun, a BB-gun, and more than 3,400 rounds of ammunition inside his vehicle, none of which appeared to be stolen.

Authorities then searched Harbour's home, where he lived with his parents, and found "hate-filled" handwritten documents. Couch said state and federal intelligence checks showed that Harbour had no recorded criminal or violent history, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

WSB-TV Atlanta reported that the sheriff said Harbour's mother told investigators her son was mild-mannered and quiet. But the writings suggest he viewed Florida suspect Nikolas Cruz as a "hero" who gave him "courage and confidence," the sheriff said.

Cruz killed 17 people when he opened fire on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine's Day. He is currently being held in the Broward County jail on first-degree murder charges, and prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty.

Couch said it's unclear whether Harbour had any motivation for the shooting, other than hatred.

"What his motivation was other than just hate, we don't know at this time," Couch said. "He had the weapons, the ammunition, and obviously the will to inflict a lot of harm and a lot of hate."

SEE ALSO: Teenage girls are sending the Florida shooting suspect love letters and bikini pictures — and his lawyers refuse to show them to him

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