Think you’ve got what it takes to be an Army Sniper? You are definitely not on this level

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Sniper School is not for everybody — not even for every soldier.

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The training is grimy and grueling, and will challenge a person’s every fiber. At the U.S. Army’s Sniper School at Fort Benning in Georgia, students undergo some of the most demanding tests the force offers.

The training at Fort Benning is designed to test soldiers’ ability to work in isolation and under pressure because snipers are sent on the most extreme missions and will often be asked to operate with minimal or no support.

“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 oversee the training, told the Army News Service.

Each year, more than 300 candidates begin a seven-week Sniper School course at Fort Benning.

U.S. Army/Don Wagner

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

RELATED: It took only one shot for this skilled sniper to knock a gun out of a man’s hand

The first day of training includes a battery of physical-fitness tests. Then, on day two, candidates are taught to make a ghillie suit — a camouflage suit that uses foliage to break up the outline of the soldier’s body and conceal them from sight.

 

The second week of training places the soldiers in the field to stalk a target, which puts the students’ patience and camouflage to the test. It’s not easy to stay hidden. Georgia’s summer heat, critters in the woods and instructors using high-powered optics can keep a trainees from maintaining cover.

Moran said stalking requires close attention to detail and “a high tolerance for discomfort. Most of the students who are dropped from Sniper School have failed because of their lack of discipline.”

U.S. Army/Master Sgt. Michel Sauret

With each week, the demands grow, and at the climax of the seventh week, trainees must complete a time-limited march to a range, where they must make a “final shot.” Students are given two bullets and one target, and they must carefully calculate how to hit their mark with limited time and resources. Their scores will determine who graduates with honors and who earns the title of “top gun.”

By the end, only a handful of soldiers typically remain.

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