These photos show why the US Coast Guard's snipers are some of the best in the business
FT. LAUDERDALE, Florida — Once the Coast Guard has a suspect vessel in its sights on the high seas, there's usually nowhere for it to go, but getting it to stop isn't always easy.
The crew of the Coast Guard cutter James returned to Florida last week with nearly 38,000 pounds of cocaine seized by it and other Coast Guard ships in the Pacific. Stacked on some of the bales of cocaine were clear signs of the Coast Guard's precision.
"So what you see here are some engine cowlings," said Capt. Jeffrey Randall, commander of the James, referring to the half-dozen plastic covers perched on bales of seized drugs like trophies.
"We pair up the capabilities of the ship, the sensors of the ship, with our helicopter detachment that's back there," he said, referring to the helicopter parked behind the crew on the James' aft deck. "That helicopter has what we call an aerial-use-of-force capability. So we can shoot from the aircraft with precision marksman fire, and we direct it at the engines of the vessel to stop the vessels when they fail to heave to."
Precision fire is a central part of the Coast Guard's operations, whether it's on the open ocean or in US ports and waterways.
Though their area of operation is the sea, Coast Guard marksmen do train on land.
"We conduct training on the flat range weekly, do various range and yard lines, concentrating mostly on snaps and movers," a Coast Guard Maritime Security Response Team member told Military.com, referring to targets that appear suddenly and change position. "Because that's where your bread and butter is. I mean, shooting moving targets is it."
"The relationship between the shooter and the spotter is extremely important. The spotter's job is probably the hardest He's evaluating the factors with the wind," the MRST member said. "The spotters responsibility is to actually see what the wind is doing and give the shooter the correct information so that he can make that accurate shot."
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