Chapter 4

Chinese New Year had been at the end of January in 1968. There had been an uprising in South Vietnam by the Viet Cong. They called it the “Tet Offensive”, and it was a colossal failure. They had too few personnel and weapons for the grand offensive that they envisioned, as they had counted on the civilian population rising up to join them along with major units of the South Vietnamese Army.

That didn’t happen, and they were easily defeated by the South Vietnamese Army with the aid of some U.S. Army units. I could easily imagine what might have happened, if all of the supplies and men the North Vietnamese had tried to ship south had made it there. Things would have been a lot worse, and after their losses back in March of ‘67, the North Vietnamese didn’t even launch much of an attack along their 17th parallel border with the South to support their Viet Cong allies.

Things in Greater Thailand had been very quiet during this period. The North Vietnamese were still recovering from their stunning defeat back in March, and in fact never attacked Thai territory with serious intent again, but there were still some border clashes for years to come. The Thai Cong were also reduced to just a few disaffected individuals within a few years, as they had lost the support of the North Vietnamese and the Communist Chinese.

It was in mid-March of ‘68 that Sawyer next called me up to his office.

“Bill, would you interested in attending sniper school with the Thais,” he asked when I arrived.

“Sniper School?” I asked.

“Yes, they have one here. They have a range at the artillery school and use various training areas here along with Thai Special Forces and the regular Thai Army. I can get you in for a compressed course if you want to go,” Sawyer informed me. That sure was a tempting offer, but I had a family to consider now.

“What all is involved?” I asked.

“You would train with them during the week. You wouldn’t have to pull any of their details, or live in their barracks. One of their Chief Instructors lives near us. He would pick you up in the morning and bring you back at night. You wouldn’t have to do all of the repetitive work, or all of the field training. You already know how to shoot, and that is a large part of the course. Are you up for it?” he demanded in that loud voice of his.

“Sure. I’ll give it a try. Do I get to take the M-14 that I used before?”

“Yes, that’s the reason that I asked you,” Sawyer told me. That evening Sawyer dropped by my house with a Thai Army Cha Sip Ek, or a Master Sergeant 1st Class.

“This is Master Sergeant Smarn Yeambarn. He is the Chief Instructor at the Sniper School. He is also the one who lives near here,” Sawyer told me after all of the Thai greetings were completed.

“Your Sergeant Major tells me that you know how to shoot. We will have to see how you do before you can begin the course,” MSG Yeambarn told me in excellent English. He is a short man about forty-three years old, and maybe 5’-4” tall. He was fairly thin, as was typical of many senior NCOs in the Thai Army, but in the field he was as smooth as a cat moving from one position to another and surprisingly strong.

“Yes, I will bring my own rifle and ammunition,” I told him.

“Yes, my friend Sawyer has told me about it, and your feats in Upper Cambodia and in Luang Phrabang during the war last year. We are anxious to see what you can do,” MSG Yeambarn told me. “We will start in two days.”

“You can pick up your rifle from the arms room tomorrow, and keep it here overnight while going to school. Also draw a can of the ammunition for it,” Sawyer told me. “I’ll arrange it in the morning.” Suenee came in then, and I introduced her to Master Sergeant Yeambarn after another round of Thai greetings.

“You are the teacher?” MSG Yeambarn asked in surprise after the introductions. “My wife and several of the other instructor’s wives attend either your classes or those of Sergeant Major Sawyer’s wife.”

“Yes, there are many women who attend the classes, some more regularly than others,” Suenee said.

“You are a very fortunate young man, Sergeant Baker, to have such an extraordinary wife. Guard her well,” MSG Yeambarn told me before he and Sawyer left.

The next day, I informed my OIC that I would be attending Sniper School for the next several weeks. I was surprised that he took it in stride, as over the last few months, we have had a number of people who have been TDY to attend various schools, or other types of training in country, as Special Forces soldiers are always trying to improve their skills.

I picked up the rifle and its ammunition from the arms room the next afternoon. Everyone at work wanted to see it when I came in with it, and I spent a half hour or more showing it to them and talking about how I had used it last year. Even my boss listened for a time. Sawyer picked me up that evening, so I didn’t have to transport the weapon on a civilian vehicle.

“Do your best,” was all he told me when he dropped me off at the house.

MSG Yeambarn arrived at 0600 hrs the next morning. I was ready, as Sawyer had told me that they started early. At their unit area, there were many introductions to the various instructors, and I found my Thai stretched to the limit at times in talking with them.

A short time later all of their people were in formation for PT.

“As a guest, you do not have to do this,” I was told.

“No, I’m here. I’ll do all of it,” I replied. Several of the instructors smiled at this. The sniper school has a very extensive PT program, and I really knew it by the time we were done. In light of this, I decided that I should increase my own PT program after finishing the school.

Following PT, the students formed up into the various classes that were being taught. The largest group was the beginning phase where students were taught to shoot accurately. The second phase was camouflage and concealment along with field shooting skills. It was smaller than the initial phase. The last phase was hand loading and load development for the individual weapons. It had the fewest students of all.

After cooling down, MSG Yeanbarn and I drove out to the range in his jeep, where the students were practicing their shooting skills.

“We usually start the students at 300 yards,” the instructor there told me. “Have you fired at that range?”

“My rifle is sighted in for 800 yards currently. I also have the settings for 300 yards for it,” I told him.

“Eight hundred yards!?” the instructor asked, surprised.

“Yes, that was the distance that we sighted it in for in Luang Phrabang.”

“Ah... !” the instructor said with a smile. “You are that farang shooter.” We went over to the range set up for 800 yards, and I was given a shooting station. I chose to lie on the ground instead of using the bench there, as that was how I had sighted in the rifle.

“Very good,” the instructor said with another smile when he saw my choice of positions. “I will spot for you. Watch the wind flags carefully and do not rush. This is not a race,” he cautioned me.

“May I have two fouling shots,” I asked, in order to clear the bore of lubricant preparatory to firing for real.

“Yes. There is a small target at the base of the berm. You may use that for your fouling shots,” he told me. I loaded two rounds in a magazine and waited for the range to go hot.

“You may load your weapon now,” I was told shortly. I inserted the magazine, released the bolt, and sighted in on the target at the base of the berm. I could see the flags at various ranges in my firing lane waving in the breeze and waited for it to calm down. I then fired two quick shots.

“Patience, young Sergeant,” the instructor reminded me. I then loaded five rounds in the magazine and settled in behind the M-14 and observed the flags and my target. Several times the breeze died for a second or so, but not long enough for a shot.

After a time, the breeze died, and I was able to take my first shot. It was obvious that it would be a waiting game to get in all five shots, as the breeze picked up again.

It took thirty-five minutes to fire those five shots, as the breeze was very pesky. After that the range was closed for a time so the students’ targets could be brought in to an area behind the firing line and critiqued. I had what I considered a very good group, but my observer was frowning.

“You have a group four inches or 10 centimeters high by 12 centimeters or five inches wide. While this is a very good group for 800 yards, it could be better. You rushed the third shot, and that is the flier that opened up your group. You must learn patience, young Sergeant.”

“Yes, “I admitted. “I thought that I could get the third shot in, but the breeze picked up just as I fired.”

“Yes, I saw it when you fired. Remember, there is no rush here. That is for later. For now you need to sight in your weapon for five hundred and seven hundred yards. The distances in between can be interpolated. You will be shown how to do that later in the field firing phase,” the instructor told me.

The rest of that day and the next were spent sighting in and recording the settings for the various ranges. On the third and fourth days I fired for record on the 300, 500, 700 yard ranges. The last target was at 800 yards, and I had learned that the afternoon there was the best time for the longest ranges as the breeze dropped off then. I did very well on all of the record targets, even the 800 yard one. The instructors congratulated me, and told me that I was ready to move to the next phase the following day.

Each night, I had cleaned the rifle thoroughly, and lubricated it before storing it in its box next to our bed. I had also picked up, and carefully stored all of my empty brass to be used in the reloading phase, as the Thais were using Remington 40X bolt action rifles in 30-06, and not the 7.62 or .308 NATO cartridge that the M-14 used.

The following day I moved to field work and was introduced to the Thai versions of the Ghillie suite. They were designed specifically for use in Southeast Asia, and there were several different ones to match the terrain it would be used in: rice fields, both growing and harvested; woodland / forested; finally mountainous terrain. They did have trouble fitting me, as I am somewhat larger than your average Thai.

I also had a different instructor / observer here. It had also become obvious why each phase was smaller than the previous one. There was a high rate of attrition at this school, but those students returned to their units before completing the school took with them new skills to be shared with others in their unit.

The field work was very good, and it was almost like being back on my grandfather’s farm. However, granddad never had King Cobras or Bamboo Vipers in his fields. There are many different types of terrain around Lop Buri, and the school took the trouble to use quite a few of them. I had learned enough patience on the range to move fairly well in most conditions here. The instructors were impressed with my skills.

“You have done this sort of thing before,” my instructor said with a smile at lunch on the second day.

“Yes, I spent a lot of time as a boy hunting on my grandfather’s farm. Squirrels and crows will spot you in a minute unless you are very careful,” I told him.

“Yes, hunters usually do well in this phase, the field parts anyway. Mostly though we get what you would call poachers here. There aren’t that many hunters in Thailand except in the north. Many from the Shan States, Upper Cambodia, and Thai Laos are the ones who are adept at hunting and poaching,” he said with a smile, and I noticed his Lao accent in some of his words. I spent several more days learning to move more discretely in the field and practicing my patience.

There was also classroom work in this phase. Students were taught about estimating range using various objects and the reticule wires of their scopes. Also how to figure the drop of a bullet for a given range and how to figure deflection for various wind conditions. Many students had trouble with the math involved. Those who were the best in the field and on the range were usually those with the least formal education. I didn’t have any trouble with it, and was able to help some of the other students understand the math part of it. I made some good friends there.

The last part in this phase of the course was actual field firing using the skills and knowledge we had gained so far. It was hot work under the Ghillie suits with long waits to take a shot on a difficult target. Suenee was definitely unhappy with me when I came home smelling like mud and rice fields in the evening. After two and a half weeks there, I went on to the third phase of the course.

There were even fewer students in this phase of the course. It started in the classroom where we learned the basics of hand-loading. I had never reloaded ammunition since it isn’t required with a muzzle loading flintlock rifle.

The Thais had excellent equipment for this phase of the course, as they had for the others, also. They had the latest reloading manuals and there was much discussion of the latest components, and which produced the best accuracy. We got to load the ammunition that we would fire on this phase ourselves as well as loading some ammunition for the students in the other phases.

The school had purchased a set of 7.62 NATO reloading dies especially for me, as they were interested in how this cartridge would compare to the 30-06 that they were using. They were also very interested in my M-14, and where I had acquired it. I explained about the National Matches at Camp Perry in Ohio every year and that the Army competed in them with guns built especially for the matches by their own gunsmiths. The Thais were suitably impressed on learning this.