FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. – A Maryland National Guard team won the annual Pennsylvania State Sniper Match held by the Pennsylvania National Guard's Marksmanship Training Unit (MTU) Dec. 5-8.
The winning team consisted of Sgt. Jerick Chavez and Spc. Mark Schneider, with the Maryland National Guard's 1st Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment, which is a component of the 28th Infantry Division and therefore wears the keystone patch.
That team will represent Maryland at the all-Guard Winston P. Wilson Sniper Championship Feb. 15 at the Robinson Maneuver Training Center in Arkansas. Pennsylvania will be represented by Staff Sgt. Joshua Sterndale and Spc. Andrew Scalice with the 2nd Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 28th ID, Pennsylvania National Guard.
Five teams participated in the competition. Each team had two members, with the senior member the spotter and the junior member the shooter.
Targets at range 37, the sniper range, extend from 10 to 1,000 meters with pre-positioned targets at the 100-meter lines and the ability to place steel targets.
"Snipers are going to find themselves in different combat scenarios all over the world," said Sgt. 1st Class Ryan Heim, the MTU non-commissioned officer who judged the competition. "We don't know where they're going to be and what situation they're going to be in, so we have to train on all sorts of different support platforms,"
The match was designed to pull Soldiers out of their comfort zones and familiarize them with rapidly advancing technology. These competitive events offer sniper soldiers the opportunity to test basic to advanced sniper team skills with standard-issue sniper weapons systems in a battle-focused environment.