| She
was nicknamed "G.I. Jane" at Camp Robinson in central
Arkansas, near Little Rock. That's where the senior airman from
the Illinois Air National Guard became the first woman to complete
the only U.S. military sniper school open to females.
Donaldson and seven men graduated April 14 from the first countersniper
program for Air Guard security force personnel conducted by the
8-year-old National Guard Sniper School. It was the first program
of its kind for any U.S. Air Force component."The Air Force has been the only ground combat force in this
country that does not employ snipers and countersnipers," said
Army Guard Sgt. 1st Class Ben Dolan, a former Marine sniper and
the school's chief instructor.Completing the course made Donaldson,
a security forces specialist from the Air National Guard's 183rd
Fighter Wing in Springfield, Ill., the first woman student for
the National Guard's pilot training program for security people
charged with protecting air bases and airplanes."I've admired policemen since I was a little kid," Donaldson
said. "I want to get as much training as I can get. This sounded
interesting."She and her partner, Staff Sgt. Frank Tallman
from Kentucky, were the first team to complete and pass a 2.7-mile
land navigation course through thick woods that day. She was steeling
herself to do another three-hour course that night.
"I had no idea it would be this hard," said Donaldson
after her first week. "I've been in the Guard for a year.
I've done basic training and tech school. But I've never seen this
kind of physical training. Some of us had to get fit while we were
here. |
"Yesterday
I wanted to go home," she added. "I was so stressed out,
and I had no confidence at all."
Donaldson was considerably more upbeat five
days later, the day before graduation, after the two tough weeks
of training were behind her."It's a relief," she said. "I
feel that I have really accomplished something. I stuck with it
because I wanted to prove to myself I could do it."The 14
straight days of strenuous physical and mental training is grounded
in the idea that the best way to detect a sniper is with another
sniper, said Dolan.Detecting practice targets as small as a
pencil, sketching structures where enemy snipers could be concealed,
and memorizing minute details about an enemy unit's size, uniforms
and equipment were part of the drill for the students who spent
as much time on their stomachs as they did on their feet.Donaldson
was eligible to attend the school because women belong to Air Guard
and Air Force security forces, Dolan explained.That is not the
case in the Army and the Marines because snipers are part of those
infantry forces, and women cannot be in the infantry. Dolan, however,
maintains that more women should be trained as snipers.
"Frankly, women are better suited mentally
for this job than most men," said Dolan who has learned the
sniper craft from the Marines and from the Army and who saw duty
as a Marine sniper 10 years ago during the Persian Gulf War. |
"A
woman is best suited to counter a woman sniper," he added. "That's
important because more than 50 percent of the countries that have
been considered hostile to the United States, including North Vietnam
and North Korea, have used women snipers.
"Women can shoot better, by and large, and they're easier
to train because they don't have the inflated egos that a lot of
men bring to these programs," Dolan said. "Women will
ask for help if they need it, and they will tell you what they
think."Dolan has designed the countersniper program for Air
National Guard security people, and he has no reservations about
training women who can handle the 15-hour days of running and shooting
and camouflage lessons in the woods.The students had to complete
a two-day and night field training exercise at the Arkansas National
Guard's Fort Chaffee before they graduated."The same standards apply to men and women," Dolan insisted.
"This course is designed to test their physical limits and
their emotional balance."Despite Donaldson's concerns, Dolan
said, the sniper school's first woman student shot well with her
scope-mounted, high-power rifle on the range and was an above average
student.
"They tried to teach you to deal with stress," related
Donaldson. "I believe it worked. And I feel much better about
all of this now that it's over." |
