Whereas an expert is the kind of man I would hate to have on the other side in a war. He is accurate with his rifle up to and including 500 yards in a number of different positions. Hits the bull's-eye or close to the bull's-eye an overwhelming percentage of the time.
Mr. Jenner. Is that the category in which we would place that to which we refer generally as the sniper?
Mr. Thornley. Yes. Well, any man might be assigned as a sniper, I imagine. But an expert rifleman would perform much better.
Mr. Jenner. Maybe be a superior sniper.
Mr. Thornley. Yes. Definitely.
Mr. Jenner. And to attain the position of expert marksman must there be considerable practice and use of the weapon or is it more of natural ability?
Mr. Thornley. Now, you enter in once again to natural ability, just as not qualifying might be caused by a lack of natural ability of some kind. An expert rifleman probably would have a much calmer nervous system or, you might say, a much greater degree of control.
I would imagine training can make up for this. I know a couple of times I just missed expert by a few points. It seemed that I couldn't make expert. It seemed to me there was just something I didn't have in order to make expert. It was very frustrating.
Mr. Jenner. You tried?
Mr. Thornley. Yes; it takes a great degree of control, primarily. Of course, the other things like good eyesight and so on and so forth.