0317 Scout Sniper MOS Patch

The last 0317 Scout Sniper class graduated on December 15, 2023, which makes this four-digit number a closed chapter of Marine Corps history. Before it was 0317, the scout sniper MOS was 8541, so a sniper reunion has men who carried one number and men who carried the other. The 03 in front is the infantry field, and the scout sniper lived in it. The job was two jobs at once: get close, watch and report, and when called on, take the precise shot. This patch carries the number in big white figures, the way it reads on a Marine's record.

Scout sniper history in the Corps reaches back to 1943, and Vietnam produced its best-known names. Carlos Hathcock was credited with 93 confirmed kills and held the longest recorded Scout Sniper shot until 2002, and Chuck Mawhinney was credited with 103 confirmed in 16 months. Teams trained to engage man-sized targets out to 1,000 yards with the M40 rifle, carrying an M9 pistol as a sidearm. The course ran at the School of Infantry (West) at Camp Pendleton, at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and at Quantico, Virginia, and in 2017 only 44 percent of students graduated. Under Force Design 2030 the field was reorganized in December 2023 as the 0322 Reconnaissance Sniper MOS.

The patch is 4.5 inches wide by 3.25 inches tall in the familiar MOS-patch shape, with curved top and bottom and a scarlet merrowed edge. A black band across the top reads MARINE CORPS, and a matching band at the bottom reads SCOUT SNIPER, both in white. The scarlet center carries 03 and 17 in large white numerals on either side of a gold and silver eagle, globe and anchor. SEMPER FIDELIS runs beneath it in white letters. The backing is iron-on, and it can also be sewn on.

A scout sniper team was often two Marines working well forward of everyone else, sending back what they saw to the battalion. Course attrition kept the platoons small, and the men who earned the number tended to know each other by name across the Corps. Hathcock and Mawhinney made the community famous, but most of the work was patience, observation and a radio. With 0317 retired, the patch now marks a specific era of the job, running from the 8541 years to December 2023. A Marine who carried this number will recognize it from across the room.

It belongs in a shadow box with a Marine's ribbons and a photo from the sniper platoon. It also works on a vest or jacket for a reunion, or as a gift for a son or grandson who wants to know what his father's MOS was. The number says the rest.