First Female US Army Sniper

From the Army Times. Meet the Army’s first female active duty sniper

Not the first in the history of the world, but the first in the history of the US Army.

U.S. Army Sgt. Maciel Hay, a cavalry scout with 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade passed Army Sniper School in November of 2023.

“A close friend of mine told me I’d never make it in the Army, and there’s no way I could become a sniper,” Hay said. “Needless to say, that person is no longer part of my life. But now that I look back at it, I really do appreciate the motivation.”

You can click thru for the details.

Hat tip to Angry Cops: Airman Escapes Arranged Marriage in Pakistan & 1st Female Sniper

The history of female snipers in WWII was of interest to me a few years ago, when I was researching those part of WWII history not covered in schools in Illinois. You can find some of it after the break.

 

Americans who talk or write about history, in a lot of instances, ignores the Soviet Union. The reasons for that were understandable in the 1990s, less so today.

• Roza Georgiyevna Shanina - sniper. Her confirmed kills stands at 59.
• Belorussian Front Sniper Squad: 775 kills in one picture. Female snipers of the 3rd Shock Army, 1st Belorussian Front, WW2.
• Lyudmila Pavlichenko - deadliest female sniper in history. total credited kills were 309, including 36 snipers.

That was snipers. There were also the women fighter pilots, such as Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak, known as The White Rose of Stalingrad, and the all-female fighter-bomber squadron, 588th Night Bomber Regiment, who the Germans nicknamed the Night Witches.

As a commenter on one of my WWII posts said, (I'm paraphrasing) The Soviet Union was evil, but they kicked a lot of Nazi ass. People who will study and remember General Lee's Army and what they accomplished, will not even think about what the Soviet military did to defeat the Nazis. I still don't understand that.