Staff Sgt. John Wayne Walding, Special Forces sniper instructor. Photo by David Chace

John Wayne has toured Afghanistan and Iraq, hunted grizzly bears in Alaska and earned the Silver Star; and as of July 16, John Wayne is the first one-legged soldier to graduate the Special Forces Sniper Course.

Staff Sgt. John Wayne Walding of Groesbeck, Texas, that is.

In April 2008, Walding and nine other Special Forces soldiers from a 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) assault team were attacked by the Hezeb Islami al Gulbadin while searching for insurgents in Afghanistan’s Shok Valley.

Walding, one of several team members who were injured, took a bullet through his right leg under his knee.

“I ripped off my boot lace and literally tied my leg to my thigh to keep it from flapping around,” Walding said.

Over the six-and-a-half hour firefight, more than 150 insurgents were killed. The members of the assault team were each awarded the Silver Star in December 2008 for their courageous actions in Shok Valley.

While recuperating, Walding worked as an assistant instructor at 3rd SFG(A)’s sniper detachment at Fort Bragg. In order to become a full-time instructor, he had to complete the Special Forces Sniper Course at SWCS.

During the course, many of Walding’s classmates didn’t know about his injury and prosthetic leg. Walding said he enjoyed his fellow soldiers’ reactions upon learning about his missing leg.

“At first, [my classmates] were shocked to realize I was missing a leg,” Walding said. “Then, they realized ‘Wow, he’s doing everything I’m doing!’”

After his injury, Walding knew he wasn’t going to give up and leave the Army. He also didn’t want to spend the rest of his career behind a desk.

“You don’t become a Green Beret because you ‘kind of like it,’ you become a Green Beret because you love it, and can’t imagine being anything else,” he said.

Walding said he refused to lower his personal standards following his injury, and pushed himself to excel as an instructor because he knew teams and soldiers were relying on him. Due to his past experiences, Walding said he has a lot to offer as a member of a Special Forces team, and wouldn’t bother trying to get back to a team if he hadn’t felt he could be an asset.

The seven-week Special Forces Sniper Course teaches sniper marksmanship, semiautomatic shooting, ballistics theory and tactical movement. Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Owens, an SFSC instructor in 2nd Battalion, 1st Special Warfare Training Group (Airborne), emphasized the importance of these skills, and said it takes soldiers like Walding to push themselves to the limits.

“Snipers have become more dynamic over the past 10 years,” Owens said. “Considering current operations overseas, snipers have never been more prevalent, because of the need for distance shooting in rugged terrain.”

Walding said he loves everything about training to be a sniper, particularly the mission, the guns and the skill. He even enjoyed training during the hottest June ever recorded in North Carolina.

“The skill of a Special Forces sniper is unparalleled,” Walding said. “This is the most prestigious sniper school in the world. That means something.”

“There was never a doubt that Walding would do well in this course,” Owens said. “He is extremely motivated, and that never dropped during the course.”

“He never asked for special treatment; he did the same training as everyone else, and scored well in all the exercises.”

Walding’s no-quit attitude has taken him from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington back to Fort Bragg, N.C., where he’s become the first amputee to graduate from the Special Forces Sniper Course.

During his initial recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, Walding set up short-term goals for himself. He was a runner before the incident, averaging 50 miles per week. During recovery, he would get up and run a little more every day, always keeping his focus on that next step.

Walding is using the same process to work his way back to an operational role. As a soldier, his first step was to finish the sniper course; the next step is acting as an instructor for his fellow soldiers. He said he’s hoping to work his way back to a place on an operational Special Forces detachment.

“I’m John Wayne, born on the Fourth of July. This is what I was meant to do.” Walding said.

DVIDS
Story by Caroline Goins

Want to know where Mr. White and Mr. Black are this week? At Fuerzas Comando 2008,

a military skills competition between the best special forces teams in the western hemisphere. The event is at Camp Bullis, Texas from June 19 – 26. Security forces from 17 countries are taking part in the challenging contest, which promotes military-to-military relationships, increases interoperability and improves regional security.

U.S. Southern Command is hosting Fuerzas Comando 2008, with Special Operations Command South serving as the lead U.S. military organization for coordination of this exercise.

More than 300 military, law enforcement and civilian personnel from the participating nations are taking part in the exercise. About 150 U.S. service members from all the services are involved.

Fuerzas Comando 2008 tests the participants’ physical and psychological endurance through many obstacles both on land and in water. It includes two parts: a multinational special operations skills competition and a senior leader seminar.

Multinational Special Operations Skills Competition:

The skills competition will improve multinational regional cooperation, enhance mutual trust and confidence, and advance the training, readiness and interoperability of participating special operations forces in tactics, techniques, and procedures. There are two events:

• Assault team competition
  A physical fitness test; a confidence course; close-quarters combat; a rucksack march; water event; and an obstacle course.
• Sniper team competition
  The sniper team competition will consist of five events: a physical fitness test; marksmanship; shoot and move; range estimation; and stalk and shoot events.

Each participating nation will send a judge, a five-person Special Operations assault team and a two-man sniper team to compete in challenging tests and evaluations of their skills in special operations tactics, techniques and procedures used in counter-terrorist operations.

Senior Leader Seminar:

The senior leader seminar will help to develop, refine and improve political and military relations and multi-national cooperation in fighting terrorism and other transnational threats. The senior leader seminar focused on terrorism and fighting transnational threats will take place June 23 – 26, 2008 in San Antonio.

Nations Participating:

Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, United States, and Uruguay. Barbados and Mexico are participating as observers, gathering information to assist them in building a team for possible future Fuerzas Comando competitions.

Background:

This is the fifth consecutive year Fuerzas Comando has taken place in SOUTHCOM’s area of focus.