7 Legendary Snipers of World War II

Could be wrong here, but think what we saw in Korea was the impetus behind getting snipers in US military.

Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen - I think because the US military back in the day believed that after each conflict they felt that they would not require specialty positions like this in the Military during peace time or felt they needed to be maintained. I'm referencing things like the history of Airborne, Rangers and Snipers because throughout there history until Vietnam they were only activated in wartime and after that were deactivated. After Vietnam I believed the US Army came to the decision it needed to keep unit like this in a constant state of readiness for mobilization rather then keep pulling units like this out of mothballs and filling these units. Snipers came as part of that consideration instead of creating wartime schools they can just keep schools open and incorporate snipers as permanent part of Army doctrine.

Makes sense to me. Probably parallel with Vietnam was the realization that unconventional conflict was a more likely scenario as well.

SP5 Christine Conley - weapons were very accurate by this time. Snipers were just not part of US military doctrine the idea was an infantry company or platoon was combined arms were they could rely on multiple means of support like weapons sections which had mortars and heavy or medium machine guns and bazooka, rifle squads had rifles submachine guns and BAR. With this it was never factored in needing a long range marksman on the squad or platoon level at least for the US. I believe Britain saw the need from it's battles in WW1 fighting in extensive trench warfare and its desert campaigns made it known to the British Army highcom that they needed a designated sniper position on the squad level.