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November 3, 2002

The U.S. Marines are experimenting with a change to their squad organization and a new combat specialty. The job is Squad Advanced Marksman (SAM) and the job involves equipping a marine with a 4X scope (with night vision capability) on his rifle, as well as a bipod and a radio so he can communicate easily with his squad leader. The SAM would be selected on the basis of marksmanship and scouting skills. The SAM would be the squad's long distance eyes, specializing in taking a close look at areas the squad is advancing to, or expects the enemy to come from. Still undecided is how many SAMs per squad. There are three four man fire teams in a marine squad and there is some support for having one SAM per team.