A Shawnee native and Mill Valley High graduate has made his mark as a sniper on the international stage.
In April, U.S. Army Sgt. Aaron Fouts placed third in the the Long-Range Distance Shooting Championship Series, hosted by the Estonian Defence League in Parnu, Estonia.
An elite sniper competition, the contest had Fouts, alongside three other U.S. infantrymen, representing the United States against NATO allies from France and Estonia. Participating in the Semi-Automatic category, Fouts had to calculate and shoot targets from 300 to 600 meters away.
“It definitely gives us pride in the U.S. military to be able to go to a competition with other countries and be able to place highly,” Fouts told the Johnson County Post.
Fouts is a sniper team leader
A 2017 Mill Valley graduate, Fouts is the sniper team leader for the 101st Airborne Division (Assault) based in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
As the team leader, he is responsible for the health, welfare, discipline, training and combat readiness of his air assault infantry sniper team, capable of deploying worldwide within 36 hours.
For the competition, Fouts said his team was given short notice, but was eager to show off their skills.
“A lot of it was all of the training that we had put in prior to being able to show up and compete,” he said.
The day of the competition was cold, wet and windy, giving the snipers extra challenges to set up their gear, calculate their target, factor in weather conditions and take their shot.
“A lot of us that have been doing it for a while don’t really get nervous like a lot of people would for competitions,” Fouts said. “It’s more so just exciting to be able to show up and compete and try to do good.”
Fouts is living a dream
Growing up in Shawnee watching snipers in TV shows and movies, Fouts said he was always interested in becoming one because of how challenging it looked.
Following in the footsteps of a friend, Fouts joined the United States Army in 2019 and turned his interest into a profession.
“I didn’t really join the infantry with that in mind,” he said. “That kind of opportunity became available to me, and I thought it would be a good experience for my career … So, I tried it out and ended up falling in love with it.”
Fouts’s dream comes with challenges
While Fouts loves his work, as well as training others, he’ll be the first to tell people that it’s nothing like it’s portrayed in the movies. It’s physically and mentally demanding and requires an extraordinary amount of patience.
“It’s definitely not all action-packed and exciting like the movies depict it,” he said. “It’s a lot of sitting around observing an objective, writing reports, sending up those reports on the radio — a lot of sleepless, cold nights just looking through a spotting scope or a scope on one of the long guns.”
Those experiences paid off in both Fouts’s work out in the field and in competitions like the one in Estonia.
“It’s a lot of satisfaction, actually, seeing that the training and the work you put in on a day-to-day basis actually works,” he said.
More challenges are ahead
Currently stationed in Germany, Fouts will fly back in the summer to Fort Campbell to train younger snipers.
While he missed this year’s International Sniper Competition in Fort Moore, Georgia, he said he has his sights set on competing in 2025, if his schedule allows it.
While he appreciates placing in the competition, and representing both the United States and Johnson County, Fouts said he does his best to not let it go to his head and instead focus on his future goals.
“It’s definitely nice to be able to showcase our skill set and kind of put the sniper community out there more and more,” he said. “I try not to dwell on things in the past. (I) just keep trying to keep moving forward and improve my skills and make sure that the younger snipers under me are also improving theirs.”
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