Caleb signed an Army Ranger contract out of high school. The recruiter never called him back. A Marine recruiter did. At MEPS, they tried to hand him combat camera. He told them he'd walk back to the Army office if they didn't give him infantry. Six months into a line company at 7th Marines, he got pulled into sniper indoc. Deployed as a pig, graduated SSBC class One TAC 18 under Phil and Solo, then deployed as a team leader.
Orders to SOI East Coast put him in the schoolhouse as a Scout Sniper instructor. When Force Design 2030 dropped, the Recon cadre offered him a seat to BRC. He graduated and helped stand up the Recon Sniper Course alongside Kevin Brick and Michael Enright, serving as primary marksmanship instructor. His approach was straightforward. Every hour in the schoolhouse makes students better at their job, not just tougher.
Career Timeline
7th Marines
Joined as 0311 infantry. Selected for sniper platoon. Deployed as a pig and radio operator.
Scout Sniper School
Graduated SSBC class One TAC 18. Deployed as team leader.
SOI Instructor / BRC
Scout Sniper instructor at SOI East Coast. Graduated Basic Reconnaissance Course.
Recon Sniper Course
Helped stand up RSC from the ground up. Primary marksmanship instructor.
Present
Active duty Recon Marine. Cadre instructor. Precision rifle competitor.
Competition to Schoolhouse
Caleb bought his first bolt gun, a Tika T3X Tac A1 in .260, off another Marine at 29 Palms. No ballistic calculator, just a dope card the previous owner taped to the rifle. He took top sniper at his first match. Competition fed directly back to the schoolhouse. He transitioned students to Arca mounting systems years before the Mark 22 showed up with Arca built in and a Really Right Stuff tripod in the kit. He builds his own guns, tracks barrel life by caliber, and runs a borescope on every rifle in the armory. When he found M110s with pitting from saltwater dives that armorers had missed, those guns got rebarreled.
That same attention carries over to data. When Caleb arrived at his battalion and found zero gun record books for any sniper rifle, he built the tracking system from scratch. His unit now runs a shared cloud doc with every serial number and round count that any sniper can update from the range.
Featured Video
EP 6: Caleb talks about his path from infantry to Recon Sniper instructor, how competition made him a better teacher, and what it takes to connect the military and civilian precision worlds.
Train with Caleb
Caleb is one of the few Cadre instructors still on active duty. When his schedule allows, he's on the range with us. Check the schedule to see when he's on deck.