Marine scout sniper book "40 Thieves in Saipan"

[Jim Tarleton]

I talked to a 95 yr old graduate of sniper school in 1944 who served on Iwo Jima as a company runner

I think your 95 year old Marine was BS'ing you. Company runners were found to be a lousy way to communicate during WWI, and were replaced with field phones and radios long before WWII and Iwo Jima. Unlike the other services, the Marines combine the scout and sniper duties in a single man, thus the scouting stuff, but every USMC sniper school ,of which I am aware, placed shooting ability above all else. If you were a bad shot, you couldn't even get into a USMC sniper school as far back as WWI. I believe if you check the manpower schedules, the Marines had as many, or more, snipers per unit than WWI or RVN.