David Mitnaul Fort Benning, Georgia Years on Job: 3

Hitting a target six football fields away is no easy feat—even with 10x magnification—but it’s David Mitnaul’s job to make sure graduates of the U.S. Army Sniper School in Fort Benning, Ga., can do just that. A veteran of more than 100 missions, including operations in Baghdad, 22-year-old Staff Sgt. Mitnaul trains infantrymen in wind calculations, ballistics and marksmanship. The goal: 90 percent first-round hits at 2000 ft. But shooting is only one part of what Mitnaul teaches. “Most sniper missions are reconnaissance and surveillance,” he says. “You very rarely pull a shot.”