Let us honor US Army Staff Sergeant E6 specialist Brady Michael Peters.

Brady Peters is a familiar name and face in Union County, and you can often see recruiting signs and cards around town with his name. Peters moved from the west side of Oxford at a very young age and attended College Corner Union Elementary School until the third grade while their family home was being built on Liberty Pike. In the fourth grade, Peters moved to Liberty Elementary. Peters is a 2013 graduate from Union County High School. 

He knew from a young age that he wanted to join the armed forces. Both his paternal grandfather and his uncle were retired from the Navy. Peters knew that he was not interested in pursuing a regular advanced education and dreamed of sniper school. “I remember telling my dad when I was very young that I was going to go to sniper school,” Peters recalled.

Six months after graduation, Peters enlisted in the National Guard. He was stationed in Fort Benning in Georgia where he started his infantry O-fit training. He described the training as mostly mentally challenging. 

“Going from being home with your family and friends every day to only being able to correspond with letters was by far the hardest part of the adjustment,” Peters stated. “The training is meant to break you down.” He continued “The purpose of this is so you learn to be comfortable with yourself as an individual, then they teach you how to work together in small groups, which increases to large groups and eventually as a squad,” he explained.

His O-fit training lasted 19 weeks. After graduating from training, Peters returned home to Indiana and was active in the National Guard. During this time, he would attend training one weekend a month along with two weeks during the summer. After three years, Peters was released from the National Guard to join active-duty status in the Army.

Peters really enjoyed his active-duty assignment. He stated that due to his service, he has been able to travel to 10 countries and 32 states. 

“The friends you make in your stations are different than any other friends you will make,” Peters said. His active-duty status granted him a lot of perks. He was able to provide a steady income, health insurance for himself, his wife and their two children as well as the ability for them to move with him.  While he spent time away from them during the beginning, the benefits and experience for both him and his family were well worth the trade.

His first assignment was to be stationed in Seoul, South Korea for 12 months. “Going from living in the country where at night all you hear is crickets out your window, to being in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world was definitely a culture shock,” Brady laughed. He described the environment as welcoming. “A lot more people spoke English than I had imagined, almost all of the younger generation spoke English very well and a large amount of the older generation spoke at least some English as well.”

After returning to the United States, Peters found himself stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He was at Ft. Campbell for a little under five years where he completed the following training: Airsoft school, Army Sniper Course, FRIES/SPIES, Army Special Forces Sniper Course, Expert Infanty Badge and Army Recruiting School. 

He was assigned to a second brigade, two-battalion 2502 infantry regiment that specialized in conflict information gathering. To understand what this means, we must first break down what a brigade is; a brigade is four battalions. Conflict information gathering is a set of troops who specializes in gathering as much information as possible to aid the commander in their mission. Where their focus was on DOPE - Data of Previous Engagements. 

After six months, Peters was able to pursue his dream in the Army's sniper school. Peters assured me this was by far the favorite part of his military journey. “I would go back there today for the next 20 years if I could,” Peters boasted. When asked why, he said there was nothing like long range shooting.

“Everyone worked together to try to help each other pass, but unfortunately that is just not how the program works.”

Sniper school is an extremely exclusive program, where only the best of the best graduated. In Peter's class, 62 members from various armed forces started the journey, but only 17 graduated from the sniper school. Peters stated that number included members from the Air Force as well as some Polish special forces' members. Peters himself only knew one guy in the program. 

“The great thing about sniper school was everyone who went to sniper school wanted to be in sniper school,” Peters recalled. “We would all joke around with each other and I remember one time a brand-new recruit was lucky enough to make it into the school and was talking to his mom on the phone. Another guy took the phone and said I do what you think your son does. Then he hung up and everyone laughed until our sides hurt.”

“When I was in sniper school, there were three phases,” Peters explained. The first phase focused on field training, range estimation and stalks. The second phase is where they record fires and work on known and unknown distance targets. The third and final phase for Peters included moving targets and final shots.

In Nov. 2020, after his stay in Kentucky, Peters came to Ohio for recruiting. This is where Brady, his wife Stormi and their two sons Bryson and Broden Peters currently reside. 

In closing, the Liberty Herald staff would like to say, "Thank you, Staff Sergeant Peters, for your service in the US Army and the sheriff's office. Thank you for doing your part to keep our country and community safe. We wish the best of luck to the Peters family with all their future endeavors."