As the legend goes, a few years back in 1307 a Swiss marksman by the name of William Tell refused to bow to “the hat” of some overlord who was trying to impose his power. Naturally, the overlord reacted to Tell’s public defiance and arrested him and his young son Walter. The fascist knew, however, that the man he had detained was a well-known bow-and-arrow master, and so he devised a tricky proposition: get executed and watch your son die too — or — redeem both of your lives by shooting an apple off young Walter’s head. Long story short: Tell split the apple in half with his quiver, and Walter remained unbloodied (although most likely had to, shortly thereafter, change into a clean pair of shorts).

Anyway, this William Tell stuff still goes on today. Every year, in fact, in Turkey. Only there’s no fruit involved, and the bow-and-arrow has been replaced by a gun and bullets.

It’s a required training trial for the Maroon Berets — the special operations unit of the Turkish military.

This from Wikipedia:

The Trust Shot (in Turkish “Gūven Atışı”) is a part of the MB’s training program. It is exercised on the last month of the training and is to ensure that the soldiers can trust each other with their lives. The Trust Shot consists of two members of a squad standing next to paper target boards, while another member fires on the targets with a handgun while walking towards them from 15 meters (49 feet) away. During the exercise the men standing next to the targets are not allowed to move or wear body armor. They are one of the few special operations teams in the world to perform the trust shot.

Here it is being performed: