January 02, 2006
One Shot, One Kill..at 4100 Ft.
Here's another side of operations in Iraq. That of the Sniper. Sgt. J Gilliland is fast becoming a legend in the sniper community. He has between 55 and 65 confirmed kills, but he recently polished his reputation with a one shot kill from a range of 4,100 Feet...about 900 feet longer than the "maximum" range of his sighting equipment.
click to enlarge
WW1 had Sgt York, WW2: Audie Murphy, Viet Nam:Carlos Hathcock.
Now Iraq has Sgt Gilliland. One man with a rifle, and the skill to use it effectively, CAN make a difference.
Operational security (and I'm SURE personal preference) aside, we need to know about heroes like Sg. Gilliland. The MSM talks "quagmire" and without anything other than causelty statistics and insurgent Islamofacist attacks being reported, it's hard to keep the morale here at home up. It's an unfortunate fact of life that we need our heroes. I'm sure that Sgt. Gililand considers himself anything BUT a hero...probably more along the lines of a hired gun, in the service of his country, yes; but nothing more than a hired killer. But he IS a hero in that his particular skill saves far more lives than he takes.
I hope he takes comfort in that fact in the years to come when the inevitable pangs of conscience crop up. The snipers job is a particularly callous one. You can respect the enemy, but you can't give him the chance to "fight fair"; you hunt him, find him, and kill him as expeditiously as possible. No romance, no honor, just murder; but murder in the cause of a higher calling, saving lives.
Lives of your fellow servicemen and civilians.
4100 ft?!?!? HOLY CRAP! Now that's marksmenship by God!
You're right, the "homeland" (Gahd, I hate that term) needs to hear more about our brothers serving o'er seas. Not sure if I'd use the term "hired gun," though. Very few things give offense to me than when those who've never served seem to think we're the "hired help" to take care of these dirty little things. We ain't mercenaries after all! That said, I truly do hope that SGT Gilliland sleeps well at night - as far as I'm concerned, he's done nothing to lose even one night over.
BTW, Happy New Year!
Streetgang6
Posted by: Streetgang6 at January 3, 2006 12:24 PMI don't like the "hired help" connotation either SG6, I just couldn't come up with a better way to express it.
The feeling extent in a large part of the population at the time when I served was that we WERE "hired guns" or "mercenaries"; when they were being polite..."baby killers" and "jackbooted thugs' when they weren't....
Stripped to it's essence though, a sniper is a murderer...it's necessary and a important part of a war like Iraq, but I really ..pity's not the word...feel sorrow? for the physic toll that it takes on decent men. Talk about your "hidden scars!"... I wonder how many snipers end up suiciding in later years...
Posted by: delftsman3 at January 3, 2006 03:57 PMNo less a killer than the local SWAT team, and probably less eager. Those snipers that I saw had a far away look in their eyes, like the soul was missing. I worked with a guy for 19 years who had been a sniper, never really got to know him, he was reclusive, hardly ever spoke and was an aloof loner, he lived alone, didn't drink and never went out with anyone. Most people thought he was weired but I think he had his demons to live with. Psychologically war scars us all but these poor bastards usually have to work with out the associated anger of being shot at. 4100 ft. is awsome, a 500 yd. scoped target is tough to hit.
Posted by: j at January 3, 2006 09:53 PMwow this is so great ! yyyaaay !
tell me is it really fun as they say killing those bastards ? I'd go there and bang bang if I could join the army but I'm busy here y'know...
Kill'em all and sieg heil !!!
skinhead party south carolina
How nice....the lunatic fringe has checked in...
Glad to see that the boys in the white coats let you out to play once in a while...
Now get back to watching the nuts chase the squr-rels (Yes I KNOW how to spell the word, but I got to put it in phonetically so Franz might understand it)