Two Great Sniper Books

American Sniper

Just finished American Sniper, by former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle {RIP}. It was excellent. I couldn’t put it down! I read it in 2 days. I can’t wait to see the movie. He recorded over 160 confirmed kills during four back to back deployments to Iraq. You know it’s going to be a badass book when the main story arc is about the deadliest sniper in American history, but the biggest surprise for me, as an Army wife, was the side story, its raw and honest examination of the toll deployments take on families. I’ve read many excellent books about the Iraq war but this one really stands out for me for its courage to discuss family life. I think Taya Kyle did an amazing job contributing to this epic work.

One of my favorite quotes from the book:

Marine Sniper

Reading American Sniper reminded me of this other awesome sniper book on my bookshelf. Marine Sniper, a gift from my uncle when I joined the Army. This is the story of Marine Sergeant Carlos Hathcock. He previously held the record for most confirmed kills at 93. Like American Sniper, it’s rich with technical knowledge about sniper tradecraft and is an easy page turner. Hathcock made some ridiculously awesome shots in Vietnam, including a confirmed kill at 2,500 yards as well as shooting an enemy Vietcong sniper through the eyeball via the scope of his own rifle as the other guy was trying to shoot Hathcock.

On killing, Hathcock said, “I like shooting, and I love hunting. But I never did enjoy killing anybody. It’s my job. If I don’t get those bastards, then they’re gonna kill a lot of these kids dressed up like Marines. That’s the way I look at it.”

That same uncle also gave me another amazing gift that summer. He taught me how to shoot an AR15! His training helped me excel at marksmanship and more importantly, simply feel comfortable handling the M16/M4. I enjoyed it actually. The big Army ranges we trained on were child’s play compared to a sniper’s mission. I bring this up in no way comparing my shooting ability to that of any highly trained shooter. I just know how hard I had to work on my marksmanship skills just to be able to hit the 300 occasionally! I’m in awe that somebody can regularly hit targets 5 times farther than that under pressure in a combat zone and with deadly accuracy. I have the utmost respect for the discipline, tenacity, focus, and dedication all of our country’s snipers put into their training. I am so grateful that they are watching over the other servicemembers who are down on the ground doing the gritty work of patrolling and clearing enemy strongholds in rotten places like Iraq and Afghanistan or the jungles of Vietnam. Winning the battle to keep our guys alive – one bullet at a time.

And as I frequently like to remind my friends, please consider donating time or money to projects and charities that help our Wounded Warriors as well as the families of the fallen. One of the charities my husband and I support is called the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which helps families of fallen Special Forces Operators. It is  a four star rated charity that’s had a solid rep for decades. We also love the more well known Wounded Warrior Project of course. Click on the graphics below to visit each site.