“One shot one kill”. That’s the sniper’s creed.

Toby Harnden in Ramadi
(Filed: 01/01/2006)
Gazing through the telescopic sight of his M24 rifle, Staff Sgt Jim Gilliland, leader of Shadow sniper team, fixed his eye on the Iraqi insurgent who had just killed an American soldier.
His quarry stood nonchalantly in the fourth-floor bay window of a hospital in battle-torn Ramadi, still clasping a long-barrelled Kalashnikov. Instinctively allowing for wind speed and bullet drop, Shadow’s commander aimed 12 feet high.
A single shot hit the Iraqi in the chest and killed him instantly. It had been fired from a range of 1,250 metres, well beyond the capacity of the powerful Leupold sight, accurate to 1,000 metres.
“I believe it is the longest confirmed kill in Iraq with a 7.62mm rifle,” said Staff Sgt Gilliland, 28, who hunted squirrels in Double Springs, Alabama from the age of five before progressing to deer – and then people.
“He was visible only from the waist up. It was a one in a million shot. I could probably shoot a whole box of ammunition and never hit him again.”
Later that day, Staff Sgt Gilliland found out that the dead soldier was Staff Sgt Jason Benford, 30, a good friend.
The insurgent was one of between 55 and 65 he estimates that he has shot dead in less than five months, putting him within striking distance of sniper legends such as Carlos Hathcock, who recorded 93 confirmed kills in Vietnam. One of his men, Specialist Aaron Arnold, 22, of Medway, Ohio, has chalked up a similar tally.
“It was elating, but only afterwards,” said Staff Sgt Gilliland, recalling the September 27 shot. “At the time, there was no high-fiving. You’ve got troops under fire, taking casualties and you’re not thinking about anything other than finding a target and putting it down. Every shot is for the betterment of our cause.”
All told, the 10-strong Shadow sniper team, attached to Task Force 2/69, has killed just under 200 in the same period and emerged as the US Army’s secret weapon in Ramadi against the threat of the hidden Improvised Explosive Device (IED) or roadside bomb – the insurgency’s deadliest tactic.
Above the spot from which Staff Sgt Gilliland took his record shot, in a room at the top of a bombed-out observation post which is code-named Hotel and known jokingly to soldiers as the Ramadi Inn, are daubed “Kill Them All” and “Kill Like you Mean it”.
On another wall are scrawled the words of Senator John McCain: “America is great not because of what she has done for herself but because of what she has done for others.”
The juxtaposition of macho slogans and noble political rhetoric encapsulates the dirty, dangerous and often callous job the sniper has to carry out as an integral part of a campaign ultimately being waged to help the Iraqi people.
With masterful understatement, Lt Col Robert Roggeman, the Task Force 2/69 commander, conceded: “The romantic in me is disappointed with the reception we’ve received in Ramadi,” a town of 400,000 on the banks of the Euphrates where graffiti boasts, with more than a degree of accuracy: “This is the graveyard of the Americans”.
“We’re the outsiders, the infidels,” he said. “Every time somebody goes out that main gate he might not come back. It’s still a running gun battle.”
Highly effective though they are, he worries about the burden his snipers have to bear. “It’s a very God-like role. They have the power of life and death that, if not held in check, can run out of control. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
“Every shot has to be measured against the Rules of Engagement [ROE], positive identification and proportionality.”
Staff Sgt Gilliland explains that his Shadow team operates at the “borderlines” of the ROE, making snap judgements about whether a figure in the crosshairs is an insurgent or not.
“Hunters give their animals respect,” he said, spitting out a mouthful of chewing tobacco. “If you have no respect for what you do you’re not going to be very good or you’re going to make a mistake. We try to give the benefit of the doubt.
“You’ve got to live with it. It’s on your conscience. It’s something you’ve got to carry away with you. And if you shoot somebody just walking down the street, then that’s probably going to haunt you.”
Although killing with a single shot carries an enormous cachet within the sniper world, their most successful engagements have involved the shooting a up to 10 members of a single IED team.
“The one-shot-one-kill thing is one of beauty but killing all the bad dudes is even more attractive,” said Staff Sgt Gilliland, whose motto is “Move fast, shoot straight and leave the rest to the counsellors in 10 years” and signs off his e-mails with “silent souls make.308 holes”.
Whether Shadow team’s work will ultimately make a difference in Iraq is open to question. No matter how many insurgents they shoot, there seems no shortage of recruits to plant bombs.
Col John Gronski, the overall United States commander in Ramadi, said there could not be a military solution. “You could spend years putting snipers out and killing IED emplacers and at the political level it would make no difference.”
As they prepare to leave Iraq, however, Staff Sgt Gilliland and his men hope that they have bought a little more time for the country’s politicians to fix peace and stability in their sights.
Hat Tip to:
Emigre With A Digital Cluebat

Wild Thing comment…………….
Those that have known me for awhile know that I am a big fan of our Military snipers. There is something about the lying in wait for just the right moment. The having to be totally still and not move so you don’t give away your location and not to let on that you even exist no matter what the elements are coming down on you. Whether is it ugliness of bad weather, where every breeze, every leaf nearby means something, and the bugs, the snakes you name it, to not be able to move..……well I can only imagine how difficult that must be. To be totally one with your weapon and know the zone of the ultimate and complete concentration.
To make that one perfect shot, that takes out the enemy in one swift blow. The feeling of knowing what that shot means to so many and how your steady aim is counted on by your brothers fighting with you, and your country back at home. Understanding with every breath you take the cost of life and the price of death.
The traits of a good sniper being able to be totally physically still for long periods of time, even when the body may begin to cramp up, and the need to have excellent camouflage techniques. By his actions to be able to save countless lives. Thank you Staff Sgt Jim Gilliland!

The Silent Soldier
By G.A.Codling
A soldier crawls along a forest floor
A match grade barrel to do his chore
Blending with the woodland scene
He leaves no trace of where he’s been
A single task occupies his mind
To the outside world he is blind
One single task, one single goal
Only his mission occupies his soul
He moves into the open grass
The enemy patrol makes a searching pass
although they look, they can not see
the man moving out from a distant tree
One hour, two , three then four
He only moves a few feet more
Zero hour is getting near
He knows his target will soon appear
A single man he has been sent to kill
and on his hands this man’s blood will spill
The moment is now, the target’s in site
Taking up the first pressure the shoot feels right
One ounce more on the trigger sear
The bullet races away like a high speed spear
It races throw the air with a thunderous crack
There’s a fountain of blood as it exits the man’s back
The silence is deafening theirs not a single sound
as the shooter removes the case of the single spent round
His task now done he fades back in to the wood
His only trace is a body wear a man once stood.