Sniper: American Single-Shot Warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan

by Gina Cavallaro, Matt Larsen, Jo Anna Perrin (Narrator)

From Afghanistan's Hindu Kush peaks and sunbaked Helmand Valley to Baghdad, Mosul and Ramadi in Iraq, American snipers have braved heart-pounding situations to hit their human targets dead-on. Few military feats stir the imagination like the image of a pair of riflemen waiting quietly in a building, a bomb crater, or a mountain pass for a Taliban or Al Qaeda fighter to walk into their crosshairs. Sniper presents real-life tales from the military's frontline snipers-their hits and their misses, the anguish of loss, and the anxiety of the first kill. Authors Gina Cavallaro and Matt Larsen provide riveting accounts of American soldiers and marines on the battlefield, and take a rare look at how Rangers and Special Forces snipers train and operate, and how the war on terror has changed the role of military snipers.

Genres: Military Fiction, Nonfiction, Audiobook, War, History

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overall interesting peak into the mindset of a Sniper and logistics, expertise and demands that come with the job. The stories from real snipers are interesting but the book didn't quite scratch that itch I was looking for and maybe could have gone for another round of editing before publishing.

[Craig Childs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gina Cavallaro is a journalist who spent years embedded with US troops and special ops teams in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her 2011 book is not a memoir. Rather, it is an easy-to-read collection of stories, anecdotes, and interviews with American snipers, as well as solders who found themselves under attack by snipers on the other side.

The nature of the urban warfare in Iraq fundamentally changed the role of snipers in combat. They are not just long-range shooters anymore. They have evolved into professional reconnoiters, usually spying on bomb makers and insurgents planting IED's.

Readers learn new skills such as how to take over an occupied home to create a hide site and how to survive a three-day op in a garbage dump alongside slaughtered animals and pools of raw sewage. (Hint: Imodium stops you up for five days!),

The gut-wrenching chapter "Shots Not Taken" discusses the ever-tightening, increasingly restrictive, and sometimes ambiguous Rules of Engagement that snipers had to abide by during these conflicts. These are instances where the shooters knew they had a bad guy in their scopes but could not take the shot, either because he was unarmed or because he could not be positively identified based on a photo. In many cases, these targets were caught in later terrorist actions that resulted in the death of Americans.

The example of the "Wedding Party Bombing" illustrates the importance of embedding journalists with infantry platoons to counter enemy propaganda and false reports of American war atrocities. In this example, Americans were defending themselves from anti-aircraft ordinance launched from a civilian apartment building. While there was a bridal shower in progress in one of the apartments, there was no wedding and no bombs.

I listened to the audiobook read by Jo Anna Perrin and Johnny Heller.

3 stars

[Joel B Champagne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An education

This was a revelation, an intro to the motivations and rationalizations of the sniper. I have read several tomes on the sniper, but this one is a bit different. It is a lot more than just laying in wait for a kill. This should be required reading for any military leader that employs snipers.

[Mark Giordano · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a pretty interesting read. Sometimes it read too much like a text book, sometimes it was a little too military, but overall I found the topic interesting and the stories from the Snipers to be fascinating.

[Joseph W. Gooch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Real-life stories that are gritty and don't always turn out as you might like.

[Zachary Mielke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great modern account of snipers in the war on terror.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 4 stars has nothing to do with the stories of the men whom are apart of this writing. They are all heroes and should be thanked.

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book consisting mainly of stories and interviews with snipers in Afghanistan and Iraq. Doesn’t go into much detail about history but instead focuses on the changing role of snipers, and how they’ve had to adapt, for example, to primarily urban environments in Iraq. The book contains a lot of mini interviews and Q&A with actual snipers, but overall the book falls short. The whole thing seems discombobulated and more like a bunch of random short stories that were cobbled together into a book. There is no cohesiveness or flow from chapter to chapter, and even the chapters themselves fail to articulate a particular point. Even though this is normally a subject I’d love to read about, I found my mind wandering a lot. Part of it is that I just don’t think the writing is that good. Part of it is that the answers, stories and lessons the soldiers give do not always make complete sense or seem well thought through. For example, every now and then the book goes into a Q&A mode, where the author will pose a question and include responses from a bunch of snipers. I found a lot of those responses didn’t even really speak to the question, and just seemed like a bunch of random opinions by different people.

One other thing I thought about from reading this book is the nature of how our military has been conducting wars seems incompatible with the way wars are being fought these days. To some extent, this is already well-known, basically that we need to be taking a COIN approach to fighting. However, it’s different when you hear it first-hand from soldiers about how they think. For one thing, the rules of engagement allow them to kill anyone carrying a weapon. But in places like Afghanistan or Iraq, it’s probably not uncommon for a normal guy to carry a gun around to defend himself. How do we know the rules of engagement are not greenlighting civilian deaths? Even more importantly, with the limited number of troops we have to fight wars these days, it seems like it would be a good strategy to arm the local population to defend themselves, especially in a place like Afghanistan where the Taliban acts like organized crime and bullies the local population. Yet, anyone taking up arms to defend themselves would quickly be taken out as an enemy by US troops. The other thing that multiple soldiers said that bothered me was about how they “knew” so and so was a bad guy. These were cases where they could not kill a target because there was no clear evidence he was a bad guy. Then, a few days later maybe a bomb would go off or something. Even though there was still no evidence of that target being a bad guy, the soldiers would insist that maybe if they could have killed that guy, they could have prevented the bombing. It’s just ludicrous, that even when there’s still no evidence, how they have such a strong conviction they should have killed that guy. Or, there was a story about 10 year old kid who they spotted doing something illegal (violating some perimeter), and they could have shot because no one was supposed to be there, but the commander on the ground didn’t allow it. The sniper being interviewed believes he should have shot that kid, and that the local commander was weak for not letting him. It’s almost like these soldiers have no idea of how killing people can create more enemies.. They just think of them as targets that either they can or can’t shoot, based on the rules of engagement.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is many different stories. Short and long. The stories are told from many different snipers. They're also told from the snipers spotter so you get a different perspective other than just the snipers. I cant give a full summary of the book because its a lot of different stories but I found them very well told stories.

I liked the book for a couple good reasons. One reason is that it is not one long dragged out story. It is multiple stories from multiple snipers which keeps me interested. What I also like is the fact that I got so many different perspectives. That made me love the book because there was always a new perspective and new morals and view of the person telling the story. One more reason I liked it was because it gave me a look at what being a sniper is like and what kind of mindset those people have. Also it was cool to see what they all go through and how they react to their situations.

There are only one or two reasons why I disliked the book. One reason is that some of the stories were bland and boring. Also that some of the stories didn't have that much of an impact on me as others in the book. One more reason I didn't like it was because there were so many stories that I don't remember all of them I only remember a few.

I would recommend this to everyone. Especially people like myself who love war and history type books. Also i would recommend it to people who are looking to go into the military as this is a good way to see what it is like. I give it 5 stars.

[Roadhouse · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a disappointment, because the stories are bland. Sniper stories should not be bland. They should be incredible.

If snipers do not have good stories, then who does? Who?

I got so bored towards the end of the book, that I began to insert the cast of Facts of Life into the books just to make it interesting. I would replace Taliban Insurgent with Tootie. I would replace Iraqi solider with Mrs. Garrett.

[Evan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love reading about snipers but this book didn't measure up to the level of most other books I've read on the topic. It's a bunch of stories that tended to be very similar so it got repetitive. The good thing is that it's only 200 pages.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not find this book as interesting a read as I had hoped, but it was a good book nevertheless.
If interested in what it was like for snipers in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as what a army snipers role is in battle zones then this book is for you

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I like the fictional stories better than the true descriptions of what snipers do and have done. That's OK.