Featured Book for Tuesday, June 21, 2005
BIOGRAPHY
Shooter: The Autobiography of the Top-Ranked Marine Sniper
by Gunnery Sgt. Jack Coughlin, USMC, and Capt. Casey Kuhlman, USMCR, with Donald A. Davis (St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0312336853, $24.95)
.
"I'm just glad he's on our side."
That's the smiling response war correspondent Peter Maas got from Jack Coughlin's commander when he asked for an evaluation of his skills.
Here's an excerpt:
Sometimes, the hardest job of a sniper is not to pull the trigger. In an urban environment, the battlefield is a 360-degree place, with a potential threat around every corner, in every doorway and window, on every rooftop. During a pitched battle in a city, everybody is considered a possible enemy until proven otherwise, and great care must be taken to determine that a target is legitimate. You cannot, as the old dark joke claims, kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out. Professionals don't work that way, but neither are we in the business of dispensing compassion. So the scariest moments come not when someone is shooting at you but when you have to make a life-or-death decision about a person who may just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Snipers walk that thin line of taking or preserving life every time they put a scope on a target, and some people will never know just how close I have come to shooting them dead.
Honestly, I wondered about bringing this one in. Only a few of you have shown an interest in contemporary warfare memoirs. Military history - yes. Recent wars - not so much. But as I examined the book, I found myself drawn into the psychology and the passion to perform. This is the perfect book for Dad to use that Destinations Booksellers Gift Card on.
Shooter: The Autobiography of the Top-Ranked Marine Sniper
by Gunnery Sgt. Jack Coughlin, USMC, and Capt. Casey Kuhlman, USMCR, with Donald A. Davis (St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0312336853, $24.95)
.
"I'm just glad he's on our side."
That's the smiling response war correspondent Peter Maas got from Jack Coughlin's commander when he asked for an evaluation of his skills.
Here's an excerpt:
Sometimes, the hardest job of a sniper is not to pull the trigger. In an urban environment, the battlefield is a 360-degree place, with a potential threat around every corner, in every doorway and window, on every rooftop. During a pitched battle in a city, everybody is considered a possible enemy until proven otherwise, and great care must be taken to determine that a target is legitimate. You cannot, as the old dark joke claims, kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out. Professionals don't work that way, but neither are we in the business of dispensing compassion. So the scariest moments come not when someone is shooting at you but when you have to make a life-or-death decision about a person who may just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Snipers walk that thin line of taking or preserving life every time they put a scope on a target, and some people will never know just how close I have come to shooting them dead.
Honestly, I wondered about bringing this one in. Only a few of you have shown an interest in contemporary warfare memoirs. Military history - yes. Recent wars - not so much. But as I examined the book, I found myself drawn into the psychology and the passion to perform. This is the perfect book for Dad to use that Destinations Booksellers Gift Card on.
posted by All4Word at 7:45 PM
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