Chris Kyle, USN : April 8, 1974 - February 2, 2013

The Devil of Ramadi

I first read about Chief Petty Officer Chris Kyle in an American Rifleman column last summer. The piece was promoting his new book, which I bought and read, "American Sniper." He seemed to me to be the epitome of the professional shooter. Born in Texas, shooting and hunting since age 8, and die hard American Warrior: he served multiple tours in Iraq as a Navy Seal sniper.  In his book he regarded Carlos Hathcock (Vietnam era sniper credited with 93 kills) as the best of all time, even though Kyle had over 150 confirmed kills over his 10 years of action. His longest (1.2 mile) shot was a self-described "lucky shot" that neutralized an insurgent aiming a rocket launcher at an American convoy. His Navy SEAL career earned him 2 Silver Stars, 5 Bronze Stars with Valor, and other commendations.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Sniper-Autobiography-Military-History/dp/0062082353

Most interesting to me is how Chief Kyle dealt with his return to civilian life. Upon honorable discharge from the Navy in 2009, he founded a precision marksmanship school, Craft International. He felt that thing to do with his skill set was to train others going into harm's way such as law enforcement, military, and private security professionals. His knowledge of rifle-craft was unparalleled, and the loss to long-range shooting will be sorely missed. Not only did he teach, Chief Kyle also tried to serve the needs of any veteran he met. His generosity and methodology unfortunately led to an untimely death this past weekend. A young veteran, whom I shall not name, killed Chris and another instructor at a Texas shooting range on Saturday. There was no motive given in the news reports, only descriptions who, what, and where. I never will understand why such awful tragic ends befall such upright men.

I won't open the PTSD issue here on my blog, but will point at this as another indicator on how poorly we understand and treat our emotionally scarred veterans. Chief Kyle left behind a wife, child, and legendary history as a true Patriot. America needs more guys like him.

Rest In Peace

http://www.thecraft.com/Remembering_Chris_Kyle.html