Hunters: U.S. Snipers in the War on Terror (19 page)

“We don’t need to take the roof. That’s the last place we want to be. If we get on the roof, we’re gonna suck up a grenade,” said Peeples. If they were compromised, he knew exactly how the insurgents would react. “We’ll still be able to see from inside the house,” Peeples explained.

Scott wanted the maximum vantage point, which the roof allowed, but: “OK,” responded Scott, “I trust you on this.”

Even the SEAL platoon chief took Peeples’s advice, to stay off the roof.

When they finished talking, they moved to different positions inside. Scott took his MK-11 and set up on the stairs, looking through a window but far enough back to where he was unnoticeable. Peeples took up a top-story bedroom. Inside, thick curtains covered the windows, blacking out the entire room. With his knife, he made two small slits in the curtains so that he could see through.

The other teams, OP-1 and OP-2, had plans of their own. They preferred the maximum vantage point of the rooftops, and by mid-morning all three positions were ready and on the lookout for insurgents.

Peeples and Scott had interlocking views. All was quiet at first, and hours passed before they both spotted an older man acting suspiciously. He had been walking from his house, only thirty yards from Peeples, to one of the other observation positions. He looked to be planning something, and finally he stepped from his house with an object under his arm. Scott lost sight of the man and could not distinguish the item. Peeples, though, still had him in view. He saw that it was an IED, but before he could shoot, the man disappeared. Minutes later he returned, but moved too quickly for Peeples to shoot. Peeples alerted Scott.

“Scott, the man’s about to come back into your view. He had an IED. Take him out,” Peeples relayed.

Scott’s rifle had a suppressor and he took aim. Peeples reminded him to open the window in front of him before he fired, but Scott wanted to shoot through it. When the man appeared, Scott fired twice, but both shots were deflected by the glass and missed. Peeples watched the man run to his house unscathed.

In his courtyard, the man trembled. He had heard the shots but did not know where they had come from. Peeples knew he had to kill him and he cracked his window. By now the man was only thirty yards away. Peeples’s picture of him was clear. The enemy’s eyes were wide, and sweat gathered on his forehead. His wife met him outside, but Peeples could not let him get away, even with her there. He looked the man in his face one last time and squeezed the trigger. Just as he shot, though, the rifle slipped from his shoulder, sending the bullet over the target’s head.

“I can’t believe I missed,” he thought, knowing that he had done the impossible by missing a thirty-yard shot.

The man ducked behind his wife. The two of them were even more scared but still had no clue where the shooting had come from. By now the wife was frantic, and the man held onto her legs, using her as a shield. After a minute, though, he stood back up, feeling certain that the danger had passed. When he did, Peeples put the crosshairs between his eyes and shot.

The bullet hit its mark. The man’s head split open and brain matter splattered on his wife, who immediately went berserk. She wailed at the top of her lungs, drawing the attention of another man who dragged the body into the house.

After the shooting, the snipers decided to stay in place. They would rather not expose themselves while trying to take up other positions, plus the area went quiet again. Minutes later, while Scott and Peeples discussed the event, explosions shattered the silence.

Gunfire followed, coming from OP-1’s position. From Peeples’s window, he could not see anything, but the platoon chief, monitoring the radio, learned that OP-1 had been compromised and had taken grenades on their roof, injuring a few of the SEALs. They needed a casualty evacuation. Minutes later, they were hit again.

“We need to back them up,” said the chief, ordering his men to break down and prepare to move to the other team’s position.

The team began packing. Everyone knew the danger ahead. Where they were, running through the streets in the open would have normally been suicidal, especially with a small team, but no one gave it a second thought. Peeples mentally prepared himself for what was at hand. At the same time, he held security while everyone gathered the equipment.

He watched the street in front of the house, leading to OP-1. The narrow road was lined with cars and courtyard gates on both sides. Gunfire came from that direction, but Peeples still did not see anyone. Suddenly five insurgents rounded a corner at 150 yards away. They reloaded their weapons and seemed to be forming a plan.

“I’ve got bad guys over here!” Peeples shouted.

Two SEALs rushed to his position. The heavy weapons operator held the MK-48, a light machine gun. With a look of pleasure, he, Peeples, and the chief prepared and on cue opened fire, downing four of the men. One rolled on the ground in pain. Immediately afterward, the entire team was ready to move and ran through the front door into the street, making their way to the injured SEAL team.

Once they were outside, the events became a blur for Peeples. A serious gun battle began, and insurgents gathered to press Peeples and the others. Some of the fighters took to the high ground and shot from windows and rooftops. On the street, they threw RPGs and hand grenades. Though Peeples and the others were heavily outnumbered, their tactics and superior firepower evened the fight.

The SEALs and Peeples went into kill mode. The heavy weapons operator and another SEAL started it off and let loose a wall of bullets forcing insurgents to take cover, while the rest of the team bounded. Peeples took cover behind a car. He waited for the others to follow before opening fire. When they did, he and a SEAL gave the insurgents hell.

Peeples lined his targets up and squeezed off two shots. He made it a point to fire only a few rounds per target, knowing that he might have to conserve ammo. Beside him, the SEALs sprayed every target; they executed their standard operating procedure for breaking contact with the enemy, bounding, and moving away. It was precise and exact.

Though the work was hot and exhausting, neither Peeples nor the others stopped. Once, Peeples found a man in a window with a machine gun, his face locked in anger, as he threw bullets into the wall next to Peeples. Peeples returned fire, knocking him down. As he and the rest of the team bounded, explosions and rifle discharges echoed off the concrete. Peeples even noticed a hand grenade fly over his head, exploding in an adjacent courtyard.

In less than five minutes, the team was at OP-1’s house. Two Bradleys were there already. They were the Quick Reaction Force. Peeples’s team waited for the OP-2 team to arrive before moving into the house of OP-1. When the other men finally arrived, Peeples’s team went in and witnessed the carnage.

The road in front of OP-1’s house was filled with blood. Two separate blood trails led from the dirty street into the courtyard and on into the building. Peeples could not help but wonder what had happened. In the house, pools of blood formed on the floor, and the other SEALs were distraught. Peeples overheard one of the men explain to the chief what had happened.

As a result of taking the rooftop, the team had been compromised early on. They had also been set up by the old man that Peeples had killed, who had set a pressure-plated IED at the front gate of OP-1. Later, someone tossed a grenade on the roof, hitting a few SEALs, but nothing serious resulted. The team leader called for the quick reaction force and a medivac. When the vehicles arrived, the men ran from the house, straight out of the front gate. The two Iraqi Army soldiers who led the way were instantly vaporized upon triggering the IED by stepping on it. Behind them, two SEALs were severely injured. One had 90 percent burns on his body and lost a leg, while the other had both legs broken.

The sight disheartened Peeples. The lives of both men would never be the same. It just as likely could have happened to him. While sitting there, he had an unexpected thought. He asked if anyone was guarding the roof. Nobody was. He immediately ran up there with a SEAL in trace.

Before walking out, Peeples slowly opened the door to the roof. Fifteen feet away, two men crept toward the OP-1 house from the next building. Weapons in hand, they wore green vests and face wraps. They had not seen Peeples. Peeples lifted his weapon and pumped two bullets into each of them. Moments later, more insurgents fired on the Peeples team, forcing them to take cover. Peeples and the SEAL returned fire but were ordered off the roof, because the Bradleys were going to hose everything. When the Bradleys stopped firing, the area went quiet once more.

As the fighting finished, one thought haunted Peeples. He could not help but picture the faces of the family in the house of OP-1. They were absolutely terrified, and Peeples could see it in the children’s eyes. It dawned on him that everyone there would feel the effects of war for the rest of their lives.

After the fight, Peeples’s team supported the company again. They had done a few counter-IED missions and held security in the observation posts before another large mission arose. It came in Operation Murfreesboro.

For some time, al-Qaeda operatives had moved freely through the eastern Malaab District of Ramadi. With support, or fear, from civilians, the district was a safe haven for them and other foreign fighters. From that area, the insurgents planned and executed many of their operations. It was also suspected that they kept many weapons caches and IED factories there. To rid them of the area, U.S. commanders drew up a plan to move in, set up concrete barriers around the Malaab District, and sweep through, tightening the noose around and isolating insurgents there.

Peeples’s team began to prepare for another fight. Soon he learned that the operation was divided into phases. First, soldiers would raid the district and apprehend high-value targets. Second, more troops would push into the district to help set up the concrete barriers, and finally they were to clear it out.

As the final planning developed, Peeples explained the mission to his team. He and Stout had a security element attached to them, and when the others started the raids, they would all move into position to cover the soldiers. Once the soldiers withdrew, Peeples’s group was to be left behind, and from there they would snipe.

He did not have to explain the risk. Though given enough ammo, they would be alone in insurgent-infested territory most of the time. Hundreds of fighters were suspected to be there, and as hard-core as they were, they would probably fight to the death. Peeples knew his team would see some action, but he truly was not aware of just how much that would be.

To start the operation, the soldiers moved into the city under rain and darkness. They sped through the streets of Ramadi, knowing that enemy lookouts could compromise them. Peeples and Stout traveled in the rear Bradley, while the main element took the front vehicles. Before they hit their first target, the vehicles stopped just long enough for Peeples, Stout, and their security to exit.

Peeples kept his rifle in hand and rushed out. In the street, he noticed right away the double-stranded concertina wire lining both sides of the road. Stout pushed the wire down while the rest of the team crossed. A thought popped into Peeples’s mind: “If insurgents want to sneak up on us, they will have to cross the wire as well.”

Quickly the team infiltrated a building on the north side of the street. All of the action was to be on the south side and a good standoff distance away. In the hide, Peeples tasked the security as he always did; the Iraqi soldiers held the bottom floor to stay out of the way, while the U.S. soldiers took the upper levels. Within hours, the initial raid happened and the soldiers in the Bradleys exited the area, leaving the snipers to scour the darkness.

Behind his M24, Peeples searched out targets. The main road ran below his window, giving him a sight of an intersection 293 meters (just under a thousand feet) away. He’d been using night vision and had a great view, but nothing happened for the first few hours.

Later, a pathfinder element clearing IEDs swept through the area. Peeples covered their movement and heard gunshots intended for their vehicles. He spotted insurgents shooting from a high-rise in the distance, but they were out of his range. Peeples relayed the info to the pathfinders and the company. The pathfinders were armored and had not realized they were under fire. Once they learned of it, they moved out of the area. Thirty minutes later, four Bradleys arrived and took the direction of Peeples. The vehicles unloaded on the building where the gunmen were, and two of the floors collapsed on each other. The fighters did not return.

The rest of the night was quiet. The next day, Peeples, while action hungry, stayed on the gun. The others slept and occasionally scanned the area with him. The streets were empty besides a few cars. Their sector was dead and Peeples figured it to be an uneventful day—that is until around 1600, when a loud shaking of metal sounded nearby.

Everyone in the team heard it, but no one could distinguish the noise. It sounded to be nearby, and Peeples decided to look from the roof. The door leading to the roof was full of bullet holes, and Peeples peered through one to get a view. Outside, eight insurgents were trying to breach the concertina wire across the street. Two of them tried moving the razor wire while one held an IED. Another took the cord attached to the IED and went into a building.

Peeples ran down and called his team. He explained the noise and they instantly formed a plan. Peeples would initiate with his bolt-action rifle. Everyone else would take a predesignated target. The team also radioed the company and requested the help of the Quick Reaction Force; they asked the QRF commander to let them know when they exited the base, giving the sniper team about two minutes before they arrived. When the QRF commander radioed them, Peeples took aim.