Hunters: U.S. Snipers in the War on Terror (22 page)

“That was a hell of a job. How did you shoot a guy in a moving car?” asked the senior soldier.

“I don’t know. Ask your brother, First Sergeant. He’s the one who taught me how to snipe,” replied Stan. The first sergeant’s brother was an instructor at the SOTIC. Stan knew that he had no room to brag. To him, it was a lucky shot.

The next morning, the snipers continued their routine. Traffic passed by their building all morning, and in the afternoon, while Stan searched the neighborhood with the spotting scope, he noticed a van parked beside an orange and white painted taxi. Two groups of men loaded the vehicles. At first Stan didn’t notice anything suspicious. As the men approached, however, he realized that all of the men inside the vehicles held weapons.

“I’ve got something here,” Stan informed his team.

The snipers knew the routine. One soldier, Adam, quickly mounted the Barrett .50-cal sniper. Steve reached for his M4 and Stan would remain on the glass, spotting for the two.

Moments later the vehicles stopped on the street below their building. All at once, the men inside them opened fire. Two men jumped from the car and started to hammer the soldiers in the bottom floor. With the gunfight reverberating throughout the area, Stan’s teammates desperately wanted to help, but there was a problem. The snipers had no angle to engage. They were so high in the building that if they wanted to shoot, they needed to lean out of the window. That, however, would have given away their position.

Meanwhile, Charlie Company soldiers returned fire. When they did, the drivers turned their vehicles and began to drive back to the neighborhood.

“Don’t let that taxi get away,” Stan said to the others. He was fixed on the car because it was the faster of the two vehicles. The gunmen sped away, but they were approaching one of the snipers’ predetermined target reference points, an intersection at 650 meters (a little more than 2,000 feet). With that in mind, Stan told Adam and Steve to adjust their sights and to stand by for a wind call.

Seconds later the car reached the intersection. The driver swerved to miss other cars and hit the median, stopping momentarily.

“Hold center,” said Stan. It was their code, meaning that no adjustments for wind were needed. As he announced that, next to him Adam fired one shot with the .50-cal. The crisp, sunny day allowed Stan to see the vapor trail from the bullet. The bullet entered the front right panel, just above the tire, causing the car to shake lightly.

“Hit! Fire again!” said Stan.

Adam turned to the passenger. Stan’s spotting scope magnified his view to 10 power. With it, he clearly distinguished the passenger’s face. The man gazed in their direction to find where the shooting had originated. While he did, Adam sighted in on his head and fired once more. Stan witnessed the second bullet remove that man’s brains from his skull, sending chunks of them everywhere. Simultaneously, Steve put in work as well. He shot the driver twice and the back passenger once.

Meanwhile, Charlie Company soldiers made quick work of the van and everyone inside. Other soldiers rushed to the scene and inspected both the car and the van. Stan watched through the scope as they pulled the dead from the vehicles. He teased Adam, saying he wanted credit for his kill as well. Of the three, Adam was the worst shooter, and without Stan spotting, he would have never made the shot. Adam was unconcerned, and a little sniper banter never hurt.

With two impressive performances, the snipers gained notoriety among the battalion. It gave the commander added confidence to let the snipers operate independently. That trust helped Stan’s team for future missions, especially after leaving Baghdad.

The Second Battalion, Third Marines arrived in western Iraq in 2006. Haditha was their new sector. Their base was a hydroelectric plant built into the Haditha Dam and powered by Lake Qadisiyah. With the information of past attacks and that snipers had been operating in the region for years now, Rush’s platoon understood how to adapt. Insurgents knew the streets and roads and likely positions that U.S. forces occupied. To stay undetected, the snipers would have to try new locations.

Fortunately for Rush, his battalion commander gave the snipers freedom to operate. He had learned that the snipers were better off supporting the battalion rather than the individual companies. It allowed them to move throughout the area without having to abide by company commanders’ directions.

Right away, Rush learned that the area was hot. His platoon settled in and started changeover with the snipers from the existing unit. The team leaders accompanied the snipers on missions to give them a lay of the land. On that first mission, the snipers dropped an insurgent trying to plant a bomb near the road. It was the first of many killings for the snipers of 2/3.

Soon, a change of operations gave the snipers a chance to demonstrate their skills. Along Route Bronze, a main supply route leading from Ar Ramadi to beyond Haditha, armed checkpoints had been scattered up and down the road. Their purpose was to stop the massive number of IEDs that were being emplaced on it. When Rush’s battalion took over, casualties had begun to mount, and the marines no longer had enough manpower to supplement the checkpoints. They were forced to abandon many of the checkpoints. It did not take long for insurgents to catch on, and within the week, Route Bronze was laden with IEDs.

On their first mission to stop the IEDs, Rush’s team infiltrated the desert near Route Bronze. Having been in the city for some time, the snipers needed to adjust to their new environment. Flat, open desert lined Route Bronze on both sides for miles, making it hard to build or find a suitable hide. Camouflaged netting concealed the team, and the snipers dug into the hard ground.

The next day brought enemy activity. The snipers were able to see for miles in the open desert. Rush witnessed a man digging on the road, but he was 1800 meters away (just under 2,000 yards). Rush only had the M40A3, with a maximum effective range of 1,000 yards. The .50-caliber sniper rifle would have been more useful, but they had not brought it. Rush decided to engage anyway, hoping to get lucky, but the distance was just too great and the man escaped with his life. Rush would have to wait until his next mission to kill bad guys.

After a few weeks there, Rush hated the desert. The freezing temperatures made it miserable. His second mission called for his team and another team to mutually support each other while keeping eyes on a certain area. After insertion, the snipers found a great hiding position and decided to co-locate there. They positioned themselves under mounds of sandbags and pieces of barriers from one of the checkpoints. It took them some time to dig in, but by morning, all of the men were completely hidden.

While other marines slept and held security, Rush and another sniper took watch. In the afternoon, movement on the road drew the snipers’ attention. Rush focused in with his spotting scope and watched as a station wagon stopped. One man got out and began pouring gasoline on the road. This fell under insurgents’ tactics, techniques, and procedures for planting bombs. The gasoline softened the asphalt enough for it to be dug into, allowing IEDs to be placed underneath.

When he saw this, Rush reached for his laser range finder. Disappointment and anger were his reaction when he saw that the vehicle was 2,200 meters (7,200 feet) away. He watched the man for a minute while the radio operator sent back a report of the activity. The snipers grew frustrated, knowing that either the man would get away, or the patrol would catch him and arrest him. Considering that he was trying to kill Americans, and as many as possible, the two scenarios did not seem like justice. In a flash, though, a new scenario appeared.

Rush’s eyes lit up when he watched the man get back into his car and drive toward the snipers.

“Get up, boys. Grab the SAWs and move over here,” explained Rush.

With seconds, two snipers sat up, ready for the station wagon to get within range. On Rush’s cue, the marines opened fire. It took less than twenty seconds for both SAWs to kill the driver and mangle the car. The incident stopped IEDs in that particular sector for a short while.

Within the platoon, other sniper teams were successful as well. One sniper team in another area stopped five men from planting IEDs. They took to a house near an intersection, and one day a car stopped and men jumped out to try planting bombs. The snipers opened fire and killed four of them. One man escaped, but a blood trail was left.

As their time wore on, the marines were able stop more IEDs. Airborne communications jammers flew certain routes daily, sending electronic signals along the way. These signals became so good that insurgents reverted back to laying wire to manually detonate bombs.

The roads around Haditha were ripe for insurgents to plant IEDs. Open desert allowed them to see military vehicles approaching. There were also roads that had dead space near them, giving IED cells access to move onto the roads and to slip away. Wadis were a great way for them to move near roads, as well, and once Rush stopped a man near one.

His team had been in place for two days. Their hide was a small hole near a road. Rush’s teammate was on watch when he spotted a man. The person they observed pulled wire from one position to a nearby bridge. It was blatantly obvious that he was going to use it for an IED.

“What’s the range?” asked Rush.

“Six hundred,” replied his spotter.

Rush dialed it onto his scope. When he aimed in, he saw that the man was walking down a draw. Rush lined him up and fired one round. His spotter called a miss, just off the man’s left shoulder. The man had no clue as to what was happening. He heard the shooting and stood still.

“Hold right shoulder,” said Rush’s spotter.

Rush held to the right and fired again. His round impacted center chest and killed the man where he stood.

A few months later, Rush felt the effects of the Anbar Awakening. Local tribes and leaders began to resent al-Qaeda in Iraq and other terrorist groups. They’d had enough of indiscriminate bombings and killings by the terrorists and joined with the Coalition to stop them. Some of the men who had attacked marines before now sided with them. For Rush, the awakening saw the end of his combat operations.

In 2003, by summer’s end, the Second Battalion, 187th Infantry were relocated. They were shuttled by helicopter from Baghdad to a small town on the northwestern front known as Sinjar. Open desert surrounded this remote community with less than one hundred thousand people, and the Sinjar Mountains could be found immediately north. A single road ventured from Syria into the town and ran farther east, into Mosul.

The battalion set up headquarters west of town. Their mission involved preventing the influx of foreign fighters passing through Sinjar. There, Stan’s sniper team started missions almost immediately.

Informants indicated that a mobile black market weapons exchange took place in the town. The dealings happened from the trunks of cars and trucks. Stan’s team sat in on the intelligence brief and was directed to get eyes on the event and report all activity. Planning was easy. After studying the terrain, Stan decided to emplace his team within a grain silo near the market. His M24 would be in range from there. On the night of the operation, though, as they patrolled into the area, Stan noticed a cemetery and decided to set up there instead. They hid among the clustered gravestones, with a clear perspective of the marketplace to gather intelligence for the battalion.

They reported several incidents on their first day of observing. Twenty vehicles arrived, many loaded with weapons, ranging from AKs, to pistols, ammunition, and other small arms, but no crew-served weapons or RPGs. Stan also reported that near the trading site, several men carried weapons to and from houses. The battalion wanted more evidence, specifically for heavier weaponry.

By the third day, the snipers saw exactly what the battalion wanted them to see. Nearly seventy vehicles crowded the square. Russian-made PKM machine guns, RPGs, and AKs were for sale. When the snipers reported the situation, the battalion initiated their plan to raid the marketplace.

Twenty minutes after the report, Apaches led the way. A company of soldiers followed minutes behind. Confiscating the weapons and apprehending the people was their concern. The snipers recognized the buzz of approaching helicopters, but so did the men in the market. They loaded their vehicles and drove east in a massive convoy.

Stan could not engage the men. The plan did not call for target reduction. Instead he warned the raid force that the men were escaping. Apaches, the first on the scene, met the convoy and intervened, preventing the vehicles from going farther. Soon, the rifle company arrived. With the direction of the snipers, they raided houses. By nightfall the soldiers had recovered mortars, RPGs, machine guns, explosives, ammunition, and small arms.

As a result, the soldiers realized that they needed a foothold in town. One company was sent to assume the town’s old police station. The battalion planned to always keep one company there and rotate others in and out. When the town’s insurgents learned of this, they threatened to attack the soldiers and warned them not to move in. The soldiers never backed down. Once they learned of the insurgents’ plans, they sent more soldiers in, to include the entire sniper section.

Stan arrived at the police station along with the other snipers. He grabbed his weapons and positioned his team on the roof. The other snipers were there as well, but each team held a separate sector. Below, soldiers patrolled the streets and neighborhoods. Everyone was to be on alert all night to find out if the insurgents would come through on their promise. And they did.

From Stan’s position, he covered directly across the street to a strip of shops and alleys. The town’s lights lit up the quiet streets, so much that the snipers had no need for night optics. Nearby, only 100 meters away (330 feet), a mosque with a minaret was covered by another sniper team. Stan and his partner traded watch through the night. By 0200, they expected that the insurgents were not coming. Suddenly they attacked in force.