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FRONTLINE SNIPER: BRITISH SHARPSHOOTER TELLS OF LIFE AND DEATH IN AFGHAN WAR ZONE
newsoftheworld.co.uk ^ | 3 January, 2010 | Douglas Wight

Posted on 01/04/2010 4:27:08 AM PST by marktwain

IT WAS like a bloodcurdling video game for sniper Steve Lewis as he saw a Taliban hand clutching an RPG appear over a wall 50 yards away.

The army's best shot watched in delight down the sights of his L96A1 rifle as the launcher bobbed along for 20 yards behind the wall... and paused.

The point of the rocket dipped and aimed towards him. The enemy's face bobbed up into the crosshair. And Steve squeezed the trigger.

He saw the face wobble with the impact. Half of it blew away. The grenade launcher fell back over the wall and disappeared... but only briefly.

Seconds later it was back up, bobbing along the wall. Steve watched it until it stopped, and fired again as a second Taliban face appeared. "Looked like someone bounced a football off his head, the way it snapped backwards," says the L Cpl. Throughout that day Steve shot dead another five insurgents from the snipers' nest he shared with fellow crackshot Frank "The Yank" Ward.

Steve, 29, says it's their "job to kill people and there's no other way of saying it".

And award-winning writer Sam Kiley, who followed their exploits, believes the pair epitomise the desire of the British Army to get the job done. "Afghanistan is in many ways a sniper's war," he says. "Most insurgent attacks are conducted by up to a dozen men who can tie up a whole company.

"If a sniper can kill or injure two or three, he drives down the ability of the Taliban to suck energy out of the British."

(Excerpt) Read more at newsoftheworld.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Philosophy; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; banglist; sniper; uk
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"Frank - who holds a British passport but grew up in America's Mid-West - adds: "Even so, if you talked about it much people would want to avoid you. They'd think you were weird."

We need men like this to protect the country. I wish we had a million of them.

1 posted on 01/04/2010 4:27:08 AM PST by marktwain
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To: marktwain

Good post marktwain


2 posted on 01/04/2010 4:31:27 AM PST by Joe Boucher (This marxist punk has got to go.)
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To: marktwain

One shot......one kill


3 posted on 01/04/2010 4:31:36 AM PST by shadeaud ("If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten." -- George Carlin)
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To: marktwain

These brain-washed cretin throwbacks need killing. There’s no way to put it politely.


4 posted on 01/04/2010 4:36:03 AM PST by luvbach1 (Worse than we could have imagined.)
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To: shadeaud

Where would we be without men like this?


5 posted on 01/04/2010 4:36:49 AM PST by homegroan (ZQczar...happily addicted to the Refresh Button.....)
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To: marktwain
Snipers are the protectors of our troops. I had a chance to ask my son a few days ago if he was getting to use his Barrett and his response was, a lot.
You do not want to be on the opposite end of this gun.
6 posted on 01/04/2010 4:41:02 AM PST by Recon Dad ( USMC SSgt Patrick O - 3rd Afghanistan Deployment - Day 75)
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To: marktwain

When they start bagging congresscritters, we will truely be safe;)


7 posted on 01/04/2010 4:46:06 AM PST by DCBryan1 (wake me when the shooting starts....then I will go feed the hogs.)
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To: marktwain

Most of the good snipers I’ve heard of grew up shooting since they were kids. Sighting, leading, and windage just comes so natural to them that they can calculate it “off the cuff” and hit d*mn close to where they were aiming, under less than perfect conditions with a snap shot.

I wonder how the quality of snipers from the more “enlightened” western cultures will change when the first time almost all of new recruits handle a gun will be in basic training? It will have to affect their overall performance I would think, there are just some things that you can’t pick up as well later in life.


8 posted on 01/04/2010 4:48:16 AM PST by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: marktwain

Nice post! Brings a smile to my face.


9 posted on 01/04/2010 4:49:54 AM PST by caver (Obama's first goals: allow more killing of innocents and allow the killers of innocents to go free.)
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To: marktwain

Frank - who holds a British passport but grew up in America’s Mid-West - adds: “Even so, if you talked about it much people would want to avoid you. They’d think you were weird.”

I think you are a hero.
I think you atre all that stands between civilized people and the scum islamics that seek to destroy civilization.


10 posted on 01/04/2010 4:52:32 AM PST by SECURE AMERICA
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To: marktwain

Read “Marine Snoper” the story of Carlos Hathcock.

http://www.buy.com/prod/marine-sniper/q/loc/106/30773758.html


11 posted on 01/04/2010 4:54:07 AM PST by BwanaNdege
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To: marktwain

I wonder why the publicity. I would think they and their families are now at risk.

Extending the theater from Afghanistan is quite easy when the names and faces are known.


12 posted on 01/04/2010 4:55:44 AM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . What ever I do is what shall be)
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To: DCBryan1

.......When they start bagging congresscritters.....

And terrorist legal defense teams who aid and abet


13 posted on 01/04/2010 4:57:20 AM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . What ever I do is what shall be)
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To: BwanaNdege

Marine Sniper: one of my favorite books. Read it three times. I highly recommend it!! Great read!!


14 posted on 01/04/2010 5:15:22 AM PST by SW6906 (6 things you can't have too much of: sex, money, firewood, horsepower, guns and ammunition.)
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To: marktwain
A Sniper taking out Bad Guys from 50 yards almost doesn't seem fair. 'Almost'. ;-)

(if the UN finds out they'll make him take his scope off and shoot backwards using a hand held mirror like Annie Oakley)

15 posted on 01/04/2010 5:56:28 AM PST by Condor51 (The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits)
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To: marktwain
Good subject, but lousy article.

Writer doesn't do this guy justice.

16 posted on 01/04/2010 7:08:06 AM PST by wbill
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To: BwanaNdege

Carlos is my hero.

I’ve spent the last several years studying and practicing long range shooting. The average rifleman has NO IDEA what it takes to hit a target at 1000 yards with a single shot.


17 posted on 01/04/2010 7:09:26 AM PST by Robbin (If Sarah isnÂ’t welcome, IÂ’m not welcome, itÂ’s just that simpleÂ…)
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To: marktwain

18 posted on 01/04/2010 7:12:29 AM PST by Pharmboy (The Stone Age did not end because they ran out of stones...)
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To: marktwain

19 posted on 01/04/2010 7:14:57 AM PST by Pharmboy (The Stone Age did not end because they ran out of stones...)
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To: marktwain

To quote a Marine Sniper soon to go to Afghanistan: “Somone has got to do it.”

BTW, these 5 Taliban could have killed hundreds of the good guys. Now they can’t. Job done.


20 posted on 01/04/2010 7:20:54 AM PST by LeonardFMason
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