Sniper shot that took out an insurgent killer from three quarters of a mile
Washington Times - January 16 2005
By: Toby Harnden in Ramadi
(Filed: Baghdad - 01/01/2006)
Gazing through the telescopic sight of his M24 rifle, Staff Sgt Jim Gilliland, leader of Shadow sniper team, fixed his eye on the Iraqi insurgent who had just killed an American soldier.
His quarry stood nonchalantly in the fourth-floor bay window of a former hospital in the battle-torn city of Ramadi, still clasping a long-barrelled Kalashnikov SVD (a Russian made sniper rifle). Instinctively allowing for wind speed and bullet drop, Shadow's commander aimed 12 feet high to account for the predicted drop of the round.
Kalashnivov SVD rifle
[attachment 15541 SniperSVD.jpg]
A single shot hit the Iraqi square in the chest (termed center mass) and killed him instantly. It had been fired from a range of 1,250 meters (4,100 feet), well beyond the capacity of the powerful Leupold sight being used, accurate to 1,000 meters. It was also much beyond any shooting practiced by the Shadow team or other snipers who generally train for shots between 300 and 1000 meters. A shot at one half, much less a full three-quarters of a mile, is rarely even considered seriously.
"I believe, or so I'm being told, it is the longest confirmed kill in Iraq with a mere 7.62mm (.308 caliber) rifle," said Staff Sgt Gilliland, 28, who hunted squirrels in Double Springs, Alabama from the age of five before progressing to deer - and now people.
"He was visible only from the waist up. It was a one in a million shot. I could probably shoot a whole box of ammunition and never hit him again."
Anatomy of Staff Sgt Gilliland's One in a Million Shot
[attachment 15542 sniperrecord.jpg]
Later that day, Staff Sgt Gilliland found out that the soldier killed by his target was Staff Sgt. Jason Benford, 30. SSG Benford, as it turns out, was a good friend of SSG Gilliland, making the shot bitter-sweet.
The insurgent/terrorist was one of between 55 (confirmed) and 65 he estimates that he has shot dead in less than five months in country, putting him within striking distance of sniper legends such as Carlos Hathcock, who recorded 93 confirmed kills in Vietnam. One of his men, Specialist Aaron Arnold, 22, of Medway, Ohio, has chalked up a similar tally.
"It was elating, but only well afterwards," said Staff Sgt Gilliland, recalling the September 27 shot. "At the time, there was no high-fiving or anything. You've got troops under fire, taking casualties and you're not thinking about anything other than finding a target and putting it down as quickly as possible. Every shot is for the betterment of our cause."
All told, the 10-strong Shadow sniper team, attached to Task Force 2/69, has killed just under 200 insurgents/terrorists in the same period and has emerged as the US Army's secret weapon in Ramadi against the threat of the hidden Improvised Explosive Device (IED) or roadside bomb - the insurgency's deadliest tactic.
Above the spot from which Staff Sgt Gilliland took his record shot, in a room at the top of a bombed-out observation post, which is code-named Hotel and known jokingly to soldiers as the Ramadi Inn, are large painted words daubed "Kill Them All" and "Kill Like you Mean it".
On another wall are scrawled the words of Senator John McCain: "America is great not because of what she has done for herself but because of what she has done for others."
The juxtaposition of macho slogans and noble political rhetoric encapsulates the dirty, dangerous and often callous job the sniper has to carry out as an integral part of a campaign ultimately being waged to help the Iraqi people.
With masterful understatement, Lt Col Robert Roggeman, the Task Force 2/69 commander, conceded: "The romantic in me is disappointed with the reception we've received in Ramadi," a town of 400,000 on the banks of the Euphrates where graffiti boasts, with more than a degree of accuracy: "This is the graveyard of the Americans".
"We're the outsiders, the infidels," he said. "Every time somebody goes out that main gate he might not come back. It's still a running gun battle."
Highly effective though they are, he worries about the burden his snipers have to bear. "It's a very God-like role. They have the power of life and death that, if not held in check, can run out of control. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
"Every shot has to be measured against the Rules of Engagement [ROE], positive identification and proportionality."
Staff Sgt Gilliland explains that his Shadow team operates at the "borderlines" of the ROE, making snap judgements about whether a figure in the crosshairs is an insurgent or not.
"Hunters give their animals respect," he said, pausing to spit out a mouthful of chewing tobacco. "If you have no respect for what you do you're not going to be very good or you're going to make a mistake. We try to give the benefit of the doubt as to potential targets."
"You've got to live with it. It's on your conscience if a mistake is made. It's something you've got to carry away with you. And if you shoot somebody just walking down the street, then that's probably going to haunt you."
Although killing with a single shot carries an enormous cachet of kudos and respect within the sniper world, their most successful engagements have involved the shooting up to 10 members of a single IED team in a single engagement.
"The one-shot-one-kill thing is one of beauty, but killing all the bad dudes is even more attractive to us," said Staff Sgt Gilliland, whose motto is "Move fast, shoot straight and leave the rest to the counsellors in 10 years" and signs off his e-mails with "silent souls make .308 holes".
Whether Shadow team's work will ultimately make a difference in Iraq is open to question. No matter how many insurgents they shoot, there seems no shortage of recruits to plant bombs.
Col John Gronski, the overall United States commander in Ramadi, said there could not be a military solution. "You could spend years putting snipers out and killing IED emplacers and at the political level it would make no difference."
As they prepare to leave Iraq, however, Staff Sgt Gilliland and his men hope that they have bought a little more time for the country's politicians to fix peace and stability in their sights.
The world-record killing shot for distance was made by a Canadian sniper detachment in Afghanistan. The sniper unit stated the shot could never have been made with the ammunition they were issued when they left Edmonton, Alberta last winter, the triggerman said in a recent interview. The Canadian .50-calibre rounds have a maximum range of between 2,200 and 2,300 meters.
But the U.S. rounds given them in Afghanistan, they discovered, "fly farther and much faster," said Cpl. "Bill", a 26-year-old native of Fogo Island, Newfoundland.
The two-man Canadian team, coupled with American Sgt. Zevon Durham of Greenville, S.C., made the kill from 2,430 metres (that's nearly 2 1/2 kilometres (or over 1.5 miles) on the second shot.
Canadian Sniper Wearing "Gili" Suit
[attachment 15543 SniperCanada.jpg]
What makes Staff Sgt. Gilliland's shot in Iraq so impressive was that it was made with a much smaller calibered round and was accomplished in a single shot without spotting for correction. The difference between a .50 high calibered round and the much smaller .308 is considerable to say the least.
Washington Times - January 16 2005
By: Toby Harnden in Ramadi
(Filed: Baghdad - 01/01/2006)
Gazing through the telescopic sight of his M24 rifle, Staff Sgt Jim Gilliland, leader of Shadow sniper team, fixed his eye on the Iraqi insurgent who had just killed an American soldier.
His quarry stood nonchalantly in the fourth-floor bay window of a former hospital in the battle-torn city of Ramadi, still clasping a long-barrelled Kalashnikov SVD (a Russian made sniper rifle). Instinctively allowing for wind speed and bullet drop, Shadow's commander aimed 12 feet high to account for the predicted drop of the round.
Kalashnivov SVD rifle
[attachment 15541 SniperSVD.jpg]
A single shot hit the Iraqi square in the chest (termed center mass) and killed him instantly. It had been fired from a range of 1,250 meters (4,100 feet), well beyond the capacity of the powerful Leupold sight being used, accurate to 1,000 meters. It was also much beyond any shooting practiced by the Shadow team or other snipers who generally train for shots between 300 and 1000 meters. A shot at one half, much less a full three-quarters of a mile, is rarely even considered seriously.
"I believe, or so I'm being told, it is the longest confirmed kill in Iraq with a mere 7.62mm (.308 caliber) rifle," said Staff Sgt Gilliland, 28, who hunted squirrels in Double Springs, Alabama from the age of five before progressing to deer - and now people.
"He was visible only from the waist up. It was a one in a million shot. I could probably shoot a whole box of ammunition and never hit him again."
Anatomy of Staff Sgt Gilliland's One in a Million Shot
[attachment 15542 sniperrecord.jpg]
Later that day, Staff Sgt Gilliland found out that the soldier killed by his target was Staff Sgt. Jason Benford, 30. SSG Benford, as it turns out, was a good friend of SSG Gilliland, making the shot bitter-sweet.
The insurgent/terrorist was one of between 55 (confirmed) and 65 he estimates that he has shot dead in less than five months in country, putting him within striking distance of sniper legends such as Carlos Hathcock, who recorded 93 confirmed kills in Vietnam. One of his men, Specialist Aaron Arnold, 22, of Medway, Ohio, has chalked up a similar tally.
"It was elating, but only well afterwards," said Staff Sgt Gilliland, recalling the September 27 shot. "At the time, there was no high-fiving or anything. You've got troops under fire, taking casualties and you're not thinking about anything other than finding a target and putting it down as quickly as possible. Every shot is for the betterment of our cause."
All told, the 10-strong Shadow sniper team, attached to Task Force 2/69, has killed just under 200 insurgents/terrorists in the same period and has emerged as the US Army's secret weapon in Ramadi against the threat of the hidden Improvised Explosive Device (IED) or roadside bomb - the insurgency's deadliest tactic.
Above the spot from which Staff Sgt Gilliland took his record shot, in a room at the top of a bombed-out observation post, which is code-named Hotel and known jokingly to soldiers as the Ramadi Inn, are large painted words daubed "Kill Them All" and "Kill Like you Mean it".
On another wall are scrawled the words of Senator John McCain: "America is great not because of what she has done for herself but because of what she has done for others."
The juxtaposition of macho slogans and noble political rhetoric encapsulates the dirty, dangerous and often callous job the sniper has to carry out as an integral part of a campaign ultimately being waged to help the Iraqi people.
With masterful understatement, Lt Col Robert Roggeman, the Task Force 2/69 commander, conceded: "The romantic in me is disappointed with the reception we've received in Ramadi," a town of 400,000 on the banks of the Euphrates where graffiti boasts, with more than a degree of accuracy: "This is the graveyard of the Americans".
"We're the outsiders, the infidels," he said. "Every time somebody goes out that main gate he might not come back. It's still a running gun battle."
Highly effective though they are, he worries about the burden his snipers have to bear. "It's a very God-like role. They have the power of life and death that, if not held in check, can run out of control. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
"Every shot has to be measured against the Rules of Engagement [ROE], positive identification and proportionality."
Staff Sgt Gilliland explains that his Shadow team operates at the "borderlines" of the ROE, making snap judgements about whether a figure in the crosshairs is an insurgent or not.
"Hunters give their animals respect," he said, pausing to spit out a mouthful of chewing tobacco. "If you have no respect for what you do you're not going to be very good or you're going to make a mistake. We try to give the benefit of the doubt as to potential targets."
"You've got to live with it. It's on your conscience if a mistake is made. It's something you've got to carry away with you. And if you shoot somebody just walking down the street, then that's probably going to haunt you."
Although killing with a single shot carries an enormous cachet of kudos and respect within the sniper world, their most successful engagements have involved the shooting up to 10 members of a single IED team in a single engagement.
"The one-shot-one-kill thing is one of beauty, but killing all the bad dudes is even more attractive to us," said Staff Sgt Gilliland, whose motto is "Move fast, shoot straight and leave the rest to the counsellors in 10 years" and signs off his e-mails with "silent souls make .308 holes".
Whether Shadow team's work will ultimately make a difference in Iraq is open to question. No matter how many insurgents they shoot, there seems no shortage of recruits to plant bombs.
Col John Gronski, the overall United States commander in Ramadi, said there could not be a military solution. "You could spend years putting snipers out and killing IED emplacers and at the political level it would make no difference."
As they prepare to leave Iraq, however, Staff Sgt Gilliland and his men hope that they have bought a little more time for the country's politicians to fix peace and stability in their sights.
The world-record killing shot for distance was made by a Canadian sniper detachment in Afghanistan. The sniper unit stated the shot could never have been made with the ammunition they were issued when they left Edmonton, Alberta last winter, the triggerman said in a recent interview. The Canadian .50-calibre rounds have a maximum range of between 2,200 and 2,300 meters.
But the U.S. rounds given them in Afghanistan, they discovered, "fly farther and much faster," said Cpl. "Bill", a 26-year-old native of Fogo Island, Newfoundland.
The two-man Canadian team, coupled with American Sgt. Zevon Durham of Greenville, S.C., made the kill from 2,430 metres (that's nearly 2 1/2 kilometres (or over 1.5 miles) on the second shot.
Canadian Sniper Wearing "Gili" Suit
[attachment 15543 SniperCanada.jpg]
What makes Staff Sgt. Gilliland's shot in Iraq so impressive was that it was made with a much smaller calibered round and was accomplished in a single shot without spotting for correction. The difference between a .50 high calibered round and the much smaller .308 is considerable to say the least.