Bad guys in sergeant's sights were never safe

[quaoar]

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/114034421994550.xml&coll=2

Alabama-born sniper James Gilliland makes mark killing insurgents in Iraq

TOM GORDON
News staff writer
COLUMBUS, Ga. - When he was a boy in Winston County, James Gilliland would take aim with his Daisy BB gun and send wooden clothespins spinning on hisfamily's backyard clothes line.

The BB gun days are long gone, but Gilliland now is making his living by being good with a gun. The 28-year-old Double Springs native is an Army sniper.

He's spent the past year in Iraq, during which he headed a 10-member team that killed an estimated 200 insurgents in six months. His share of that total was about 70, including a man he dropped with one shot from seven-tenths of a mile.

The distance is considered a record for the weapon he was using, the standard Army issue M-24, a heavy-duty, scoped, bolt-action deer rifle. It fires a round known to civilian hunters as the .308 Winchester, and the bullet travels faster than the speed of sound.

[Mr_Spock]

1. Woot!

Killing can be cool!

[bluestateguy]

2. What is the point of this article?

I mean, I really don't know what it is.

[Canuckistanian]

4. He's the 21st century Audie Murphy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy
No doubt this is one of those "Pentagon propaganda pieces" we've heard about.
:puffpiece:

[quaoar]

3. This story is NOT an editoral

Don't know why it was moved here.

[Canuckistanian]

5. It's not "late breaking news" either

It's technically called a "background piece".

There's nothing really timely about it. Don't take offense, it's still relevant.

[Canuckistanian]

7. Sorry, I just noticed where it was placed

Contact the mod and let them know this should be in GD.

[jody]

6. Perhaps it shows the good and bad side of the same event, killing a human.

Soldiers do what they are ordered to do and in this case we have a sniper with exceptional skills to hit a target at ranges far beyond that for most people.

While a sniper's task is special, the result is the same as that of a pilot dropping bombs, artillery crews firing rounds, and urban warfare specialists assaulting buildings. We have crews in Nevada flying remotely controlled aircraft in Iraq and firing missiles at humans thousands of miles away. Being removed from the target does not alter the simple fact, someone in the U.S. military is directly responsible for killing another human.

War is hell and we need to blame congress for ordering young men and women into battle in a war that should never have been fought.

[pocket]

8. yay, he generated literally hundreds of orphans

who will want to fight us to the death

give the man a nice shiny medal!

[Solo_in_MD]

9. He also saved a number of lives, American and Iraqi

IEDs don't just kill Americans. Mixed feelings about pieces like this one. Yes its PR, but snipers have made a difference over there and more people are alive because of them.

[pocket]

10. BS

less people are alive because of them being there in the first place.

[Solo_in_MD]

12. If you are talking about the US invading Iraq you are right but if

you are talking about using snipers vs not using them you are mistaken

[Porcupine]

13. Sure thing, It's GOOD to kill other people as long as you

wear a US Army uniform and are in another country. We had effective sniper teams in Vietnam too. How did that turn out?

[Strelnikov_]

11. Yea, Right n/t