Now this is what I call one bad ass Marine:
He was 5 when he first fired an M-16, his father holding him to brace against the recoil. At 17 he enlisted in the Marine Corps, spurred by the memory of Sept. 11.
Now, 21-year-old Galen Wilson has 20 confirmed kills in four months in Iraq – and another 40 shots that probably killed insurgents. One afternoon the lance corporal downed a man hauling a grenade launcher 5½ football fields away.
Wilson is the designated marksman in a company of Marines based in downtown Ramadi, watching over what Marines call the most dangerous neighborhood in the most dangerous city in the world.
Here, Sunni Arab insurgents are intent on toppling the local government protected by Marines.
Wilson, 5-foot-6 with a soft face, is married and has two children and speaks in a deep, steady monotone.
After two tours in Iraq, his commanders in the 3rd Battalion, 8th Regiment call him a particularly mature Marine, always collected and given to an occasional wry grin.
His composure is regularly tested. Swaths of central and southern Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, are dominated by insurgents who regularly attack the provincial government headquarters that Marines protect.
During a large-scale attack on Easter Sunday, Wilson says, he spotted six gunmen on a rooftop about 400 yards away. In about 8 seconds he squeezed off five rounds – hitting five gunmen in the head. The sixth man dived off a 3-story building just as Wilson got him in his sights, and counts as a probable death.
"You could tell he didn't know where it was coming from. He just wanted to get away," Wilson said. Later that day, he said, he killed another insurgent.
Wilson says his skill helps save American troops and Iraqi civilians.
"It doesn't bother me. Obviously, me being a devout Catholic, it's a conflict of interest. Then again, God supported David when he killed Goliath," Wilson said. "I believe God supports what we do and I've never killed anyone who wasn't carrying a weapon."
[…]Technically, Wilson is not a sniper – he's an infantryman who also patrols through the span of destroyed buildings that make up downtown Ramadi. But as his unit's designated marksman, he has a sniper rifle. In the heat of day or after midnight, he spends hours on rooftop posts, peering out onto rows of abandoned houses from behind piles of sandbags and bulletproof glass cracked by gunfire.
Sometimes individual gunmen attack, other times dozens. Once Wilson shot an insurgent who was "turkey peeking" – Marine slang for stealing glances at U.S. positions from behind a corner. Later, the distance was measured at 514 meters – 557 yards.
"I didn't doubt myself, if I was going to hit him. Maybe if I would have I would have missed," Wilson said.
The key to accuracy is composure and experience, Wilson says. "The hardest part is looking, quickly adjusting the distance (on a scope), and then getting a steady position for a shot before he gets a shot off. For me, it's toning everything out in my head. It's like hearing classical music playing in my head."
Though Wilson firmly supports the war, he used to wonder how his actions would be received back home.
"At first you definitely double-guess telling your wife, mom, and your friends that you've killed 20 people," Wilson said. "But over time you realize that if they support you … maybe it'll make them feel that much safer at home."
He acknowledges that brutal acts of war linger in the mind.
"Some people, before they're about to kill someone, they think that – 'Hey, I'm about to kill someone.' That thought doesn't occur to me. It may sound cold, but they're just a target. Afterward, it's real. You think, 'Hey, I just killed someone,'" says Wilson.
Insurgents "have killed good Marines I've served with. That's how I sleep at night," he says. "Though I've killed over 20 people, how many lives would those 20 people have taken?"
Wilson plans to leave the Marines after his contract expires next year and is thinking of joining a SWAT Team in Florida – possibly as a sniper.
He could definately get on a SWAT team after discharging from the Marines but no one goes straight to that unit. Kinda funny how people think they can just sign up on a police department and ask for a specific assignment….not the way it works. But anyways, getting off track here.
Did you read that part about hitting 5 targets (in the head) at over 400 yards in 8 seconds? Holy mackeral this guy is good, and he isn't even in a recon unit as a sniper. Wtf is Recon thinking not getting this guy out of a regular infantry unit and into Recon….
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5 head shots, wasn’t it? With the 6th thinking he had better survival chances if he jumped from 3 stories than stay on the rooftop.
I read Lt. Col. Dave Grossman’s “On Killing” a number of years ago. It’s a pretty interesting book on the psychological impact of having killed in combat, and how the military, through such things as Pavlovian and operant conditioning, have made it possible since around the Korean War, to program more soldiers to actively participate in the act of killing. According to Grossman, before the Korean War, many soldiers would find other things to do on the battlefield…because the human instinct and societal conditioning not to kill another human being is so great, it was difficult to overcome. Grossman mentioned how snipers nowadays think of their marks in terms of “targets” rather than human beings. In the old days, you might fire at a bullseye target for training; but more effective conditioning is to have the target be realistically man-shaped, popping up and popping down for instant results when you score a hit.
Now that’s a healthy conscience. Glad he’s got his head screwed on straight. Not everyone is wired the same way, becoming the stereotypical traumatized, broken war-vet.