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The Army Ranger sniper who earned the nickname 'The Reaper' for killing more than 30 insurgents...
Daily Mail ^ | 18 January 2015 | Daniel Bates

Posted on 01/19/2015 1:41:07 AM PST by spetznaz

A sniper has told how he was given the nickname 'The Reaper' by his comrades in the military - after killing 33 men in less than four months.

Former Army Ranger Nick ‘Irv’ Irving using his trusty SR-25 rifle he nicknamed ‘Dirty Diana’ to blast insurgents to death during the Iraq War.

He was so possessive over ‘his girl’ as he called the gun, that he hated it when other men touched her and would spend four hours a night painting her.

Before every battle he would get pumped up to the sounds of men zipping their gear up with Velcro, which he likened to music being played to a high school football team.

Irving was trained to become a sniper by his superiors who told him that it was the biggest thrill of your life and that 'once you kill a man, you can’t replace that feeling.'

In Irving’s memoir, extracts of which were published in the New York Post, he tells how he became the first black sniper in the Army’s Third Ranger Battalion, which had previously fought in the ‘Black Hawk Down’ incident in Somalia.

Irving, who now runs a training site in San Antonio and blogs on special forces website sofrep.com

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


TOPICS: Military/Veterans; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: americansniper; bradleycooper; clinteastwood; irving; military; ranger; sniper; warnerbros
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To: spetznaz

Means justifying the end = end justifying the means. Mea culpa.


21 posted on 01/19/2015 5:01:39 AM PST by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
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To: spetznaz

Later


22 posted on 01/19/2015 5:05:51 AM PST by gaijin
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To: tired&retired

Like the tat. A ‘tribal’ made out of Grim Reaper sickles. It’s all a mind game.


23 posted on 01/19/2015 5:05:55 AM PST by PLMerite (Shut the Beyotch Down! Burn, baby, burn!)
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To: spetznaz

Call me a softy, but I still really like the movie:

SARGENT YORK


24 posted on 01/19/2015 5:12:03 AM PST by tired&retired
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To: DesertRhino
What with these modern snipers and all the death cult bravado talk? Hathcock was pretty quiet. Someone needs to explain to these guys about the “quiet pro”. It’s hard to get WWII and Vietnam guys to talk much at all. And Korean vets are very quiet. But this bunch cant shut up.

We old grunts don't talk,except to those who have been there and my old dad never talked about W W II in the pacific until my brother and i both had severed.('68-'70)

25 posted on 01/19/2015 5:19:03 AM PST by piroque ("In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act")
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To: Wolfie
The movie's already been made, and it's not about him

If and when American Sniper makes $300m domestic, what do you think will happen?

26 posted on 01/19/2015 5:27:12 AM PST by denydenydeny ("World History is not full of good governments, or of good voters either "--P.J. O'Rourke)
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To: piroque

Some heads?


27 posted on 01/19/2015 5:36:01 AM PST by Rick66
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To: DesertRhino

My son is currently an Army Ranger. They take the “quiet professional” concept very seriously. That does not mean you won’t have the occasional wing nut.


28 posted on 01/19/2015 5:55:52 AM PST by jdsteel (Give me freedom, not more government.)
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To: spetznaz

Really, these guys just need to STFU.

I admire them. I appreciate what they do for my Country. They are the Sheep dogs. But they are giving our enemies, but more importantly our allies or those that may be our allies, reasons or excuses not to support us.

Stone cold killers, trained and supported by our Government. Is that what we want the world to know about the U.S?


29 posted on 01/19/2015 7:20:28 AM PST by saleman (?)
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To: denydenydeny

“If and when American Sniper makes $300m domestic, what do you think will happen?”
_______________________________________________________

Liberal heads will continue to explode louder and more frequently.


30 posted on 01/19/2015 7:20:28 AM PST by july4thfreedomfoundation (Everytime the cash register rings in a gun store, a Founding Father gets his wings.)
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To: DesertRhino
What with these modern snipers and all the death cult bravado talk? Hathcock was pretty quiet. Someone needs to explain to these guys about the “quiet pro”. It’s hard to get WWII and Vietnam guys to talk much at all. And Korean vets are very quiet.

But this bunch cant shut up.

The psychology of 21st Century warriors is more similar to 19th Century soldiers, who spoke of the devotion to their cause and country in a way that 20th Century warriors found at best hokey. Civil War soldiers on both sides regularly spoke of "Riding with Stonewall", "Fighting with Sherman", "Fighting for our Rights", "Fighting to Preserve the Union".

The 20th Century dynamic was created by World war I, when individual heroism counted for little on the battlefield, and often life was just a crapshoot. Increased technology and improved weapons systems throughout the century made for some gruesome scenes of carnage.

Now, with improved kevlar and other protective devices and technology, coupled with the intense Team Training that happens in the U.S. Military, troops are more willing to open up about their wartime experiences. While many troops still suffer PTSD, there's more knowledge about how to treat it and the Team Building is one way for them to cope with it.

One more thing- Those WW I, WW II, Korean War, and Vietnam War soldiers were quiet and never talked about their war- they also suffered PTSD's in silence and were often alcoholics and violent. 21st Century warriors talk it out more like their 19th Century counterparts with either their fellow soldiers, a Psychiatrist, or a Pastor, and they can work through their emotional problems.

31 posted on 01/19/2015 7:48:09 AM PST by MuttTheHoople (Ob)
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To: tired&retired

**War and killing affects people in different ways.**

I thought of Sgt York and Audie Murphy when I read this thread, and how such things affected them.

Wonder if the American Indian warriors, Taliban fighters and mad muzzies have such problems as PTSD. They seemed to get a thrill out of killing and would brag about it for their entire lives.


32 posted on 01/19/2015 8:06:46 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: SunkenCiv

Seth Rogen: ‘American Sniper’ Is Equal to Nazi Propaganda

by Katie McHugh 18 Jan 2015

Actor Seth Rogen — along with fellow obese star Michael Moore — is unhappy with Clint Eastwood’s blockbuster, American Sniper, starring Bradley Cooper. Rogen is so unhappy, he compared the record-smashing film to a fake Nazi propaganda clip.

Rogen snarkily compares the lame Nazi parody film “National Pride,” shown in Quentin Tarantino’s movie, Inglourious Basterds, to Eastwood’s patriotic masterpiece. According to Rogen, defending American soldiers’ lives is exactly like being drafted into the Sonderkommando. One Twitter user issued a brutal response:

It’s unlikely that either Moore or Rogen, both of whom are grossly overweight, are familiar with the grueling regimen Cooper endured in order to respectfully represent the deceased Chris Kyle. It’s equally unlikely that either of them would have volunteered anything to make a sacrifice on behalf of veterans.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2015/01/18/seth-rogen-american-sniper-is-equivalent-to-nazism/


33 posted on 01/19/2015 8:15:36 AM PST by KeyLargo
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To: DesertRhino

I have been married to a Vietnam special forces vet for 32 years. He has never talked to me about it. When we first got married I tried to talk to him and very quickly realized it was a lost cause.


34 posted on 01/19/2015 8:28:20 AM PST by sheana
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To: july4thfreedomfoundation; Wolfie

My point is, the huge box office for AS means that, given Hollywood, we will get a The Reaper movie with Will Smith or Idris Elba.


35 posted on 01/19/2015 8:38:38 AM PST by denydenydeny ("World History is not full of good governments, or of good voters either "--P.J. O'Rourke)
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To: sheana

Agreed. That’s the norm that guys don’t talk about it, or if they do its even with a hint of embarrassment. That line about a good feeling or an ultimate thrill from killing a man is just psychotic.
Call me what you will, but this death cult taking over our culture is a bad thing. Moving into a zone where people are encouraged to think about it being “fun”. Mattis did it, Kyle did it, and now this guy. Its being modeled as the way to be cool.


36 posted on 01/19/2015 10:37:46 AM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: DesertRhino
But this bunch cant shut up.

It's the blogging and facebooking and myspacing and tweeting generation.

37 posted on 01/19/2015 10:39:59 AM PST by NorthMountain (No longer TEA Party ... I'm the TAF Party)
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To: KeyLargo
Yeah, the masks are off.
38 posted on 01/19/2015 1:34:39 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Podcast: Why Does Hollywood Hate A Hit Like “American Sniper?”
Hosted by Michael Graham.
4:37 PM, Jan 19, 2015 • By TWS PODCAST

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/podcast-why-does-hollywood-hate-hit-american-sniper_823976.html


39 posted on 01/19/2015 2:00:20 PM PST by KeyLargo
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To: DesertRhino
Greatest sniper of all time? When asked in 1998 how he had become such a good shooter, Häyhä answered "Practice." When asked if he regretted killing so many people, he said, "I only did my duty, and what I was told to do, as well as I could." During the Winter War (1939–1940) between Finland and the Soviet Union, Häyhä served as a sniper for the Finnish Army against the Red Army in the 6th Company of JR 34 during the Battle of Kollaa in temperatures between −40 °C (−40 °F) and −20 °C (−4 °F), dressed completely in white camouflage. Häyhä was credited with 542[4] confirmed kills of Soviet soldiers by Finnish military historian Robert Brantberg, while the documentary shown on Finnish channel MTV Oy stated 505 sniper-kills. [2][5] A daily account of the kills at Kollaa was made for the Finnish snipers. All of Häyhä's kills were accomplished in fewer than 100 days – an average of just over five kills per day – at a time of year with very few daylight hours. Simo "Simuna" Häyhä (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈsimɔ ˈhæy̯hæ]; December 17, 1905 – April 1, 2002), nicknamed "White Death"
40 posted on 02/02/2015 9:32:07 AM PST by smoky415 (Follow the money)
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