Posted on 07/29/2006 12:58:46 PM PDT by traumer
RAMADI, Iraq – 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.”
He was raised in a desolate part of the Rocky Mountains outside Colorado Springs, “surrounded by national parks on three sides,” he says. He regularly hunted before moving to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as a teenager. His brother also serves in the military.
Guns have long been part of Wilson's life. His father was a sniper in the Navy SEALS. He remembers first firing a sniper rifle at age 6. By the time he enlisted he had already fired a .50-caliber machine gun.
“My father owned a weapons dealership, so I've been around exotic firearms all my life,” said Wilson, who remembers practicing on pine cones and cans. “My dad would help me hold (an M-16), with the butt on his shoulder, and walk me through the steps of shooting.”
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.
Thank you for correcting my 1962-born ignorance. In truth I was doubtful of recollection when typing, but still knew that the weight factor (especially in the oven-like environments requiring long patrols) was integral toward the military's pursuit of a new weapon.
BTW fellas, I was a participant in the testing of the Baretta 9 mm versus the Colt .45s. Everyone I talked to overwhelmingly decided on the Colt over the far weaker and higher-maintenance automatic but you see how that went.
"650 meters almost every time without a rest and only iron sights with my M14."
Standing, too.....right?
Let a marine do what he does best: kill.
You can take an out of the box Colt H-BAR and be competitive with some of the big boys at the NRA high Power matches. You might have to red LOC-TITE the front sight.
Not so with a Mini. The Ruger platform isn't designed for any precision shooting or for that matter any serious plinking. Ten MOA groups are very common for a Ruger. By the time you're done trying to hit anything with a Mini, you have rebuilt the entire rifle.
The Mini-14 system isn't based on the M-14. It's based on the M-1 Carbine. That and a horribly manufactured barrel makes it close to junk. I have one and they are a lot of fun. It's sort like owning a very expensive SKS in .223.
The advantage over the M-14s was light weight, lighter weight of packed ammunition, far greater magazine capacities and no tell-tale PING! when the magazine was expended.
LOL - I tried to include a picture of the US sniper, but when I Googled "saving private ryan sniper" and clicked on images, the first few were of the German sniper, in sequence, getting it back up his scope.
No good images of Barry Pepper though as the sniper.
I didn't miss anything. You still don't get it.
First thought is...Nutty to uncover this Marine's ID. All I can think of is..."Loose lips...". Now, the local terrorists have a target ... his family... This is just palin crazy.
AS I SAID I'm not in any way saying that Ruger rifles are superior to Colts. I said they're performance is comparable during a short term (I had a barely-used Mini-14 borrowed from a friend) and that it's accuracy rivaled that of the nearly-as-new AR-15.
You aught to own up to the fact that most Colts need a lot of tweaking before being match-worthy due the faults inherent in mass manufacturing. While they're the best at what they do, what they do isn't perfect.
But hey, this thread's supposed to be about a valiant Marine and his astounding accomplishments in Iraq.
I never corrected him about cartridge weight. I corrected him about the the mistaken rifle which he has already politely acknowledged. He was writing about an 8 round rifle that goes "PING" on the last shot instead of a rifle that normally uses a twenty round box magazine.
One day in Jan '68 we got the first revision (M-16A1, I think). What they told us about the improvements was increased carrier/receiver clearance (dirt jams); a revision to the cross-carrier pin so that you could not put it in backwards and jam solid upon firing the first round; and the carrier ram in the stock now had a damper in it to slow the firing rate (maybe less spring tension, too). Other than the new 5-slot flash suppressor that replaced the 3-slot, I can't recall anything further.
I do write for the lurkers out there just as much as the poster whom I'm addressing. I hope you don't offense to what I'm writing.
I have mounted 25 power varmint scopes on both the Mini and the AR. If you say that you have had equal accuracy out of both rifles, I can't disagree with that. In my experience, the Ruger is close to an embarrassement for an American gun company. There is nothing a shade tree mechanic can do to make them shoot close to what a normally built rifle should do. This is not to say the Colts, Bushmasters and Armalites are the most accurate firearms on the planet. It is saying the Rugers are horrible and the design should have been scrapped. The barrels are terrible and the mounting system is just plain wrong. The Mini-30's are even worse.
My sentiments are the same as yours ! WTF??
From what the vets I had the privelege to work with told me, the only thing one could do was throw a cleaning rod down the barrel forcefully and hope it either loosened the problem or forced the impacted round to fire upon contacting the pin. I heard fingers were lost due to carelessness.
We need a battalion of these men.
We've got several of them!
You are right. I've burned powder since I was knee high to a grasshopper. I had some difficulty in adjusting to the M-16 due to it's straight configuration as compared to the classic form of the modern rifle. Also, I grew up using open iron V sights, and did not like the peep sight. All in all, I had some problems adjusting to the weapon.
Did well with the M60 light machine gun, and quite well with the .45 caliber pistol.
Dude, that's 27 more confirmed than good 'ole Hathock was credited with during his tours!
Wasn't Sgt. Hathock also the pioneer of .50-cal sniping (using the 'ole Ma Deuce no less)?
Name Conflict Service Confirmed Kills
Simo Haya WWII Finland 500+
Nikolay Yakovlrvich WWII Russia 496
Suko Kolkka WWII Finland 400+
Ilyin Vassili Zaitsev WWII Russia 400
Matthias Hetzenauer WWII Germany 345
Ludmilla Pavlichenko WWII Russia 309
Sepp Allerberger WWII Germany 257
Billy Sing WWII AIF 150
Aldelbert Waldron III Vietnam US Army 109
Chuck Mawhinney Vietnam US Marines 103
Neville Methven WWI South Africa 100+
Eric R. England Vietnam US Marines 98
Carlos N. Hathcock Vietnam US Marines 93
Thomas R. Leonard Vietnam US Marines 74
Helmut Wirnsberger WWII Germany 64
Joseph T. Ward Vietnam US Marines 63
Herbert W. McBride WWI US with Canada 60+
George Filyaw Vietnam US Marines 56
Gary Reiter Vietnam US Marines 50+
Raymond W. Westphal Vietnam US Marines 49
James C. Peters Vietnam US Marines 43
T.B. Graves Vietnam US Marines 43
Lynn Bushnell Vietnam US Marines 43
Daniel L. Greene Vietnam US Marines 42
Joe York Vietnam US Marines 42
K. Tanang Vietnam North Vietnam & 41
East Timor
Tom Ferran Vietnam US Marines 41
James Gularte Vietnam US Marines 40
R.D. Bundy Vietnam US Marines 40
Michael E. Duncan Vietnam US Army 40
William Lucas Vietnam& US Marines/ 38
Panama US Army
John M. Perry Vietnam US Marines 37
Dennis Oscier Vietnam US Marines 36
Bill E. Nation Vietnam US Marines 35
Riel WWI Canada 30
Clifford L. Wallace Vietnam US Marines 27
Craig McGary Vietnam US Navy 26
Jim O’ Neil Vietnam US Marines 25+
Lloyd Crow Vietnam US Marines 23
Jim Lever Vietnam US Marines 20+
Bobby J. Lee Vietnam US Marines 18
Craig Roberts Vietnam US Marines 18+
Ed Kugler Vietnam US Marines 17
Joshua Hamblin Iraq US Marines 17
Gary J. Brown Vietnam US Navy 17
Karl H. Grosshans Vietnam US Marines 16
Owen Mulder Iraq US Marines 15
Greg Kraljev Vietnam US Marines 15
Frank Grieci Iraq US Marines 15
Timothy Dunn Vietnam US Marines 14
Joseph McElheny Iraq US Marines 13
Thomas R. Cohenour Vietnam US Army 13
Ron Szpond Vietnam US Marines 12
William B. Martin Vietnam US Marines 12
Ray Lafon Vietnam US Marines 5+
Gabriel J. Gradney Vietnam US Marines 4
Tom Rutter Beirut US Marines 4
Dan Barker Vietnam US Marines 3+
Chuck Kramer Beirut US Marines 3+
Alan Bruce Hartung Vietnam US Marines 3
Dave Dayter Iraq US Marines 3
Colin McGee Vietnam US Marines 3
Frank Roberts Beirut US Marines 2+
Robert Miles Vietnam US Army 2
Jonathan Crumley Beirut US Marines 2
Eric L. Haney Beirut US Army 1
David Baldree Beirut US Marines 1
Earl Schooley Panama US Marines 1
Andres Benevides Beirut US Army 1
Jacob Heal Iraq US Marines 1
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