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.
Hathock and his spotter took out an entire VC company in the course of three days, over a hundred men, leaving only one survivor. Sergeant May, like all of us interested in such things, thought/assumed those kills were confirmed.
Sergeant May (now retired) is a DSC winner. I'm sure one could look up his record, if one was so inclined.
In order to find out what the rifles themselves can do, you have to eliminate yourself as the factor. In other words, you have to literally put the rifle in a vise with a good machine rest and like I said, put one heck of a magnified scope on it. Anything over twenty five power is probably overkill.
Using the suggested velocity and bullet weight can shrink the groups a little bit but not as much as the rest and scope.
According to his book Hathcock was extremely frustrated in how a countersniper kept well out of range while using a valley's dense forest and bowl features to his advantage. One day he was told that the sniper was boldly moving about a high terrain feature confident that he was out of range. Seeing a troop-carrier with a 50 caliber machine gun mounted on it nearby he was inspired to modify it to single-shot with improvised sighting. Using that Carlos was able to kill that bothersome bug at two miles distance, more or less.
It was tragically ironic that he was on a similar troop carrier when it caught on fire under bobardment and gave him injuries severe enough to take him out of the war effort for good. Hathcock, as usual, rose above his personal self interest and sustained more damage than necessary while rescuing a fellow occupant from the vehicle.
"The sixth man dived off a 3-story building just as Wilson got him in his sights, and counts as a probable death."
LMAO.. better chances jumping off cuz facing a Marine Sharpshooter is a one way deal.. LOL
I agree. It was myself and a non-involved hobbyest friend on range-supplied sandbags. Results were consistent but if you're telling me that the German's product has a crappy lifetime I'll take your word for it.
I'm thinking of sharpening archery skills now that I learned that the county I moved to (Tennessee's Wilson Co.) hosts one of the national competitions. Can you believe actress Geena Davis came milimeters from qualifying for the Olympics in that field? True stuff. Keep keen!
Tell that to the jihadists he's sent to the demon called allah.
on the origiinal M-16, the cross-carrier pin was configured like a cotter pin. The side of the carrier that the head belonged in had a deeply chamfered opening to insert the pin into, burying the looped end of the pin below the carrier O.D. The length of the pin kept it from protuding beyond the carrier on the opposite side.
With the loop end of the pin on the wrong side of the carrier, you could easily get the assembled carrier into the receiver, but it only fired once. This prob was widely known by the time I got there Jul 67, but those there earlier learned the hard way sometimes......some names are on the Wall due to this :(
The new carrier and pin fixed this, as you simply cannot get the carrier into the receiver if the pin is placed into the carrier from the wrong side.
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Americans and Taiwanese were using Boys anti-tank rifles--- modified to use Ma Deuce barrels and ammo---back in the '50s to shoot at Red Chinese soldiers. They popped away at one another between little outpost islands that lay between Taiwan and the mainland.
There was also a lingering airwar going on, noteworthy for instance in the loss of a dozen or more U2s with Taiwan pilots.
The P5 Amtracs had gasoline engines and fuel tanks for a couple hundred gallons under the floorplates IIRC. Anyway, we lost quite a few to mines and that's why you'll see a lot of VN pictures with the Leatherheads riding on the roof. Plus the gravel crunchers could see and shoot back and also un-ass faster from the roof than having to wait for the front ramp to drop and get out that way.
Wow, are you smoking crack high speed?
Nice tip Fatuncle, I will keep that in mind when the moops come back for more.
Just wait until he goes through the Marine sniper school. He might be dangerous then.
You didn't kill twenty people. You killed twenty terrorists.
I remember reading, long enough ago that I cannot identify the source (a book on special ops, but I can't say which one) of a sniper in 'Nam, using a specially modified M-14, one with a silencer and a night scope, picking off most of a VC foot patrol that was walking along the top of a dike in a rice paddy. He started at the back and worked to the front, dropping them one by one, and none of them knew about it until one well up in line dropped a weapon as he went down and one in front turned to caution him to silence. I have no idea if any escaped.
I believe that particular article was about the silencer, come to think of it.
Why sure...they put their heads together...
Can't get a thought out of one so they bunch up.
Not crazy about seeing his picture posted or his name mentioned in the article..
2,500 yards with a 700 grain boattail bullet.
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