Way
Of The Reaper
by Nicholas Irving is presented in a similar fashion to the
old TV Combat series. Readers can experience the dangers of
the mission that snipers must face, seeing the war through
a sniper’s scope. They are also being placed in the
heart of the battle. The book confirms the US military values
of honor, courage, loyalty, and commitment.
Nicholas Irving spent six years in the Army's Special Operations
3rd Ranger Battalion 75th Ranger Regiment, serving from demolitions
assaulter to Master Sniper. He was the first African American
to serve as a sniper in his battalion. He set a record for
enemy kills on a single mission, killing 33 over a four-month
period. This book is the sequel to the New York Times bestseller,
The Reaper, where he recounts his ten greatest sniper kill
missions. Readers will get an insight into the art of being
a sniper: the necessity of support from the intelligence reports
to his own reconnaissance, and the skills needed of determining
trajectory, wind, and distance.
He noted, “We use the same skills as an athlete, observing
closely and making educated guesses. A baseball hitter must
guess the pitch location and type. A chess player must be
three moves ahead to anticipate their opponent’s moves.
We block out the senses and focus like athletes block out
the crowd.”
As with American Sniper’s Chris Kyle, Irving makes no
apologies for taking the life of someone who is threatening
his fellow soldiers, and agrees with Kyle that he sees himself
as a guardian angel sent to protect his teammates. He told
blackfive.net, “I actually refer to myself as ‘the
mother hen.’ I was given the nickname of the Reaper
because I batted 1000 in hitting my targets. My peers saw
me as ‘the Angel of Death.’ The motto that snipers
live by is ‘without warning; without remorse.’
We are hidden and there is no warning when we will fire and
I do not feel bad about it. For me, I never worried if the
bad guys are wearing a protective vest because of the high
caliber rounds. If they have a vest my attitude was, ‘there
is no such thing as a bulletproof facemask.’”
He also explains in the book how those fighting are disgusted
with political correctness. Speaking about someone in his
unit who was wounded, Irving observed “how we treated
their wounded (The Taliban) and how they would most likely
let us suffer and then die a horribly painful death.”
It should make Americans wonder if the rules of engagement
are one-sided, putting the enemy ahead of our own military
personnel.
This book has interesting and gritty stories about his time
as a direct action sniper. Readers get to feel they are part
of the battles as if they were Irving’s spotter.
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