Tuesday, March 12, 2019

American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History by Chris Kyle

🌟🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. The Pentagon has officially confirmed more than 150 of Kyle's kills (the previous American record was 109), but it has declined to verify the astonishing total number for this book. Iraqi insurgents feared Kyle so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle earned legendary status among his fellow SEALs, Marines, and U.S. Army soldiers, whom he protected with deadly accuracy from rooftops and stealth positions. Gripping and unforgettable, Kyle’s masterful account of his extraordinary battlefield experiences ranks as one of the great war memoirs of all time.

A native Texan who learned to shoot on childhood hunting trips with his father, Kyle was a champion saddle-bronc rider prior to joining the Navy. After 9/11, he was thrust onto the front lines of the War on Terror, and soon found his calling as a world-class sniper who performed best under fire. He recorded a personal-record 2,100-yard kill shot outside Baghdad; in Fallujah, Kyle braved heavy fire to rescue a group of Marines trapped on a street; in Ramadi, he stared down insurgents with his pistol in close combat. Kyle talks honestly about the pain of war—of twice being shot and experiencing the tragic deaths of two close friends.

American Sniper also honors Kyles fellow warriors, who raised hell on and off the battlefield. And in moving first-person accounts throughout, Kyles wife, Taya, speaks openly about the strains of war on their marriage and children, as well as on Chris.

Adrenaline-charged and deeply personal, American Sniper is a thrilling eyewitness account of war that only one man could tell.

I had no idea that the book would go into so much detail about Chris's childhood and time in his life before the military. I thought that it was interesting to hear what life was like for him growing up. 
It was fascinating to learn more about life in the military and the struggles that they are forced to deal with on a daily basis. I know that many people refer to Chris as racist because of the way that he refers to certain groups of people in the book but I can see another side to it that I don't think that many people would understand. I don't have any SEALs in my family but I do have relatives that have served and I believe that it gives you a different outlook. They are essentially fighting for their lives  while watching their brothers die in front of them. It wouldn't surprise me if that turns into a us vs. them mentality. I'm not saying that racism is okay or that I approve of that in any way but I think that it is important to try to understand people from all walks of life so that we can empathize. 
At first, I was confused as to why his wife was narrating certain parts of the book but I quickly came to appreciate it. I enjoyed hearing her perspective because she  stayed at home and had to raise their children alone. She gave another level to the book because of her fear over if she would hear from her husband or get contacted by the military about his death. It was interesting to see the family that is left behind perspective and the emotions that they go through. 
























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