American Sniper - Boekje Pienter

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After a while, I figured it was true.
My parents had been nervous the entire time I was away. They
wanted to see me as soon as I got home, and I think my need to keep
to myself at first probably hurt them more than they’ll say. When we
finally did get together, though, it was a pretty happy day.
My dad took my deployment especially hard, outwardly showing
his anxiousness a lot more than my mother. It’s funny—sometimes the
strongest individuals feel the worst when events are out of their control,
and they can’t really be there for the people they love. I’ve felt it
myself.
It was a pattern that would repeat itself every time I went overseas.
My mom carried on like the stoic one; my otherwise stoic dad became
the family worrier.
SCHOOLED
I gave up part of my vacation and came back from leave a week early
to go to sniper school. I would have given up much more than that for
the chance.
Marine snipers have justifiably gotten a lot of attention over the
years, and their training program is still regarded as one of the world’s
best. In fact, SEAL snipers used to be trained there. But we’ve gone
ahead and started our own school, adapting a lot of what the Marines
do but adding a number of things to prepare SEAL snipers for our
mission. The SEAL school takes a little more than twice as long to
complete because of that.