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American Sniper - Boekje Pienter

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point where we could no longer cover them well, we’d move up and<br />

take a new spot, and the process would start over again.<br />

Generally, we shot from roofs. They gave the best view and were often<br />

already equipped with chairs and the like. Most in the city were ringed<br />

by low-rise walls that provided protection when the enemy shot back.<br />

Plus, using the roofs allowed us to move quickly; the assault wouldn’t<br />

wait for us to take our time getting in position.<br />

If the roof was no good, we would shoot from the upper story, usually<br />

out of a window. Once in a while, we would have to blow a sniper<br />

hole in the side of a wall to set up a firing position. That was rare,<br />

though; we didn’t want to draw more attention to our position by setting<br />

off an explosion, even if it was relatively small. (The holes were<br />

patched after we left.)<br />

One day we set up inside a small office building that had been vacated<br />

some time before. We pulled the desks back from the windows<br />

and sat deep in the room; the natural shadows that played on the wall<br />

outside helped hide the position.<br />

THE BAD GUYS<br />

The enemies we were fighting were savage and well-armed. In just<br />

one house, the Marines found roughly two dozen guns, including machine<br />

guns and sniper rifles, along with homemade rocket stands and<br />

a mortar base.<br />

That was just one house on a long block. It was a nice house, in<br />

fact—it had air conditioning, elaborate chandeliers, and fancy Western

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