American Sniper - Boekje Pienter

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run. They were extremely down-to-earth, very humble about their
achievements. I absolutely wished I was going back out with them.
CIVILIANS AND SAVAGES
The offensive in Ramadi had yet to start, officially, but we were getting
plenty of action.
One day, intel came in concerning insurgents planting IEDs along
a certain highway. We went out there and put it under surveillance.
We’d also hit the houses and watch for ambushes on convoys and
American bases.
It’s true that it can be difficult to sort out civilians from insurgents
in certain situations, but here the bad guys made it easy for us. UAVs
would watch a road, for example, and when they saw someone planting
a bomb, they could not only pinpoint the booby-trap but follow the
insurgent back to his house. That gave us excellent intel on where the
bad guys were.
Terrorists going to attack Americans would give themselves away
by moving tactically against approaching convoys or when coming
close to a base. They’d sneak around with their AKs ready—it was very
easy to spot them.
They also learned to spot us. If we took over a house in a small
hamlet, we would keep the family inside for safety. The people who
lived nearby would know that if the family wasn’t outside by nine
o’clock in the morning, there were Americans inside. That was an open
invitation for any insurgent in the area to come and try to kill us.
It became so predictable, it seemed to happen according to a time
schedule. Around about nine in the morning you’d have a firefight;