American Sniper - Boekje Pienter

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The “inkblot strategy” was working. Could those blots spread over
the entire city
Progress was never guaranteed, and even when we succeeded for a
while there was no guarantee things wouldn’t go backward. We had to
return to the area near the river around COP Falcon several times,
providing overwatch while the area was searched for caches and insurgents.
We’d clear a block, it would be peaceful for a while, then we’d
have to start all over again.
We worked a bit more with the Marines as well, stopping and inspecting
small craft, going after a suspected weapons cache, and even
running a few DAs for them. A few times we were tasked to check and
then blow up abandoned boats to make sure they couldn’t be used for
smuggling.
Funny thing: the SBU unit that had blown us off earlier heard
about how much action we were getting and contacted us, asking now
if they could come up and work with us. We told them thanks but no
thanks; we were doing just fine with the Marines.
We got into a certain rhythm working with the Army as they continued
cordoning off areas and searching them for weapons and bad
guys. We’d drive in with them, take over a building, and go up on the
roof for overwatch. Most times there would be three of us—myself and
another sniper, along with Ryan on the 60.
Meanwhile, the Army would move out to the next building. That
taken, they’d work their way down the street. Once they reached a certain
spot where we couldn’t see to provide them security, we’d come
down and move to a new spot. The process would start all over again.
It was on one of these ops that Ryan got shot.