" Long Shot "
SSgt Rick Lawson
26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU)
1345 hours, March 6th ,2011
Fallujah, Iraq
Believe it or not, sometimes its easier to tell the bad guys from the good guys. When three men drive up in a black Mercedes wearing ski mask's when it's a hundred and two degrees outside…that's called a clue.
"Fucking ski masks" Sergeant Lou Castillo was hunched over his spotting scope cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth.
"You would think a turban or something" Rick Lawson replied observing the deal through his 10x power scope*.
They were set up atop an shelled apartment complex, with an effective visual range of a thousand yards. For two days they have been observing the local population and radioing in observational intelligence to command.
Just as Castillo keyed up his mike a white truck drove up in the square. Three more men in ski masks exited one carrying a large silver briefcase.
"Roger HQ we have visual on to vehicles, a white truck, no tailgate, and a Black Mercedes car." Castillo took a breath "Approximately six armed males in sight, all wearing ski mask's and shemagh's"
"Copy Sierra Tango one, do you have a shot over"
Castillo stubbed out his cigarette and keyed up again. "Affirmative my shooter has a shot, how do you advise over"
"Hold on" the radio grew silent as the sniper team sat there observing the exchange below them.
"You are clear to engage hostiles"
"Two and scoot HQ, or one and done" Castillo had his eyes pressed to the glass of his spotting scope.
"Negative Sierra Tango one, we are sending an Infantry patrol your way, stay and keep their heads down, Command wants that briefcase".
"Affirmative command engaging" Castillo looker over to Lawson "Keep their heads down…I think he means take their heads off"
Lawson grinned "How many yards Lou"
Castillo had pulled out his M16 spotters rifle, equipped with a 5x power ACOG* sight and a heavy barrel and target action it was the designated marksmen's* weapon of choice.
"three hundred forty yards" Castillo was making adjustments to his own weapon "So your set dead on for five hundred, hold two inches low, or two clicks down"
Lawson adjusted the sight turrets on his scope "any windage I need to account for"
Castillo was looking down his sight "not enough to worry about man"
"Fair enough", three hundred yards were well within his weapons capability. The M40 A3 bolt action sniper rifle was a sub minute of angle gun*, designed to be able hit a mans torso at a thousand yards.
"Shooter ready" Castillo whispered
Lawson had his crosshairs dead center of the man holding the briefcase "Ready, I got ski mask briefcase"
"Excellent, Ill take the follow up shot on his buddy on the left, fire when ready" Castillo placed his finger on the trigger.
Lawson steadily applied pressure to the trigger, breathing smoothly he fired. The man dropped dead where he stood a small corona of blood formed then disappeared.
Castillo fired dropping his target "Dropped like a sack of shit, reengaging!"
Lawson shifted to another man crouched behind the Mercedes, he only had the top half of his torso open. Not an entirely easy shot but not too difficult either. He fired knocking the man on his ass.
Castillo let loose two rounds at a running target one falling behind and kicking up a splash of sand the other hit his thigh. The man fell and scrambled to his feet before Castillo hit him with a quick cleanup shot to the chest.
Gunfire raked their position as the remaining targets were firing wildly with assault rifles and other small arms.
"Do they see us!" Castillo yelled
"Naw their just shooting blind keep at it" Lawson pulled off a hasty shot catching one in the shoulder. But the 308.* caliber round still carried sufficient force to knock him to the ground.
Castillo had pinned down the last man behind a building with his rifle "Command we have neutralized the targets with one pinned down"
"Copy…hold off a little longer"
"Oh shit Lou we got more coming" Lawson looked through his scope insurgents were pouring in through the entrance to the square.
"Shit" Lou grabbed his rifle and keyed up "Command we got a lot of hostiles converging on our position over!"
"Sierra Tango One hold your position, and do not let them take that briefcase over!" A new voice came on the radio "Do you read" the voice had a English accent.
"Roger that's our fucking briefcase!" Castillo threw down the mike and got back on his weapon.
"You boys can do it just hold on, out"
Lawson fired dropping a insurgent making a grab for the briefcase, Castillo had thumbed his selector switch switching to burst and was busy pumping rounds into the group of men trying to set up an RPK
"This is your support, were pinned down by a apartment complex by sniper fire, we've taken one casualty can you see him over. More English accents came through the radio.
"Hold up" Lawson grabbed his rifle and moved it to the opposite side of the house. He looked through his scope. Scanning the complex a lone man stood in the balcony of the fourth floor holding a long barreled rifle of some sorts.
Making quick calculations he estimated he was close to eight hundred yards, he adjusted his turret ten clicks up. A lone flag whipped lazily, so wind was not that heavy. He turned five clicks left. Although at that range he had to adjust for spin drift*. What snipers called Kentucky windage he worked out the formula. Rough but the shot should be close enough to at least scare the sniper off.
Taking a deep breath he held and fired…after a half second the sniper fell over
"Did you fucking see that!" Lawson yelled to his spotter*.
"No I'm busy holding off these assholes get over here and help me!" Castillo was swapping mags adding to a pile already five high by their feet.
"Coming!" Rick moved his rifle back over by his spotter "I just nailed a guy eight hundred yards out"
Castillo looked at him "No shit"
Lawson was loading more bullets into his rifle "Id never shit you man you're my favorite turd"
Gunfire came across the square as five men wearing tactical gear eliminated the remaining hostiles. One of them raised his weapon to signal them..
Lawson and Castillo grabbed their gear and descended to street level. Lawson walked over to the briefcase and grabbed it.
"Hey hand it over mate" A man wearing a skull baklava and Oakley's held out his hand
"Took your sweet time getting here" Castillo walked over.
"Busy city…now the briefcase" The mans squad mates walked over and were standing around them.
"We were told to hold this case" Lawson told him
"Yeah and now we're taking it" The skull faced operator just stood there
Castillo pulled out his pistol "fuck off"
The other operators drew their weapons "Isn't worth it Yank"
Lawson looked around at all the weapons pointed at him "Fuck you" and handed over the case.
"We got the case moving out" the man spoke into his headset. The operators SF guys started walking off. One stayed behind and looked at Rick he was a tall brawny guy with a Mohawk.
"You the sniper that made that shot" he spoke in a Scottish brogue.
"Yeah" Lawson replied still pissed
"Keep your ears open, you may hear from us…stay sharp" and with that the man walked off following his buddies.
"Sierra Tango One, do you have control of the case" Their radio squawked.
"No some fucking SF guys rolled up and took it" Castillo responded
"Roger, evac is on the way stay sharp"
"Affirmative command" Castillo lit a cigarette "What the fuck man, those assholes just roll up and take off, who the fuck were those guys!"
Lawson shrugged "don't know man don't know"
They stood there amidst the wreckage of the firefight that happened merely minutes before waiting for evac.
Note: Not doing the glossary because I think you guys are idiots…just thought it was a cool feature.
10x Scope - standard scout sniper scope, fixed 10x magnification used for mid range deployments.
ACOG - mid range tactical sight manufactured by Trijicon.
Designated Marksmen - A sharpshooter that is not a sniper that is deployed with infantry squads and carries a more accurate modified M-16.
Sub Minute of Angle Gun - Phrase comes from "Minute Of Angle Gun" which means it can shoot within an inch target space at a hundred yards, two inch space within two hundred yards, or ten inch space at a thousand yards etc and so on.
So a "Sub Minute Of Angle Gun" can shoot under and inch within a hundred yards, and depending on how far under a minute of angle a 3 inch target space at a thousand yards.
Spotter - most think the spotter is the less qualified shooter, but in many cases the spotter is the better shooter making the critical calculations needed for a kill shot.
Read and Review - Well That means Read and Review thanks for reading!
- T.D.F