Autobiography of One of The Deadliest Special OPS Snipers
2015, ST. Martin’s Press, NY, 312 pages
Nicholas Irving saw action in Iraq and Afghanistan. His autobiography focuses on a few months in 2009, in Afghan territory, operating against the Taliban in intense heat. I nearly titled this review ‘Pemberton and I’, based on the intense working relationship Irving had with his partner and the horrible stuff they went through. At one point I was tempted to title it ‘Getting Our Ass Kicked by the Taliban.’
The book starts out with a lot of promise as the Rangers are the lowest rung on the special OPS ladder and get some of the worst details. But early in the book the strong hand of ghost writer Gary Brozek shows through as he tries to make Irving’s story palatable to liberal movie makers and a female reading audience by stressing the relationship Irving had with his fiancé. Then, a third through the book, Irving states flatly that once in country he did not think much of home and that he was basically married to his partner.
That joking statement would come back to haunt Irving and his fellow soldiers later on as they saw repeated instances of Talban and allied Afghan fighters going at it under the stars. The worst mess they had to clean up was after they shot up a bunch of naked hostiles with AK-47s who had been having an orgy in a tree line, including saran wrap and shoelace condoms. Of all of the special ops guys I have read Irving comes off as the least gung ho, most level-headed, guy. He had a special aptitude with his weapon and had received additional schooling which brought heightened responsibility on the battlefield. Over and over again he recounts how his partners saved him, took more risks than he did, and how damned lucky he was. The Reaper is really a tale of bonded men in terrible circumstances, who appreciated that their lot was much less terrible than that of the enemy, who they inflicted horrific casualties on.
Nicholas Irving the sniper really grows on the reader as a very mortal man in a very amoral situation. Chapter 5 thru 9 are downright harrowing. We find out how good the Chechen international fighters are, how varied the quality of Taliban fighters is, how crappy U.S. intelligence is—despite the fact they can see everything—and how badly our Rangers get hung out to die by some egg head behind a computer screen, and, redeemably, how good U.S. body armor is. After their longest battle Irving and his comrades counted so many bullet holes in their clothing that they thought they would have been wiped out without their body armor.
This is not a sniper story so much as an infantry story. Irving does not detail his kills like some lethal artist, but narrates how he was part of a 2 man weapons team attached to various Ranger, recon, DELTA and even a Marine unit. The use of snipers in combat has become integral to any infantry force that does not want to blindly take casualties. I some instances Irving was out of ammo and used his optics and laser to direct fire for other soldiers. The Ranger sniper comes across as more of a quarterback than anything, a specialized team leader in a combat team willing to abandon rank for effect. I recommend The Reaper for anyone interested in how the light infantry element functions once the U.S. puts ‘boots on the ground.’
I found myself astonished at how much the U.S. military can see from the sky even at night, and how terrible their functional intelligence remains. Irving’s account also brings to light the fact that ‘our best warfighters’ the various special operations units our military is renowned for, are, despite their superior training and equipment, unable to maintain contact with the enemy for very long as they can’t pack enough ammo.
The reader will also note that the three month combat tours make the 12 month tours and ‘short timer’ syndrome of Vietnam [which Giap noted as the fatal weakness of the U.S. ground forces] seem like a WWII level of commitment by comparison. It is glaringly obvious that U.S. ground forces will not be able to hold ground in Islamist theaters of operation any better than their grandfathers did in Vietnam. These troops go in and spend a month learning the battlefield against an enemy that has been living and fighting their continuously for decades, then they do a lot of damage for a month, and then it’s time to count down to go. Irving and some of the other more dedicated soldiers behaved very much as Chris Kyle was depicted in American Sniper, as they became almost manic to accomplish something in the short time they had to apply their hard won battlefield knowledge.
As lethal to the enemy, and as ridiculously self-defeating as this new type of warfare is, some things never change. The bravest soldier in Irving’s unit was their canine, named Bruno, who dodged howitzer rounds dropped by an AC 130 Gunship as he chased AK armed Taliban across the Afghan landscape.
In the end I was glad to have read this very informative book, and also that Irving and Pemberton made it home, and that Irving did not re-enlist.
