Shooter: The Autobiography of the Top-Ranked Marine Sniper [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Let's face it -- there are great authors and there are great warriors, but great author-warriors are few and far between. "Shooter" proves this point, even when the warrior has an author helping him to write the book. "Shooter" is about Gunnery Sergeant Jack Coughlin, a USMC sniper. That he is one of the best there is no doubt. Although his career spans further, we see Coughlin in Somalia and Iraq, not really stopping anywhere else in between (which is too bad). Nevertheless, Coughlin comes across as the outstanding Marine that he is, and the reader will agree with the assessment of one of Coughlin's superior officers who states, "I'm just glad [Couglin's] on our side."

"Shooter", however, gets mixed up on what it wants to be: an insightful, introspective look into the mind of a man who is, after all, a professional killer (among other things) or a look at the life of a Marine specialist on the front lines. In the end, Shooter fails to deliver enough of either, and that is disappointing. With regard to the "insight" part of the book, Coughlin dutifully tell us that he holds no illusions about what his job is and what that means, how he never feels good taking human life, and how sometimes his targets show up in his dreams. On the other hand, he spends an incredible amount of time in the book complaining about how he is being left behind from the action in Iraq, which is essentially him complaining about not having enough opportunities to go out and kill people. Coughlin doesn't go into enough detail about how his job affects him personally for the reader to really care about how the job might affect him personally. For example, Coughlin experiences marital troubles that are all too common in military families. But this area is treated in such a cursory manner that the reader is left to wonder what happened, e.g., was it the strain of being apart, did Coughlin's wife realize she was waking up next to a professional killer every morning, or what? The point is that we don't know and we don't really care because Coughlin never gives the reader enough to care about.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't necessarily care about the lack of the touchy-feely stuff, as long as the book has some good, rip-roaring war stories to tell. And there are some good moments in "Shooter". Most of all, the reader will be amazed at how good this guy is at his job when he is allowed to do it and especially when he is allowed to do it in a manner that maximizes his talents. The unfortunate part of being a great sniper, however, is that there is very little drama involved in shooting people who are, for the most part, either too far away to shoot back at you or simply not aware that you are even there. Coughlin makes up for this by giving a good look at life on the front lines and some really cool insight into the technical part of being a sniper. I think this could have been maximized even more if the book had been entitled "Shooters", and it had been about the entire group of snipers Coughlin deployed with, instead of just being about him. In that way, some of the other characters could have been developed a little more and the action could have kept going a little more (read Robert Mason's "Chickenhawk" and you'll see what I mean). As it is, we learn much more about Coughlin's crusade to have snipers used in a much more active fashion on the battle field than we do about the people around him, and his crusade just isn't that interesting, plain and simple.

Don't get me wrong -- this is a solid book, and I am thankful for Coughlin's service and for the fact that he is on our side. And I'm sure Coughlin has some wicked stories; I just wish he had shared a few more of them with us.

I have been a Marine sniper for Ten years and a sniper instructor for 3 of those years. I have never heard of this man until this book came out. Reading it only part of it do to my anger at this book being called a true story I must urge the reader to view it as pure fiction written by someone trying to self promote himself as something is not. No unit commander or Scout/Sniper team leader would allow these things to happen. They have no tactical value and would be down right fatal to someone who tried. There is no such thing as the lone sniper anymore in the Marine Corps we always work as a team of two at the very minimum. We live by simple rules always "ONE IS NONE, TWO IS ONE". With this as a base fundamental for a Marine Sniper and all other Snipers in the Service. Confirmed kills started in Vietnam and ended shortly after it was a way for commanders to verify what snipers were claiming, as in enemy killed, it required searching of each and every person you killed. As for a ranking system for snipers in the Marine Corps I have never heard of one. Snipers are viewed as a team never as individualsHogs in the Shadows: Combat Stories from Marine Snipers in Iraq your team was successful never the individual. If you want to read TRUE stories about snipers in the Marine Corps read "Hogs in the Shadows" by Milo S. Afong. True stories told by Scout/Snipers To Scout/Snipers. To all of you who read this and believed it I am sorry but this would be a good work of fiction.

Make no mistake, I have great respect for Coughlin and his 20 years of service to Corps and country. I am a former Marine. I served with Hotel Company 2nd BN 5th Marines in Viet Nam, mainly in the Arizona Territory, Go Noi Island, and into the Que Son mountains around An Hoa.

I bought this book with anticipation of an honest, no nonsense account of the opening of the Iraq war from the perspective of a senior enlisted Marine. Sadly, it was supremely disappointing on many levels.

One should not automatically assume that having a story to tell makes you a writer. Like every other craft (including that of a sniper) it takes training, experience, and time to develop. Clearly, Mr. Coughlin is not a writer. His style was amatuerish, his use of language unnatural, and the overall focus missplaced. For this I also fault the editors and any others I assume were supporting his work. There is no mistaking that Mr. Coughlin thinks a lot of himself. After all, he single handedly saved "The Main" by killing one Iraqi machine gunner. He singlehandedly changed Marine Corp doctrine with his 'mobile sniper concepts'. (Perhaps he was not aware that Marine snipers ARE mobile and have been for some time. Helicopter insertions of snipers occured regularly in Viet Nam. He should read Hathcock's book.) After the first chapter I was bored and put off at how often he patted himself on the back. Who identified him as the Top Rated Sniper? He never explained (although he never let you forget!) Every Marine is a rifleman. A sniper is a highly trained rifleman. They performed a sepcialized task. However, if body count is the measure, then I fully believe that the average grunt Marine during the same period of time in that conflict had a higher 'count' than him. Too often he spoke of "the battles the 5th Marines were in" while he was back with the headquarters company. I would have liked to hear more about that. The book lacked this perspective and that of other Marines and could have benefitted from more documented facts about the fight. Again, I respect him as a Marine and for his achievements. I don't really fault him as much as I am disappointed. He should read "Fields of Fire" by James Webb to see how a first hand account of personal experiences in combat should be done.

Semper Fi