A SPEC-OPS Sniper Has Earned Nickname of “The Reaper” After Killing 33 Insurgents In Less Than 4 Months

An American sniper is telling of how he was given the nickname ‘The Reaper’ by his comrades in the military – after killing 33 men in less than four months using his trusty Knights Armament SR-25 rifle.

Former Army Ranger Nicholas Irving said he was so possessive over ‘his girl’, which he affectionately named ‘Dirty Diana’, that he hated it when other men touched her and would spend four hours a night painting her.

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Former Army Ranger, Nicholas Irving

Irving was trained to become a sniper by his superiors who told him that it was the biggest thrill of your life and that “once you kill a man, you can’t replace that feeling.”

The memoir follows the release of director Clint Eastwood’s war drama, “American Sniper.” The film, based on the life of America’s deadliest sniper, Chris Kyle, who is credited with more than 160 kills during his four combat tours. The film exceeded box office expectations with projections toward a $105 million debut weekend gross.



In Irving’s memoir, extracts of which were published in the New York Post, he tells how he became the first black sniper in the Army’s Third Ranger Battalion, which had previously fought in the ‘Black Hawk Down’ incident in Somalia.

He was the son of two enlisted soldiers in Fort Meade, Maryland, but didn’t want to be in the Army until he got curious about weapons as a teenager.

24D130AC00000578-2915700-image-a-7_1421605337861He built himself a blowgun and eventually signed up, serving tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.

During his training his platoon sergeant told him: ‘After you kill a man, there’s no other feeling like it. Mark my words.

‘You won’t want to do any hunting again. The excitement of that will be gone. You won’t find any joy in it. Once you kill a man, you can’t replace that feeling.’

Irving’s first kill came outside of Ramallah when he was on the .50 caliber machine gun in a convoy of Stryker armored vehicles.

A car drove past them, stopped and drove towards them at speed. Irving’s supervisor said: ‘Take him out’.

Irving writes that he fired seven rounds and said: ‘I saw something explode inside the car. It wasn’t an IED, it was the man inside it. He turned into mist and chunks.’

Irving

His comrades shouted ‘Yeah!’ and ‘Get Some’.

Irving said he experienced a slow motion effect as he proceeded with his kill, describing the vividness of the smell of the suppressor’s burning gas as he saw his target collapse to the ground.

Keep reading @ Daily Mail