Page 38 - History of War - Issue 25-16

10 DEADLIEST SNIPERS

Nicholas Irving, aka ‘the
Reaper’, competing in a US
Army special operations
sniper competition in 2009

Above: Ranger snipers from
1st Battalion, 75th Ranger
regiment, practicing

Confirmed kills: 33
Longest shot: 807 metres (883 yards)

The marksmen of the US
Army Rangers are the
elite of the elite, and none
04.NicholasIrving more so than the Reaper

After initially wanting to join the Navy SEALs metres away, when he was infamously involved that due to the potential for collateral damage,
and being turned down because of his colour in a vicious nine-hour ambush, surrounded no bombs could be dropped. A machine-gun
blindness, Nicholas Irving went on to join by Taliban insurgents. Tasked with covertly team from the assault force managed to make
the US Army Rangers, serving for three and ini ltrating an area to coni rm the presence of it back to Irving and his team and suppressed
a half combat tours of Iraq and Afghanistan, a high-value target, Irving and his spotter were the insurgents enough to allow them to
eventually serving as a Sniper Team Leader. accompanied by a four-man reconnaissance withdraw to some marginally better cover.
He claimed his irst kill in Iraq, iring the .50-cal team. After coni rming the target, they linked up Targeted by an enemy sniper, Irving and his
machine gun of a Stryker infantry carrier. Later with a Ranger assault force who breached into partner managed to suppress him but were
in Afghanistan, all of his kills were made with the target compound. Just as they did so, all never sure of a kill. Eventually, the Rangers
his sniper rile, his preferred semi-automatic hell broke loose. won the i rei ght but not without loss. Two
7.62x51mm SR-25 that he named ‘Dirty Diana’. Irving and his team were taking machine-gun of the reconnaissance team were seriously
Earning his own nickname, ‘the Reaper’, his and RPG i re from all sides. The assault force wounded and a member of the machine-gun
longest range kill was against an insurgent was also pinned down in heavy contact with team tragically died later from his wounds. At
machine gunner who was part of a Taliban the enemy. The Rangers held off the swarms of the end of the i rei ght, Irving was down to his
ambush pinning down his Ranger platoon. His insurgents while frantically calling for close air last magazine and his partner had less than a
closest kill, on the other hand, was under ten support. When it arrived, the Rangers were told dozen rounds left.
Irving heard on the grapevine that the
“INAFGHANISTAN,ALL OF HIS KILLS WERE MADE WITH HIS SNIPER insurgent sniper was apparently killed years
later by a British Special Forces team. He
RIFLE,HISPREFERRED SEMI-AUTOMATIC 7.62X51MM SR-25 THAT retired from the army in 2013 as a master
sniper and went on to establish his own
HENAMED‘DIRTYDIANA’” shooting school and pen his autobiography,
suitably entitled The Reaper.

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