Chris Kyle
Former Chief Special Operator, U.S. Navy SEAL Sniper
COURTESY OF WILLIAM MORROW
Iwas born in Odessa, Texas, and we moved all over the state. I went to college at a smaller farm school
for two years, but I decided I was going to be a cowboy
for a living. I grew up a hunter. I started out with a BB
gun, moved on up into a rifle and shotgun, hunting
deer, turkey, quail and pheasant.
I was brought up extremely patriotic and always
wanted to be in the military. I wanted to be a Marine.
But in 1999, when I went to the Marine recruiters, they
were gone to lunch. The Army recruiter pulled me in,
told me about the Special Forces and about Rangers.
Well, I was a little discouraged because, with Special
Forces, you had to be an E- 5 [sergeant]. As I was leav-
ing to think it over, the Navy recruiter pulled me in
and said, “Well, you can be a SEAL right now.”
I had chosen the Intelligent Specialist [IS] rating.
I went through IS school at Dam Neck, Va. At Mil-
lington, Tenn., on a holding pattern waiting for classes
to form up at Basic Underwater Demolition School
[BUDS], I worked for the SEAL detailers, answering
phones and working out every day prepping myself for
BUDS. The hardest thing about BUDS was constantly
being cold, wet and sandy. The yelling didn’t bother me.
My dad was definitely a stricter man.
My first deployment was the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as
a heavy machine gunner that sat up top on a three-seater
DPV [desert patrol vehicle] — a dune buggy. I had been
nominated for sniper before we deployed. You had to
prove yourself as a new guy and then your chief had to
nominate you. So, upon returning, I went to the sniper
school, learning cameras, stalking and shooting.
The majority of a sniper’s job is not to shoot, but to
gather intel, be the eyes and ears for your guys. You’ve
got to learn all the different radio systems and everything to do with a camera — how to get the best exposure and be able to get pictures day or night. In Spec
Ops, we get the latest, greatest toys: top-of-the-line
weapons, scopes. We are very well taken care of in
that respect.
The most difficult thing about being a sniper is just
sitting there trying to be patient, waiting endless hours or
days, just watching people. It just comes down to professional discipline.
I am officially credited with 150 kills. My guys
around me made it super easy. I never went in by
myself; I always had my security and fellow snipers
with me. I have the feeling of personal satisfaction that
I was doing good, protecting my guys, being the eyes
in the sky. I could stop someone from injuring our
guys or innocent civilians, and wasn’t damaging anything else around. I was just taking out the target and
that was it.
I left the Navy in November 2009 after almost 11
years to save my marriage. With all deployments, even
when you’re at home, training takes you out of the area.
I didn’t know my kids like I should. So I got out and
saved my marriage and have a great relationship now.
Now I’m president of Craft International, a security
and training contracting company in Dallas. We provide
training to the government to get guys ready before they
deploy, teaching them different things that I had
learned. Just trying to, in our own way, give back. ;
“I have the feeling of personal satisfaction that I was doing good, protecting
my guys, being the eyes in the sky. I could stop someone from injuring our
guys or innocent civilians, and wasn’t damaging anything else around. I was
just taking out the target and that was it. “
