American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History

American Sniper, The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History was written by the late Navy Seal Chris Kyle. Because of my military background I found the book extremely interesting but I also believe it would be enjoyed by civilians having never served. Chris was an ordinary guy. He grew up of a middle class, Christian family in Texas. He went to high school, tried college and did some time as a real cowboy working on a ranch. He went on to join the military and become a Seal, a feat in itself considering that only 10% of the sailors who enter the rigorous training program go on to complete it. He continued on to be one of the best Seal snipers in history. Writing was not one of Chris's fortes though. His book is written in plain language and can be rough at times. I found that down to earth, every day, brutally honest, not sugar coated approach very appealing. Others, who are looking for a great literary piece may not. American Sniper is not all blood and guts, as many war stories are. It is heartfelt. It has some graphic details but it also shows emotion, good and bad. Chris talks of his loves; God, Country and Family, even telling of the trouble he sometimes had with the order of Country and Family. It includes sections written by Chris's wife Taya that show the emotion the military family waiting at home experiences. My wife read the book and loved it. Having been a military spouse for many years and very politically involved she had heard Chris's story on the news, bought and read his book and recommended it to me. She could relate to many of the stories, having heard me tell similar ones. I served as a Seabee, performing some of the tasks for the Seals that Chris discusses. Our paths may have crossed somewhere in Kuwait or Iraq but I didn't know him personally. However, reading his story made me feel like I did. It is rare for someone with his experiences to relay them to others, especially the world in a book and especially to do it so well. After a short introduction, the book chronicles Chris's life. It starts with his childhood in Texas, goes through his teenage years and on to college. He writes very candidly about the things he did and mistakes he made. He appears to have had a bit of a wild streak, getting into an occasional fight, riding bulls and then broncos in the rodeo before getting hurt, eventually giving up college to become a cowboy then joining the military. He tells of wanting to be in the action, not in a military job on sidelines. He details boot camp and then on to BUDS (Seal training). Chris is extremely patriotic and truly believed in his mission of defending our country. He takes the reader through each deployment, including the enemy, kills he made, his comrades, injuries he and others received, working with the Marines, the Seabees, the Polish Grom (special forces) and even the heartbreak of loosing friends to the war. Toward the end of the story he tells of the difficult decision he faced in leaving his career and his brothers in arms for his beloved family. Chris's story has action, emotion, patriotism, sacrifice and most of all the sense of a very humble man doing a job most could never even imagine. From where I served, supporting missions of men like Chris, I may have a little better understanding of the things he's done and experienced, but his story, told not in a format for military but for civilians truly gives the reader insight into the heart of warriors like Chris and many who serve our country. With chapter titles like; "The Devil of Ramadi", "Man Down", "The Punisher", "Family Conflicts", "Down in the Shit", "Dealing Death", "Mortality" and "Home and Out", it is evident that this is much more than a war story. I highly recommend it for everyone. It educates readers on what our military members do for our country and I hope gives them a greater appreciation for their sacrifice.

The book reads like a military thriller. There are times in his narration that you forget this is true. The segments and stories are ones that draw you in to the ugly side of war. It is reality. I served in Iraq myself and many of the battles that Chris describes in the book are ones that I was familiar with. Although I never saw nearly the action that he did, I knew of those battles. He describes the hell that is war. He describes the insurgents, or savages as he calls them, and what they would do. He describes the firefights and the battles in such detail. His recollection of these incidents as he takes you through them lets you see inside the life of a silent professional, the life of a SEAL. Although it might not be the most eloquent prose you can find in a book, he is a Navy SEAL not a professional writer. I have read some of the comments online and many make it seem as though he is an arrogant man just wanting everyone to know how good he is. These people have obviously not read the book. He points out in the book that his main reason for writing it was because other people were planning on writing about his story and he wanted to make sure that the proper people got credit. He constantly talks through the pages about how he is not the most skilled sniper, but he is lucky and was surrounded by great people. Through his narration you get to see the teamwork that occurred to accomplish the numbers he did, and the pure luck at times. He constantly praises the soldiers and Marines that he was with. You get the sense of a humble man, one reluctant to tell the story but does so in order to honor those who surrounded him. The hardest parts to read were the loss of his friends. He tells the story of Marc Lee, a story I know through his mother Debbie's activism after his death. He also tells the story about how Ryan Job was wounded. You could tell the sadness in the words on the page. It is powerful. Having a husband that was wounded in Iraq it opened my eyes to what others feel when someone is wounded in front of them. Chris's dedication to those he served with is nearly palpable as he speaks of them. The most intriguing were the words of his wife, Taya. She writes about what she felt and experienced as his wife and the mother of their children. Many of the emotions she felt were ones that I felt when my husband was deployed. Although her situation was much more intense than mine would ever be, I could sympathize with her words. She provided the real insight to the man and not just the sniper. A part that touched me is when Chris spoke towards the end of the book about giving back. He discusses the retreats that he has helped with for Marcus Luttrell's charity the Lone Survivor Foundation (LSF). My husband, daughter and I were fortunate enough to be on one of these retreats that he described at Barefoot Ranch. It was an amazing experience. Chris is a great man and this is a great book.

"American Sniper" is really two stories in one: Chris Kyle's journey to becoming the United State's most prolific military sniper ever; and a surprisingly frank account of a couple's marriage strained by the separation caused by the war and Kyle's commitment to the Teams. Interwoven into the story of Kyle's deployments overseas and his brief times back at home are short sections supplied by Taya Kyle documenting her feelings and her side of the story. The combination serves to provide a poignant contrast between the brutalities faced by warriors in battle and the worry and emotions ripping through their families at home. I get the feeling that Chris Kyle is a man of few words because his descriptions of events and memories tend to be on the spare side. But the author's (Jim DeFelice) ability to capture the tone and meaning of Kyle's stories is excellent. You can pick up the cadence and rhythm of Kyle's speech with the one-liners leaving you chuckling. With a few haunting exceptions, there is almost always a comical or humorous side aspect to Kyle's stories. For those who want to pick up a lot of detail about being a SEAL or a sniper, you're not going to get much. There are some nuggets in the stories that you can probably only mine if you have some knowledge of combat and shooting. For example, you won't find a reference to a Mil-Dot anywhere. But, Kyle talks about using a tree behind some insurgents to help him on an extremely long-distance shot. Shooters will know what he is talking about. Others probably won't get the significance of the tree. (His longest shot, by the way, was 2,100 yards taken to kill a bad guy getting ready to launch a rocket at an Army convoy). He fairly brushes over his experiences during BUD/S and Hell Week, telling the reader that the process is well documented in other sources. There is a bit of treasure on p. 126 (Geared Up) where he does give some good descriptions of his gear and the reasoning behind his likes and dislikes on each piece. Likes? .45 over the 9mm; belt holster over the drop-leg holster. Depending on the mission he would carry an M-4, a Mk-11, a .300 Win Mag and, later, a .338 Lapua (which he used to the make 2,100 yard shot). I found the book extremely fast-paced and I found the addition of Taya's sections valuable in making this a very memorable account of their lives. I easily read it in a few sessions. God bless Texas if the Lone Star State keeps producing heroes like Chris Kyle (and his buddy Marcus Luttrell). He doesn't mince words and calls the situation like he sees it. His experience gives him some very simple, yet insightful, answers to situations that seem to perplex politicians. He is a bad-ass and he hands out copious amounts of kudos for others who are bad-asses. Not surprisingly, he has few nice things to say about cowards and those unwilling to commit. Great book. Entertaining and worth the read.

AMERICAN SNIPER, Autobiography by Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history. This book is not about grand military strategy; it is a detailed and very descriptive narrative on the life of Chris Kyle, an American warrior. Kyle devotes a lot of ink describing tactics peculiar to special operations as a sniper. He describes his participation in battles in Fallujah, Romadi and other hot spots of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Kyle covers in great detail descriptions of weapons and munitions he studied and used in his profession—killing bad guys. He also discusses the equipment he carried on his person, emergency medical supplies, body armor, etc. He talks about the confidence he learned to have in the Air Force and Navy air depositing ordinance as close as a few hundred feet from friendly forces. He mentions his longest confirmed kill of 1,600 yards—the length of 16 football fields and admits there might have been a bit of luck involved. He talks about working closely with Army and Marines special ops and how he took it upon himself to help train them. Chris Kyle was a story teller. Some have criticized his writing as amateurish and crass. I found it candid, descriptive and often humorous. As someone said, Kyle writes like he talks. His dialogue is often laced with guttural profanity. His descriptions of various combat venues are so vivid I felt I was there with him. Some have characterized Chris Kyle as bloodthirsty and thoughtless when it comes to human life. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every military person who has been to war sees war and combat differently. Some thoroughly enjoy it, others despise and loath it. Chris Kyle liked what he did; he was good at it and couldn’t wait to get back with his fellow SEALS and to be a key player in killing bad guys—savages as he called them. He believed every savage he killed saved an American life. He does not apologize for liking his job. One thing I found surprising, Chris Kyle did not like water; he did not like being at sea. He particularly disliked submarines. He called shipboard duty the most boring part of his career. He admitted his Texas roots made him a land lover. Chris’s wife, Taya, interjects her very welcome thoughts throughout the book. They both admit their marriage was a troubled one during the time Chris was in the Navy. Each deployment brought new issues and tensions to the marriage. Taya was left alone most of the time to raise a baby and a toddler. She resented it. She felt that Chris had more allegiance to the SEALS and his buddies than to his own family. As she put it, Chris’s priorities were—God, Country, Family; hers were God, Family, Country. I found Taya’s comments candid, honest and at times humorous. Her views provide a warm personal touch to understanding Chris Kyle and their family. If you read this book from cover to cover you learn a lot about the SEALS, their profession, their private lives and the camaraderie, trust and ironclad friendships inherent to their profession. During his career, Chris Kyle earned two Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars, all for valor. Chris Kyle is a great American hero and should be remembered in that context. His wife, Taya, is a hero too. She is the embodiment of all military wives. Without them, military families could not survive. I know this to be true having spent 28 years in the military myself. I give the book 5 stars.

As Hemingway wrote, "All True Stories End in Death", which must be the footnote for Kyle's "American Sniper". He wasn't killed in the heat of combat, as he would have preferred, but by a troubled ex-serviceman Kyle was trying to help. Kyle was shot in the back reportedly for his pick-up truck. A disgusting tragedy but, then again, it's the kind of tragedy that might happen to any of us. The book itself is an autobiography which a literature form that I usually avoid. Initially I was a little put off by tales from Kyle's childhood and youth although they form the tapestry from which Kyle was created. The story gets better--a lot better. The story is about Kyle but is 'broken' by the writings of his wife as she undergoes the fears, angers and frustrations of a woman left alone while her warrior goes into battle--two entirely different points of view set side by side. Fascinating. Kyle's many tales are honest and unapologetic. He loves war and the thrill of combat. He hates the enemy who he regards as soulless savages. He is glad he kills them and only wishes he could have killed many more. At the same time, he suffers the agonies of the Damned when his fellow warriors and friends are wounded and killed. He writes--and this is unquestionably the truth--that he wishes that the bullet or shell fragment had hit him, instead. His wife, certainly, doesn't feel the same way. She wants him home safe and sound but is, at the same time, angry at him for placing his duty--and battle joy--in front of his family. She tells him on one of his times at home that 'if he reups for another tour in Iraq, it proves that he loves war more than his family.' He reups and she draws the obvious--and no doubt correct--conclusion. It is clear that, for Kyle, battle has become a drug to which he is irreversibly addicted. He doesn't have PTSD. On the contrary, he has something quite different. He has problems with high blood pressure which many people would attribute to the stress of battle. Au Contraire. Kyle tells us training in a realistic combat simulator that monitors his vital signs. When engaged in the heat of combat, Kyle's high blood pressure returns to normal. Fascinating. Combat is not only an addictive drug, it's a therapeutic drug. I've often wondered whether something like this might happen to our President, Our Messiah and Anointed One, Barack Obama, and would LOVE to see him placed on a polygraph--a lie detector. A polygraph records nervous reactions and 'baseline' shows up and down squiggles of various amplitudes. If the subject should tell a lie, the fact that the subject is nervous about his lie oftentimes shows up as a jump in squiggle amplitude--IN PEOPLE WITH ORDINARY COMPUNCTIONS AGAINST LYING. On the other hand, sociopathic people who spend much of their life lying, frequently show NO increase in polygraph background amplitude even when they tell real whoppers. There might be people [our President?] whose polygraph background amplitude actually flattens out as they tell an egregious falsehood. In any event, "American Sniper" is an honest tale written by an opinionated man and his long-suffering wife. It doesn't pull punches and it isn't politically correct. It's the tale of a man who literally 'missed the bullet' in desperate combat only to be shot in the back by a loser who Kyle thought was a friend.

Unlike many of the posters on this review board, I actually purchased and read this novel. This is not a political rant nor am I here to assassinate the authors character. I am going to review the book. Written in a simple form where honesty shines through every comment, this book takes you from the author's experience at BUD's training to his retirement from the US Navy after four tours as a Navy SEAL Sniper. There are stories in the book that are humorous, there are stories that are sad, and the stories in which SEALs were lost are the most chilling of all. The author is good at his job and is unapologetic about his success. Please do not mistake that for bragging, he repeatedly thanks the men that he served with, the sophisticated shooting systems he used and luck. He openly admits he is not the "greatest" sniper, he gives that accolade to several other snipers who came before him. Instead, the author reiterates that he has written the book to memorialize the buddies he lost in battle. They were not honored with the silver star so their stories will never be told. To honor the men and their sacrifices, he agreed to write the book. Note that there are two other co-authors credited with this book, for all intents and purposes this story was going to be published one way or another, it seems that having the first person accounts make the book more accurate and realistic. I would be remiss if I did not point out that this book gives us a glimpse into a very private portion of anyone's life, marriage. the author's wife speak throughout the book as well. She gives us an honest and sometimes heart rending view of what it can be like to be married to a man committed to his career. the ups, downs and eventual success serve as a reminder that our men and women in service are not the only ones to suffer for their commitment to defending our freedom. This is the only comment I will make about the political nature of the war in Iraq. our soldiers did not ask to be sent over there, but when sent they followed orders and upheld the commitment they made to their country. I gave this book 5 stars. I believe that veterans of any war should be respected. My grandfather was in the Navy and was at Pearl Harbor, my husband is ex-Navy, and I have a cousin currently serving in the Air Force. My respect for all who sacrifice and their families knows no bounds. Buy the book. I think it is interesting, moving and heartfelt.

Very broad stroke tale of Chris Kyle's career as a SEAL. Broad in the sense that there is very little detail on actual shots taken/contact with enemies (where he actually engaged targets in his capacity as a sniper). I was initially going to review the book after having read the first 30% of it which left me a bit disappointed but I decided to give it a chance, and finished it before re-writing my entire review. I fully agree with some of the previous reviews that the writing could have been better and I have to admit that I actually started wanting to skip all the passages written by Chris's wife (Taya) entirely. It does give a bit of perspective on their private life but as a shooter I was more interested in Chris's actual accounts. I found it very interesting (and initially a bit brazen) how Chris starts his book exactly the same way Carlos Hatchcock* did with his autobiography referencing having had to kill a woman the same way Carlos started his book having had to kill a boy. Later in the book Chris pays homage to Carlos so the similarity became understandable. * Carlos Hathcock - technically the best sniper ever to have walked the earth and probably the best written Sniper autobiography to date) Comparing the countless records on fighting in wars like Vietnam compared to modern day warfare in places like Iraq you cant seem to shake the feeling that the enemy guys like Chris face there just aren't cut from the same cloth. The Vietcong were a very formidable enemy, living the war and being excellent at guerilla warfare, tracking, planning and even having some superb snipers in their ranks. Reading Chris talk about his enemy using beachballs to cross a river in order to reach American positions (which he promptly shot resulting in them drowning), the enemy mostly being completely jacked up on heroin, being stupid and having NO clue how to actually fight (pot shots and stupid fighting) and talking about picking off enemy soldiers on a nightly basis (sometimes up to 3 a night) really gives the impression that its much easier to rake up a high kill tally than it was in past wars. Chris goes on to admit how much he admires Carlos Hathcock and that he admits he is not even in the same league saying that he got as many kills as he did because he was lucky in mostly being where the action was. Therefore reading about some of the kills leaves you feeling less than 'impressed'. That being said, what Chris has achieved and what he did for his country is nothing short of heroic and respectable. Chris does go on to discuss some of the street fights (clearing building to building) he was involved in out of his own choice after swapping his rifle for a Marines m-16 in order to fight along side them as he felt he could be of more use to the marines he was assisting on the ground than he could be as over-watch (a large number of his kills were CQ kills), which is also highly respectable. So... - If you are interested in the technical side of being a Sniper and actual details on shots taken, there are better books (for a start Carlos Hathcock's autobiography, A 100% flawless must read!) - If you're interest is purely in details of SEAL operations and their involvement in recent wars (Iraq) then this book will probably disappoint as it lacks detail. It is however very interesting to see how much the role of the modern day SEAL has changed (where and how they are deployed and how they operate as part of joint force missions with other branches of the US military). - If you want to read about Chris Kyle for the sake of learning about him as a person, where he came from and a quick run-down on his kill record (with no detail on separate kills as they tend to be summed up as "...that day I killed 3..." then this book will probably be of interest. All in all a good-ish book...couldn't say its $13 I'd spend again for the Kindle version, but not regretting having read it.

A very enjoyable read, I finished the book start to end in two days. I knew about Chris Kyle from watching some of his television interviews where he discussed his book and his run in with Jesse Ventura and later the reports of his death at the gun range at the hands of Eddie Ray Routh. As I was reading the book I was reminded of my experience with some UDT guys in the early 1960s while I was serving on submarines as a radioman on the USS Trumpetfish SS425 out of Squadron 4 in Charleston S.C. The operation was for us to drop them off while stilled submerged just offshore of Jacksonville FL and they were to go ashore and survey the beach and then come back and be picked up again while still submerged. On the way to Jacksonville they wanted to get in an hour or two of exercise every day. Chris mentioned in the book that it was difficult for them exercise on a nuclear boat due to the cramped space and I just thought, you should have tried it on a WWII era submarine. The best they could do was a few calisthenics and run in place. When we were submerged a few miles offshore of Jacksonville Beach a few of the guys made egress via the escape trunk with their rubber raft that was fitted with a small outboard motor. After they were clear of the boat we surfaced and the off duty watch section got to go topside so we could watch them in action. A young LTJG who was in charge of the operation was watching the progress via binoculars and after they were a couple of miles away he said "Damn, the motor stopped and Jones will never get it started again". He stripped to his swim trunks and put on the largest set of swim fins that I have ever seen and went over the side and took off swimming and it looked like he was moving faster than I could have run. He got to the raft and climbed aboard and restarted the engine and was back in the water and swimming back to the boat. He made it back just as fast as he went out. When he climbed back aboard about ten of us white hats were talking to him and ask him how long he could hold his breath. Without hesitation he said, "I can stay underwater without tanks about five minutes" to which we all said, "No way". So that was the basis of a bet and all of us pooled our money and came up with about $50 that said he couldn't do it. He took the bet and went back over the side. We all spread out and posted some guys at the bow and stern and each side to make sure that he wouldn't surface and sneak a breath. After about 5 and ½ minutes he resurfaced and was not out of breath or looked like he was stressed in any way and with a big smile he collected his winnings. The ashore crew headed back to the boat and we submerged again and raised the observation scope and very slowly made a pass by the raft where the UDT guys lassoed the scope and we towed them back into deeper water where they came back aboard via the escape trunk without us having to surface. It wasn't till later that the LTJG owned up and told us that he had swam under the submarine and climbed through one of the flood ports into a dry ballast tank where he waited the requisite 5 minutes. We tried to protest but he maintained that the bet was that he could stay underwater without tanks for 5 minutes and not that he would hold his breath that long. We relented and let him keep the $50 just for having the balls to climb up in a dark ballast tank in the first place. Ever since that trip I have had the upmost respect for the UDT and later the SEALS for their skill, conditioning and training.

After watching the film I became very interested in the life of Chris kyle,and I've got to say that in my opinion what they say about the books always being better than the film remakes is definitely true here! I read through the book within 3 days it was a definite page turner! The film is not very accurate at all they've condensed a man's life into just over two hours. Read the book if you liked the film you won't be disappointed. Also there are some lovely photos showing him as a family man not just a soldier. Also there are photos of him in Fallujah also his cowboy days and as a child mostly with guns and horses! There are some amazing pictures in this book of him at work. One of the best books I've read for a while! * Spoiler alert!* After watching the film I became very interested in the life of Chris kyle,and I've got to say that in my opinion what they say about the books always being better than the film remakes is definitely true here! I read through the book within 3 days it was a definite page turner! The film is not very accurate at all they've condensed a man's life into just over two hours. Read the book if you liked the film you won't be disappointed. Also there are some lovely photos showing him as a family man not just a soldier. Also there are photos of him in Fallujah also his cowboy days and as a child mostly with guns and horses! There are some amazing pictures in this book of him at work. One of the best books I've read for a while! * Spoiler alert!* So sad at the end though! So sad at the end though!

J'ai adoré le film et voulait en savoir plus sur le personnage.... Le livre est très bien aussi. Il met en exergue ce qui faisait courir Chris Kyle : Dieu, son pays et sa famille. Normal alors qu'il croit dans le bien, dans le mal et qu'il n'a aucun remords sur le fait d'avoir tiré sur les "bad guys" qui voulaient tuer des américains. Le livre est parsemé des pensées de sa femme qui mettait Dieu, la famille et son pays en tête de ses objectifs. D'où des difficultés de couple. Dans tous les cas, même si on ne partage pas le point de vue de Chris Kyle, ce livre est authentique et instructif. Je vous le conseille vivement.

I really enjoyed this book. I love Navy Seal stories, and this one is very VERY good. Totally recommend.

The Legend Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper, it's a great bestseller military book if you like to read military history this what you should get .

Brilliant book. Worth purchasing this book