Shooter

The Autobiography of the Top-Ranked Marine Sniper

By: Jack Coughlin, Casey Kuhlman, Donald A. Davis

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

With more than 60 confirmed kills, Jack Coughlin is the Marine Corps' top-ranked sniper. Shooter is his harrowing first-person account of a sniper's life on and off the modern battlefield.

Gunnery Sergeant Jack Coughlin is a divorced father of two who grew up in a wealthy Boston suburb. At the age of 19, although he had never even held a gun, he joined the Marines and would spend the next 20 years behind the scope of a long-range precision rifle as a sniper.

In that time, he accumulated one of the most successful sniper records in the Corps, ranging through many of the world's hotspots. During Operation Iraqi Freedom alone, he recorded at least 36 kills, 13 of them in a single 24-hour period.

Now Coughlin has written a highly personal story about his deadly craft, taking readers deep inside an invisible society that is off-limits to outsiders. This is not a heroic battlefield memoir but the careful study of an exceptional man who must keep his sanity while carrying forward one of the deadliest legacies in the U.S. military today.

©2005 Gunnery Sgt. Jack Coughlin, USMC, and Capt. Casey Kuhlman, USMCR, with Donald A. Davis (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"The 3rd Battalion has a veteran sniper, Staff Sergeant Jack Coughlin, for whom the war in Iraq was only the latest of many wars; he fought in Mogadishu, too. On the first day of battle at the Diyala Bridge, he had 11 kills. He is one of the best snipers in the Marine Corps, perhaps the very best. When I asked one of his commanders about his skills, the commander smiled and said, 'I'm just glad he's on our side.'" (Peter Maas)

Blah blah Smoke-Checked Boo Hoo Blah

If I would have read the review I would have saved a credit. Coughlin should be commended for serving his country and putting himself in harms way therein. Should have stopped there though. This is lib anti-war fuel at best. He uses the term regret and remorse some , but that is "Smoked-Checked" with the constant back slapping and bragging about all his kills. It get nauseating. I thought this might be like "marine sniper" but no. At least Hathcock seemed to have humility. This yo-yo is no Hathcock or Lutrell nor Chris Kyle. Save you money and find that friend of yours that always one ups everyone. Same thing.
Dick Hill was as always outstanding. Bet he was on meds for nausea while reading though.

Great...if you want another book about Iraq.

This was an interesting book, but the description was a little misleading. For instance, "...Coughlin has written a highly personal story about his deadly craft..." There is SOME background about sniper and scout training, but it's covered quickly at the beginning and most of the rest of the book is an account of Coughlin's experiences in Iraq. He kept mentioning formulas and details that all good snipers need to know intimately, but he never actually said what they were. Scouts need to be able to silently approach the enemy undected. Interesting, but HOW? Of course, you can't list information learned from years of training in a few sentences, but give us SOME details. I don't want to become a sniper, but I am curious about the physics involved.

"This is not a heroic battlefield memoir..." Heroic or not, it very much IS a battlefield memoir. I'm not faulting the author or belittling his experiences, I just wish the description had pointed out that it's PRIMARILY an account of the war in Iraq.

Still definitely worth hearing.