Longest "Confirmed" in Iraq

[Skinny Shooter]

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn20...light=2,sniper

Marine sniper credited with longest confirmed kill in Iraq
Submitted by: 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing
Story Identification #: 200512134758
Story by Cpl. Paul W. Leicht



AR RAMADI, Iraq (Jan. 02, 2005) -- Seen through a twenty-power spot scope, terrorists scrambled to deliver another mortar round into the tube. Across the Euphrates River from a concealed rooftop, the Marine sniper breathed gently and then squeezed a few pounds of pressure to the delicate trigger of the M40A3 sniper rifle in his grasp.

The rifle's crack froze the booming Fallujah battle like a photograph. As he moved the bolt back to load another round of 7.62mm ammunition, the sniper's spotter confirmed the terrorist went down from the shot mere seconds before the next crack of the rifle dropped another.

It wasn't the sniper's first kill in Iraq, but it was one for the history books.

On Nov. 11, 2004, while coalition forces fought to wrest control of Fallujah from a terrorist insurgency, Marine scout snipers with Company B, 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, applied their basic infantry skills and took them to a higher level.

"From the information we have, our chief scout sniper has the longest confirmed kill in Iraq so far," said Capt. Shayne McGinty, weapons platoon commander for "Bravo" Co. "In Fallujah there were some bad guys firing mortars at us and he took them out from more than 1,000 yards."

During the battle for the war-torn city, 1/23 Marine scout snipers demonstrated with patience, fearless initiative and wits that well-trained Marines could be some of the deadliest weapons in the world.

"You really don't have a threat here until it presents itself," said Sgt. Herbert B. Hancock, chief scout sniper, 1/23, and a 35-year-old police officer from Bryan, Texas, whose specialized training and skill helped save the lives of his fellow Marines during the battle. "In Fallujah we really didn't have that problem because it seemed like everybody was shooting at us. If they fired at us we just dropped them."

Stepping off on day one of the offensive from the northern edge of the Fallujah peninsula, the Marine reservists of 1/23, with their scout snipers, moved to secure a little island, but intense enemy fire near the bridgeheads limited their advance. Insurgents littered the city, filtering in behind their positions with indirect mortar and sniper fire.

"The insurgents started figuring out what was going on and started hitting us from behind, hitting our supply lines," said Hancock in his syrupy Texas drawl. "Originally we set up near a bridge and the next day we got a call on our radio that our company command post was receiving sniper fire. We worked our way back down the peninsula trying to find the sniper, but on the way down we encountered machinegun fire and what sounded like grenade launchers or mortars from across the river."

With a fire team of grunts pinned down nearby, Hancock and his spotter, Cpl. Geoffrey L. Flowers, a May 2004 graduate of Scout Sniper School, helped them out by locating the source of the enemy fire.

"After locating the gun position we called in indirect fire to immediate suppress that position and reduced it enough so we could also punch forward and get into a house," explained Hancock. "We got in the house and started to observe the area from which the insurgents were firing at us. They hit us good for about twenty minutes and were really hammering us. Our indirect fire (landed on) them and must have been effective because they didn't shoot anymore after that."

Continuing south down the peninsula to link up with the Bravo Co. command post, Hancock and Flowers next set up on a big building, taking a couple shots across the river at some suspected enemy spotters in vehicles.

"The insurgents in the vehicles were spotting for the mortar rounds coming from across the river so we were trying to locate their positions to reduce them as well as engage the vehicles," said Hancock. "There were certain vehicles in areas where the mortars would hit. They would show up and then stop and then the mortars would start hitting us and then the vehicles would leave so we figured out that they were spotters. We took out seven of those guys in one day."

Later, back at the company command post, enemy mortar rounds once again began to impact.

"There were several incoming rockets and mortars to our compound that day and there was no way the enemy could have seen it directly, so they probably had some spotters out there," said 22-year-old Flowers who is a college student from Pearland, Texas.

" Our (company commander) told us to go find where the mortars were coming from and take them out so we went back out," remembered Hancock. "We moved south some more and linked up with the rear elements of our first platoon. Then we got up on a building and scanned across the river. We looked out of the spot scope and saw about three to five insurgents manning a 120mm mortar tube. We got the coordinates for their position and set up a fire mission. We decided that when the rounds came in that I would engage them with the sniper rifle. We got the splash and there were two standing up looking right at us. One had a black (outfit) on. I shot and he dropped. Right in front of him another got up on his knees looking to try and find out where we were so I dropped him too. After that our mortars just hammered the position, so we moved around in on them."

The subsequent fire for effect landed right on the insurgent mortar position.

"We adjusted right about fifty yards where there were two other insurgents in a small house on the other side of the position," said Flowers. "There was some brush between them and the next nearest building about 400 yards south of where they were at and we were about 1,000 yards from them so I guess they thought we could not spot them. Some grunts were nearby with binoculars but they could not see them, plus they are not trained in detailed observation the way we are. We know what to look for such as target indicators and things that are not easy to see."

Hancock and Flowers then scanned several areas that they expected fire from, but the enemy mortars had silenced.

"After we had called in indirect fire and after all the adjustments from our mortars, I got the final 8-digit grid coordinates for the enemy mortar position, looked at our own position using GPS and figured out the distance to the targets we dropped to be 1,050 yards," said Flowers with a grin. "This time we were killing terrorism from more than 1,000 yards."



Photos included with story: Sgt. Herbert B. Hancock, chief scout sniper, sniper platoon, 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, is credited with the longest confirmed kill in Iraq, hitting enemy terrorists from 1,050 yards in Fallujah Nov. 11, 2004. Hancock, a 35-year-old activated reservist and police officer from Bryan, Texas, has been a Marine Corps sniper since 1992.

Interesting last name...

[Mil Dot]

Bet you're glad he isn't shooting skinnys in your 'hood.

[Skinny Shooter]

[bigbrother]

amazing what that .308 will do isn't it???

[VinVega]

Whoa...I somehow missed that it was a .308 the first time I read that. I just kinda assumed that at that distance it was the .50. That makes it even more impressive. Not just that, but Herbie Hancock made the shot!

[ol_spark]

I wonder if he was using Sierra Match Kings or one of those premium bullets that are necessary for big game?

7.62 is .308 ammo

[VinVega]

I know 7.62 is .308, I just somehow completely overlooked the mention of 7.62 ammo being used...happens when you just kinda skim through stuff once in a while.

[Critch]

Really good ammo, really good equipment, excellent training, works everytime...

["yote"]

Every M40 rifle uses Custom ammo loaded just for that rifle by the armorers at the Marine Armory in Quanico VA. They use the Sierra 175gr Match-King and Lake City Match brass. The 175 Match-King will remain supersonic out to1000 yds when fired from the 7.62 NATO. Bad news for the bad guys!!!

P.S. Evan03, Take easy it on the Marines. I'd be willing to bet that the "average marine sniper" can out-shoot you any day,any time,
any weather,anywhere with any rifle. And we're not even talking
about the "good snipers". I know. My step-cousin has been one for 14 yrs. I think that he currently with the 3rd Force Recon Batt.
I use him when I get a chance to see how good a new rifle will
shoot. Most of my rifles shoot better than I do.

[IchWarrior]

Originally posted by Evan03
i wonder if they just get lucky flinging that 1000 pack bulk crud. chances are they are.

man they must be shootin some kinda decent ammo, unless we are to cheap


i for atleast in this area dont have much respect for the level of acuracy im seeing out of our guys that pack firearms around everyday as part of theyre job. i dont care if you trained sniper or not. when you go shooting with me you damn well better be able to hit the side of the barn at 300yds, with any rifle i throw you it blows me away

What the hell? Dude, are you just saying your not impressed with what your reading, or did I miss the part where you where in Iraq and had first hand experience?

[Skinny Shooter]

I've deleted and moved several posts in this thread and a thread in AAG directly related to this one.
I don't think Evan was deliberately trying to run down our Mil Snipers and he may have just typed it out in the wrong way.
The responses back to him were pushing the envelope per HC's rules.
Speaking for myself, I have great respect for our Marines and soldiers and what they do and have done. I'm sure Evan meant no disrespect.

http://www.huntchat.com/rules.php

(4) Remember that written communication seldom conveys the entire gist of the message. Even with smilies and emoticons, messages may come across to you in a way not intended by the poster. If you find something offensive, ask for clarification and do not presume intent as you perceive it. The benefit of a doubt goes a long way in this mode of communication.

(5) No personal attacks, period. This includes disrespect, antagonism, baiting, name-calling and a host of other demeaning attributes. Such behavior, whether perceived as justified or not, is forbidden. Disagreements are common in groups of highly individual people, but we pursue the goal of communication above insult and we endeavor to keep it that way. If you feel the need to pursue such an exchange, do it off site. It will not be tolerated here. If you feel that you are being personally attacked by a moderator or treated unfairly, please notify Petey immediately.

These rules might seem to pussify HuntChat but we try to set ourselves above the flame wars that start on other boards.
Hence the atmosphere is more family-oriented.
So lets move on.

Thanks for understanding.
Allen

[skeet]

We had a really great sniper in Nam named Carlos Hathcock! He was ...well....great at what he was trained for!

["yote"]

I see that the "Editorial Police" have come-a-callin'.
I don't care what anybody thinks.
I stand behind EVERY word that I said!!
Anybody up for round two ?

[fabsroman]

Is a Sierra Matchking a non-expanding bullet? I thought that all bullets had to be FMJ, non-expanding, under the rules of modern warfare. I guess it could be classified as such, even though I know we have had a couple of discussions on here about whether a Matchking bullet should be used for hunting, and several people on the board have stated it expands quite well.

Of course, I might not be completely right about the rules of modern warfare.

I also thought I heard somewhere that the Marines were using .300 Win Mags as sniper rounds. I know the .308 has been used for a while, just thought the .300 Win Mag was also being used.

Last but not least, the "editorial police" are what keep this board civil and a joy to be on. When something gets edited, it usually deserves to be and it is usually discussed amongst several people before it gets edited. Whatever was said before is water under the bridge. I think we all should give the military a great amount of respect, because if they didn't do the dirty work for us, this nation wouldn't be such a great place to live in. Likewise, we should give the "editorial police" some respect too because without them this board wouldn't be quite as enjoyable. I have met Skinny in person, spoke to him several times on the phone, and sent him several e-mails. He is a nice, decent guy that devotes a good amount of his time to making the board a nice place to be, and he doesn't get paid for doing it. Let's not give him any flack for trying to keep it a nice place to be.

["yote"]

Yea, Yea, I know. But certain things (and certain people) really
tick me off. Skinny is only doing his job.

The Marines are using the 300 mostly for 1000 yd target comp.
heard a rumor that they were testing the .338 Lapua mag for
field use. The Brits are using them with execellent results.
The 308 stays around because if for some reason you run out of custom ammo you can still use machine gun ammo.