Life in the Balance

Bounty Hunter 4/3: My Life in Combat from Marine Scout Sniper to MARSOC – Jason Delgado and Chris Martin

Over the course of the past few years there has been a steady stream of books and biographies detailing the lives, training and heroics of special operations soldiers. They range from battlefield tails (American Sniper), to life changing events (Lone Survivor) and even leadership books (Extreme Ownership).

If you approach Bounty Hunter 4/3: My Life in Combat from Marine Scout Sniper to MARSOC by Jason Delgado and Chris Martin with any of those books or others like them in mind, you may come away sadly disappointed. Bounty Hunter 4/3, is a different story and a much deeper and more personal story than most of the books in this genre.

Delgado with the help of experienced wartime scribe Martin, delves deeply into his personal story as he transitions and transforms for the kid growing up on the crime/drug ridden streets of the Bronx, joins the Marines and sees an evolution not only in himself, but in the military he serves. This is a very personal story that carries the expected conflict of action and violence with it, but does not lose the focus on the man. Each step along the way this is truly a story of life in the balance.

Delgado’s story is an every man’s tale, if that man wrestles with not only his circumstance, but then moves on to guide and lead others based on the battle hardened knowledge he has accumulated and to shape the next gen Marine snipers. This is truly a riveting, well constructed story that stands apart from others in its class; sort of like the man the story is based on.

Number One With a Bullet

Modern American Snipers – From the Legend to the Reaper – On the Battlefield with Special Operations Snipers – Chris Martin – (St. Martin’s Press)

For whatever reason, there is a fascination on the part of the general public about snipers. I am not sure if it is the deadly skill set that they bring to bear or the loner quality that is often part and parcel of how snipers are portrayed in countless books; both fact and fictional accounts and the multitude of onscreen portrayals of these often larger than life characters.

From Chris Kyle’s American Sniper to Carlos Hathcock in Marine Sniper and even Stephen Hunter’s fictional sniper Bob Lee Swagger, there is something that inherently draws us to these men. The patience, the skill, puffed up swagger that is part of these guys character, that lead to amazing stories.

In Modern American Snipers – From the Legend to the Reaper – On the Battlefield with Special Operations Snipers, author Chris Martin explores not only the men, but also the evolving role of the modern, American, special forces snipers. The sniper’s job description has changed almost has dramatically as the tools that they use to complete their assignments.

Martin draws a clear picture of not only how the role of the sniper as changed, but also the in the field situations that are at the root that evolution. It is a core standard for snipers to always seek the higher ground and the upper hand on the battlefield and the training and tactics that snipers use in the ongoing war of terror has allowed them to have a major impact on not only changing the elements of battle but of the situational priorities that lead to lives saved.

A master sniper is worth his weight in gold not only for the fear they can strike in the hearts of their enemies, but also the confidence they engender in their team when they provide overwatch and draw down on the bad guys. While Martin captures the colorful characters that populate the special forces sniper community he also details the in the moment tactics that these guys bring to the fight.