With more than sixty confirmed kills, Gunnery Sgt. Coughlin is the Marine Corps' top-ranked sniper. A divorced father of two who grew up in a wealthy Boston suburb, he had never even held a gun when he joined the Marines, but would spend the next twenty years behind the scope of a long-range precision rifle. In that time he accumulated one of the most successful records in the Corps, ranging through many of the world's hotspots. Now he has written a highly personal story about his deadly craft, taking readers deep inside an invisible society. 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.--From publisher description.

Includes index.

Touch of an angel -- The secret ants -- Thou shalt kill -- New ideas -- Winds of war -- The wait -- Safwan Hill -- First kills -- Left out -- Midnight ride -- Send in the bull -- Decision -- A bench in a war -- A call home -- April Fool's Day -- Have gun, will travel -- Ghostbusters -- Push, push, push -- The Baghdad two-mile -- The bridge -- The worst thing -- The overpass -- Sniper team -- Our Iwo Jima moment -- The urban hide -- Epilogue : Welcome home.