Here are some highlights from this meticulous 2021 book:
Like Eddie [Gallagher], [Chris] Kyle claimed to have more sniper kills than any SEAL in history. But by his own telling, he was repeatedly investigated for needless deaths of civilians, and members of his own platoon started to openly question his shots. In his memoir he described killing two insurgents riding on a scooter together in Ramadi with a single bullet. Kyle said he saw the pair plant an IED before he pulled the trigger. But the Army investigated and found no IED. A short time later, Kyle shot a man walking on a busy street in broad daylight, claiming he had a gun. The man’s wife complained to authorities that he had been walking unarmed to a mosque. The Army again investigated and had enough doubts that it shut Kyle’s whole platoon down for the rest of the deployment. SEALs in Kyle’s platoon grew so suspicious of his shots, that while some SEALs called him “the Legend,” others in his platoon called him “the Myth.”
At the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while platoons were quietly sharing photos of the enemies they’d “canoed” and Kyle was selling books celebrating all his kills, Eddie was coming up through the Teams, learning the ropes from older frogmen who carried knives and wore pirate patches on their uniforms. Pieces of the pirate worldview forged in Vietnam and Afghanistan lay scattered all over the Teams by the time Eddie arrived at BUD/S. An operator who wanted to embrace the pirate ethos had only to pick the pieces up.
