American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U. S. Military History

R
UNAWAY’S 
R
ETURN
R
unaway joined me again at Kilo. I had cooled off by now and
more or less kept it civil, though my feelings toward him hadn’t
changed.
Nor, I guess, had Runaway. It was pathetic.

---

He was up on the roof with us one night when we started taking
shots from insurgents somewhere.
I ducked behind the four-foot perimeter wall. Once the gunfire
subsided, I glanced over the roof and looked to see where the shots
had come from. It was too dark, though.
More shots were fired. Everybody ducked again. I went down
just a little, hoping to see a muzzle flash in the dark when the next
shot came over. I couldn’t see anything.
“Come on,” I said. “They’re not accurate. Where are they firing
from?”
No answer from Runaway.
“Runaway, look for the muzzle flash,” I said.
I didn’t hear a response. Two or three more shots followed,
without me being able to figure out where they’d come from.
Finally, I turned around to ask if he had seen anything.
Runaway was nowhere to be found. He’d gone downstairs—for
all I know, the only thing that stopped him was the blocked door
where the Marines were pulling security.
“I could get killed up there,” he said when I caught up with him.
I left him downstairs, telling him to send up one of the Marines
pulling security in his place. At least I knew that guy wouldn’t run.
R
unaway was eventually transferred somewhere where he
wouldn’t go into combat. He had lost his nerve. He should have
pulled himself out of there. That would have been embarrassing, but

---

how much worse could it have been? He had to spend his time
convincing everyone else that he wasn’t really a pussy, when the
evidence was there for everyone to see.
Being the great warrior he was, Runaway declared to the
Marines that SEALs and snipers were being wasted on sniper
overwatch.
“SEALs shouldn’t be here. This isn’t a spec op mission,” he told
them. But the problem wasn’t just the SEALs, as he soon made
clear. “Those Iraqis are going to regroup and overrun us.”
His prediction turned out to be just a little off. But hey, he has a
bright future as a military planner.