‘Modern American Snipers’: Book offers intriguing look into U.S. military

Iowa City author Chris Martin takes readers into elite training programs and deadly warzones in his new book, 'Modern American Snipers' (St. Martin's Press, $26.99, 312 pages). Crafted from interviews and other research, the book introduces us to the remarkably driven people who attain the necessary skills to complete some of the military's most essential and dangerous missions.

Martin recounts the details of several of those missions, noting both successes and failures, and charts the changes in the ways snipers are trained and deployed in a post-9/11 world. The personalities of several of Martin's subjects are brought to life on the page as they discuss the challenges they face and the loyalty they feel for their comrades and country.

These narrative approaches go some distance toward helping the reader through the proliferation of jargon, acronyms, and abbreviations that sometimes threaten to take over the text. An example: 'The U.S. SEAL Sniper Course received a much-needed overhaul beginning in 2003. After returning from a combat deployment as a SEAL sniper for Team Three under Task Force K-Bar in Afghanistan, Brandon Webb joined NSWG-1 Training Detachment (TRADET) as an instructor at the West Coast TRADET Sniper Cell.'

But as the reader begins to internalize the various abbreviations (with Martin's occasional reminders), they become less of a stumbling block, and the almost superhuman accomplishments of Martin's subjects are brought to the fore. The tone of 'Modern American Snipers' is decidedly macho, and some readers may find it glorifies death and destruction more than they are comfortable with, but it provides an intriguing look into a necessarily secretive part of the U.S. military.