Not necessarily the tallest and strongest man in the company. In fact, generally quite the opposite. Slim and lean and light. Perfectly built for stealth. Eyesight like a hawk..........sharp and clear. Reflexes like a leopard....not a fraction of a second lost in responding to a stimulus of the eye....
The accurate synchronization between the eye and the index finger.....spotting a small movement with the eye.....and squeezing the index finger to fire a single lethal crack shot....which would instill terror in the minds of the enemy.
Favouring the dark and discrete places...turning a seemingly harmless ruin of a building or a heap of rubble, into an attack zone. Moving without the slightest sound, the tiniest movement not visible to even the most observant of fellow and enemy soldiers. Scanning around for every uneven surfaces, for any rock that might be a helmet, for any different coloured piece of earth, that might be the camouflaged enemy....for anything that didnt blend naturally with the surroundings.
A machine gunner spraying the open grounds with bullets killing hundreds....maybe thousands of soldiers...only to be licked by the slug fired by the marksman sitting a quarter of a mile away.....hidden by an innocent looking rock or by a deep bush swaying in the wind.
How it seemed to the one who was fired upon.....cannot be told by anyone.....it can only be imagined.
A flash of muzzle....and blackness. No pain....no suffering.
Those were soldiers....who were called snipers. Who were revered by their own. And who terrorized their foe.
A salute to all those sharp shooters in the war.
