The Canadian Sniper..........

This is a true story, as it involves me!

We live on a subdivision (estate) where there is still ongoing construction.  In this day and age unless it is screwed down things "walk."  So the builder has a security guard patrolling on a night after hours and all day on the weekends.

We have come to know the weekend guy reasonably well.  He was good enough to let us look through the house when it was being built; even though we shouldn't have, and he went out of his way to talk to us, and vice versa.

Around Christmas time we noticed we hadn't seen him in a while and there was another guy in his truck.  So one day early January I got dh to stop the truck so I could ask the new guy where our old guy was.  Turns out our old guy had fallen and broken his elbow and was going to be off work for six weeks.

So new guy introduced himself and said we would be well protected as he was an ex Canadian Military Sniper!

So I said, "Oh, have you seen the movie American Sniper?"

Can't remember what he said but he did say the following:

" The guy who holds the Canadian record for the longest shoot and kill of 2.3 km was in the same unit as me in Afghanistan."

I said, Oh," meanwhile thinking to myself 2.3 km....no way.

The security guy then says, "his name is (Something don't remember ) TWADDLE."

Now at this point I should have clicked what was happening, but I was fixated on the 2.3 km.  We talked a little more and then left.

Dh and I talked about the conversation and again we were fixated on the distance and why an ex military sniper was working as a security guard at a building site.

I mentioned this at our book club meeting which I think was a week later, and we all had a good laugh about it.  I even talked about it with my family in Britain and they all laughed about it.

Fast forward to this past weekend and our old security guard is back and so was telling him the story about what an idiot I am in believing people and it turns out this is one of many stories this guy was telling.

However he did get one fact sort of right this guy.  Corporal Rob Furlong of the Canadian Armed Forces did indeed record a kill at 2,430 metres back in 2002 in Afghanistan.  You can read more about it here.  The record holder is a British solider  at 2,475 metres again in Afghanistan.

It still amazes me that guns can fire bullets that distance with deadly accuracy; oh and I will believe anything that people tell me!!

By the way has anyone seen American Sniper?  It looks like a good movie.

(I posted another book review here; it's our April choice for our book club.  I am ahead of the game!!)