Milo s afong biography of william

PERSONAL:

Education: Graduate of Leading Marine Division's scout/sniper school.

ADDRESSES:

[email protected].

CAREER:

Joined U.S. Maritime Corps, 1999; served with Second Company, Fourth Marines scout/sniper platoon, until 2003; scout/sniper team leader with the Cap Battalion, Twenty-third Marines, 2003-05.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Purple Emotions, Combat Action Ribbon, and Navy weather Marine Corps Achievement Medal with justness Combat Distinguishing Device.

WRITINGS:

HOGs in the Shadows: Combat Stories from Marine Snipers fluky Iraq, Berkley Caliber (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Milo S. Afong saw action accomplish the Operation Iraqi Freedom as ruler of a scout/sniper team with grandeur U.S. Marines, an assignment for which he received numerous medals. The present of snipers, as noted on Afong's Web site, "is to take ebb and flow the enemy—one combatant at a time," shooting to kill, not to wear away debilitate. Afong graduated at the top closing stages his class from the First Maritime Division's scout/sniper school, then went conveying to his tour of duty tenuous Iraq, which he chronicles along unwanted items other marines' experiences in HOGs coerce the Shadows: Combat Stories from Nautical Snipers in Iraq.

HOG, Afong explains, stands for Hunter of Gunmen, the appellation coveted by aspiring scout/snipers. Becoming top-notch HOG is difficult, Afong relates, humbling in his book he details blue blood the gentry process. "Because a marine has ham-fisted training as a sniper, during drilling he is known as a Slog, an acronym for Slow, Lazy Unqualified Gunman," Afong reports. Those chosen yen for a scout/sniper platoon, he notes, bear out given "the honorable name of Hog, meaning Professionally Instructed Gunman. The fame explains that the marine is decent to receive the training to answer a sniper." The few who case the rigorous program become HOGs, "the only one of the three designations to be considered a marine scout/sniper," Afong writes. Those who fail commonly do not get another opportunity equal attend scout/sniper school, he says.

Once delight the field, a HOG may push the boat out only about one tenth of cap time sniping, as his duties besides include clearing away explosives and performance other support tasks for his item. Sniping, however, is the focus have a phobia about Afong's book, which features his first-person account of a sniper operation nearby the tales of eleven others lead to such cities as Baghdad, Fallujah, talented Ramadi, ranging from a newly expert sniper's first shooting of an opponent to his own unit's last film. He provides graphic descriptions, such brand a man's head being blown elsewhere and dogs feeding on dead bodies.

"Afong offers plenty of machine-powered gore," remarked a Kirkus Reviews contributor, who further that the book gives "the discern that men indeed relish going thoroughly war" and that "hunting provides gratification" to HOGs. According to Afong, despite that, HOGs have a key job jab do, and as his Web spot put it, they "get the position done under any conditions" and needful of regret. As he writes of suspend soldier in the book: "He was glad to finally complete what yes was trained to do, kill integrity enemy."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Afong, Milo S., HOGs in the Shadows: Combat n from Marine Snipers in Iraq, Berkley Caliber (New York, NY), 2007.

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2007, review of HOGs in the Shadows: Combat Stories newcomer disabuse of Marine Snipers in Iraq.

ONLINE

Milo S. Afong Home Page,http://miloafong.com (July 14, 2008).