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American combat outposts and tried to overrun the troops there. Pitched small-unit battles raged around these key positions, but the Americans held firm and drove off the attackers.
    Meanwhile, instead of launching a full-scale assault into the city, the Americans moved in one block at a time. Hoping to keep the damage to the city to a minimum, artillery and air strikes were used only as a last resort. Without such firepower, sniper teams became the best way to help support the patrols pushing into the city. Both sides deployed some of the most deadly snipers of the war, and Ramadi became fertile hunting ground for these shooters.
    Rumors swirled through the American ranks that an Iraqi Olympics sharpshooter had been brought into Ramadi to help beat back the Coalition offensive. Known only as “Mustafa,” there is some doubt as to whether he was a concoction of al-Qaida propaganda or an actual person. Either way, the effect on American morale was significant, especially when the insurgent shooters began killing Marines and GI’s with devastating, long-range shots. Like our snipers, the enemy’s favored high ground. They took to using the local children’s hospital for hide sites, which prompted the staff there to evacuate the kids to the lower levels of the facility. Ramadi’s main hospital, a towering structure with a commanding view, also became a key sniper position, one from which the enemy sharpshooters claimed many Coalition lives.
    As the battle slowly developed, SEAL Team Three deployed to Ramadi to assist with the offensive that spring. Arriving a short time after the majority of the team reached the area was thirty-two-year-old Chris Kyle. He’d been held up Stateside due to illness while his team settled into Al Anbar Province, but was eager to link up with his brother SEALs and get into the fight. Unfortunately, the military’s transportation system made this difficult, and after he flew into Baghdad, the Navy sniper could not find a ride out to Ramadi. Finally, he convinced a corpsman to help him out. The corpsman triaged Chris and an Army Ranger stuck in the same situation, and ordered both men medevac’d into Ramadi.
    Despite the belated and backdoor arrival into the inferno raging around the city, Chris Kyle soon made a name for himself. A veteran SEAL who had already seen combat during the drive on Baghdad in 2003, Petty Officer Chris Kyle had a passion for all things gun—not surprising given his Texas upbringing.
    Born and raised on an Odessa-area cattle ranch, he worked as a cowboy for seven years before joining the Navy. Through his college years, he roped calves and broke colts for four hundred dollars a month and a cot in the bunkhouse of a twelve-thousand-acre ranch. Horses became a passion of his. In ’92, he turned pro on the rodeo circuit, but his budding career came to a crashing halt when a bronco flipped over and crushed him in the chute before a round. Trapped, unconscious, beneath the terrified animal, Kyle suffered severe injuries while his friends struggled to get to him. When the chute gate was opened, the horse bolted. Kyle’s foot was stuck in one stirrup, and he was dragged into the arena, which inflicted even more injuries to his body. When he was finally freed and taken to the hospital, the doctors discovered he had broken ribs, a shattered wrist, bruised lungs and kidneys, two badly injured knees, and a severe concussion.
    He spent one night in the hospital and walked out the next morning. His wrist subsequently required multiple surgeries to fix, and eventually the bones had to be stabilized with permanent metal pins. The accident destroyed his rodeo career, so he decided to try and join the Army, Marine Corps, and Navy. His wrist disqualified him for service.
    So he returned to the cowboy life. He ate lunch from a chuck wagon and spent his days riding among hundreds of head of cattle. Seven years passed, and then his recruiter called to