CPO, Christopher Kyle, USN

April 8, 1974 – February 2, 2013

Kyle went to a military recruiting office, as he was interested in joining the U.S. Marine Corps special operations. A U.S. Navy recruiter convinced him to try, instead, for the SEALs. Initially, Kyle was rejected because of the pins in his arm, but he eventually received an invitation to the 24-week Basic Underwater Demolition/Sea, Air, Land (SEAL) training (BUD/S) at Coronado, California in 1999.[13] Kyle graduated with Class 233 in March 2001.

Assigned to SEAL Team-3, sniper element, Platoon "Charlie" (later "Cadillac"),[15] within the Naval Special Warfare Command, and with four tours of duty, Kyle served in many major battles of the Iraq War.[3] His first long-range kill shot was taken during the initial invasion when he shot a woman carrying a hand grenade approaching a group of Marines. CNN reported that the woman was cradling a toddler in her other hand.[16] As ordered, Kyle opened fire, killing the woman before she could attack.[17] He later stated, "the woman was already dead. I was just making sure she didn't take any Marines with her. It was clear that not only did she want to kill them, but she didn't care about anybody else nearby who would have been blown up by the grenade or killed in the firefight. Children on the street, people in the houses, maybe her child."[15]

Because of his track record as a marksman during his deployment in Ramadi, the insurgents named Kyle Shaitan Ar-Ramadi (English: "The Devil of Ramadi"), and put a $20,000 bounty on his head that was later increased to $80,000. They posted signs highlighting the cross on his arm as a means of identifying him.[3][17]

In his book, American Sniper, Kyle describes his longest successful shot: in 2008, outside Sadr City, he killed an insurgent sniper aiming at other members of the U.S. military with "a straight-up luck shot" from his McMillan TAC-338 sniper rifle from about 2,100 yards (1,920 m) away.[15]

Kyle became known as "The Legend" among the general infantry, including Marines whom he had the task of protecting. The nickname originated among Kyle's fellow SEALs following his taking of a sabbatical to train other snipers in Fallujah, and he was sometimes called "The Myth".[18] During four tours of duty in the Iraq War, he was shot twice and survived six separate IED detonations.