When Jack Coughlin penned his riveting New York Times bestselling memoir, Shooter, readers were exposed for one of the first times ever to the misunderstood world of the American sniper force. Coughlin discussed not only the intense strategy of the sniper but also how the silent, singular act takes a unique and different type of toll on a soldier.
With his first nonfiction book since that memoir, Coughlin and co-author John R. Bruning, reflect back on Coughlin’s extraordinary career as the top ranked Marine sniper, while also exploring the lives and careers of some of America’s most effective snipers, some still currently on active duty, during key missions and campaigns in the war on terror in, SHOCK FACTOR: American Snipers in the War on Terror.
What is Shock Factor? In Jack Coughlin’s words, "It’s the breaking down of psychological defenses in battle where a sniper is involved. Those in the sniper’s crosshairs think, "It can’t hit me. The odds are with me. They aren’t aiming at me." But with each kill shot from a sniper the shooter strips away those defenses. Such a realization can cause an entire unit to seize up in the middle of battle. Men who moments before were filled with courage and resolve will forget everything as their self-preservation instincts kick in. They will lose control and run.the ability to create panic wins battles. We call this the Shock Factor. It is a sniper’s greatest weapon."
The book reads like a page-turning thriller but what really sets it apart from so many other military books today is that it is written to focus on the deeply human drama that is the life of the modern sniper. Their "battles within the battle" separate them from all others in war. From the streets of Ramadi to the skyline of Baghdad, the reader will follow those in SHOCK FACTOR in desperate struggles facing down enormous odds. The intensity of the one-on-one tactics the snipers use when tracking those combatants they are hunting will captivate each reader. Even more so, however, will be those intense stories of when one sniper is hunting down another sniper. Coughlin also shows the harshest side of the Middle East conflict, exposing horrific violations of human rights, even by our own Allies.
SHOCK FACTOR’s gripping accounts of harrowing combat, buried truths, and secrets revealed could only be told by snipers to a trusted member of their own elite, cloistered brotherhood, and a brave warrior in his own right as well as being the highest ranked Marine sniper while on active duty.
SHOOTER
“The combat narratives here recount battlefield action with considerable energy…A renowned sniper, Coughlin is less concerned with his tally than with the human values of comradeship and love.”- Washington Post Book World
“[Jack Coughlin] is one of the best snipers in the Marine Corps, perhaps the very best. When I asked one his commanders about his skills, the commander smiled and said, ‘I’m glad he’s on our side.’”- Peter Maas, war correspondent and bestselling author of Love Thy Neighbor
“A uniquely poignant look into the life of one trained to live in the shadows…some of the most poignant action ever recorded in a modern Marine memoir.”- Seapower Magazine
ABOUT JACK COUGHLIN
Gunnery Sgt. Jack Coughlin, USMC (Ret.): served in the Marine Corps as a sniper for over two decades culminating in his service with the Third Battalion, Fourth Marine during the drive to Baghdad in 2003. During his time in active duty he has operated on a wide range of assignments in hotspots around the world and was the top ranked Marine sniper during his active military service. Coughlin is the author of the New York Times blockbuster bestseller, Shooter, as well as a series of bestselling sniper novels, Kill Zone, Dead Shot, Clean Kill, An Act of Treason, Time to Kill, and On Scope.