A sniper with the 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment has been credited with the longest confirmed kill in Iraq, according to a Marine Corps news release.
Sgt. Herbert B. Hancock, chief scout sniper of Sniper Platoon, Company B, shot at four insurgents from 1,050 yards away during the November assault on Fallujah, the Marines said. Hancock, a 35-year-old native of Bryan, Texas, is a reservist like the rest of the 1st Battalion, 23rd Marines.
In his civilian life, he's a police officer, but has been a Marine sniper since 1992.
According to the Marine Corps release, Hancock and his spotter, Cpl. Geoffrey L. Flowers, were sent into Fallujah on Nov. 11 to find the source raining down mortar fire on their company command post.
After moving through a series of buildings to the edge of the Euphrates River, Hancock and Flowers set up atop a large building, spotting the mortar teams about 1,000 yards away. Hancock shot at least four insurgents who were firing the mortars, before the Marines' own counterfire was called in on the positions.
"One had a black [outfit] on," Hancock said, according to the release. "I shot and he dropped. Right in front of him another got up on his knees looking to try and find out where we were, so I dropped him, too. After that, our mortars just hammered the position."
The snipers measured the distance by comparing an eight-digit map grid of their own position with the eight-digit map grid fired upon by the Marine mortar teams. It came out at 1,050 yards. Hancock made the shots with an M40A3 sniper rifle, the Marines said.
