Chris Kyle

Chris Kyle with seal team 3 members ( www.shooterillustrated.com)

Chris Kyle was a sniper in the United States military and was quick to become one of the most lethal. He retired after ten years in the military but not before having 160 confirmed kills and 225 unconfirmed kills. He is quick to tell people who ask that he doesn't regret any of his kills, they all had to be done to save other people. When asked if he's proud of that number he replies that the number he would be proud of is if you could find the amount of lives he saved not took. His first kill was a woman who was walking toward him with the hand of her toddler in one hand and a grenade in the other. Kyle says that this kill was no harder than the rest because it had to be done.

After retiring from the military Kyle struggled to adjust to a civilian life. He drank heavily, wouldn't leave the house, and stopped working out. He said that it was hard for him to start putting his priorities God, family, country, when for 10 years it was God, country, family. There was a hedge fund manager who was particularly enamored with having snipers and ex-seal members give hands on shooting training to other rich members of the communities. On one of these occasions he met Kyle. After several meetings the man was allowing Kyle to take other veterans to his shooting range, and eventually they created Craft International.

Craft is Kyle's company has the punisher skull with crosshairs in one of the eyes to show his faith to God and also to honor his friend who got shot in the eye and lived. The punisher logo was painted on all of Kyle's seal teams equipment. The slogan was that "Despite what your momma told you. Violence does solve problems. Kyle says that it is a daily reminder to us all of the sacrifices that brave warriors have made and what it takes to overcome evil. This not only shows what a deep set of moral's he has but also how much they drove him.

Most importantly Chris Kyle had complete self-control. In an interview with a Time reporter he was asked "What if killing is the only thing you are good at?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ12PN81xnI Belinda Luscomb. To which Kyle replied, "I would know that it wasn't true, I'm a much better father and husband than I am a killer." He also stated that he was "two different people, your more aggressive when your at work because that's what you've been trained to do, but at home you take off your cape." To be able to say that and know in your heart exactly who you are after seeing the things that you are forced to see in war is remarkable.

This is a hero. These are actions that depict heroism. To back up that heroes are clichéd in a Verizon commercial a man was shown as the hero for having the football game streaming live at a family reunion. No heroic action is being shown but yet there is that word that has become empty hollow and meaningless but that doesn't mean heroes don't exist. Chris Kyle might have toured Iraq four times and killed 160 people but his definitive morals and total and complete self-control makes him a hero.