Who is rob furlong

According to Furlong, he took cover with his face in the dirt while McMeekin got on the Tac and started lining up shots.

Furlong then grabbed the spotting scope. But their guard struggled. The mortars were landing in front of us and behind.

I remember thinking, the next one is going to hit us. Under fire, fine motor skills fall away. Simple actions such as pulling back the rifle bolt and reloading become laboured as mind and body are overwhelmed by adrenaline and fear. The closest Furlong had ever come to being shot at was in battle school, when he had live ammo fly above his head so he could hear what a bullet sounds like when it tears past. The fight carried on until dark. Then the Taliban quieted down.

McMeekin and Furlong put on their night-vision scopes and took turns covering Americans from the st Airborne and 10th Mountain Divisions, who were operating farther down in the valley. By morning, an American scout had taken over as guard for the snipers. The mortar operator was his first kill. Furlong watched through his scope as armed fighters moved mortars by donkey through the valley.

They had no idea where the bullets were coming from. We shut down their resupply lines. Then we ran out of ammo. Furlong refuses to disclose the number of men they killed. But they rarely bring up the subject of casualties, especially when speaking to civilians, who may equate killing with murder.

When they ran out, the men called in air strikes. Around the sixth day, they finally received a new supply of American ammo. The new bullets exited the Tac at a higher velocity than the previous set of rounds.

Furlong and the snipers had anticipated that the gun would be effective at a distance of up to 1. Anything beyond that, they thought, and accuracy would be compromised by the effects of gravity, wind, and air resistance.

Soon the snipers were firing rounds that travelled 2. Then Furlong took the shot that would make him famous. One of them had a machine gun over his shoulder. Furlong made the adjustments to the elevation knob on his scope, raising the crosshairs and the barrel to compensate for the arc of the shot. He prepped his breathing and steadied his finger on the trigger.

Furlong fired, and about five seconds later, the bullet dusted up in the dirt to the right of the target. Furlong heard McMeekin call out the correction. Furlong reloaded, then fired another.

I think you hit his backpack. The targets scurried for cover behind a rock. But they were facing the wrong way and remained fully exposed.

Furlong reloaded and lined up another shot. Furlong heard McMeekin confirm the kill. Furlong reloaded, but the two other fighters ran out of range. By the ninth day, Bin Laden was believed to have escaped into Pakistan. There was nothing human moving in the valley. While Furlong and McMeekin waited for their transport back to base, the American commanders began the paperwork to award them Bronze Stars.

Back in Bagram, the snipers reconvened with Ragsdale, Perry, and Eason. But soon after going to sleep, the two teams were ordered back into action. Furlong remembers feeling tired as he loaded up his gear once more. T he bodies of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters lay rotting in the sun when the snipers returned with their battalion. While the troops flushed out caves, destroyed bunkers, and combed the valley and mountainside for holdouts, Furlong, McMeekin, and a fresh guard attached to their team went back to the high ground.

For five days, they kept watch over the Canadian contingent. But there were no more hostiles in the region. Operation Harpoon wrapped up. When members of the sniper cell returned to Kandahar, they learned that they were under investigation.

Furlong says that he and the rest of the snipers were kept in virtual lockdown at the base while military police, still haunted by the Somalia Affair, looked into the allegations. Perry agreed to be shipped home to face a court martial.

Ragsdale was stripped of his command. McMeekin, Eason, and Furlong sat waiting for orders while news spread about the investigation. The incident contributed to a broader sense of unease about the sniper cells. Stogran supported the snipers. But he understood the discomfort in Ottawa. With the optics, they can basically see their targets blinking and breathing.

In July , Furlong and the rest of the sniper cell left Afghanistan for Guam, where they were given counselling sessions at a US military base. When he was back home on leave, the phone would periodically ring, and Furlong would drag himself to the base to answer questions about the investigation. The investigators never found the finger or any other evidence that would justify a court martial. But the damage was done. Perry quit the army. The combined stress of the battle and the investigation left Ragsdale unable to function.

When he told his wife of his plans, she threatened him with divorce. He removed his name from consideration, received an honourable discharge, and tried to reclaim a civilian life. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Duggan says future competitions may have more events and higher calibres. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. Latest National Stories. News Near Fort McMurray. This Week in Flyers.

Notice for the Postmedia Network This website uses cookies to personalize your content including ads , and allows us to analyze our traffic. You may read full biography about Rob Furlong from Wikipedia. Matty Dixon. Eric Kretz. Celebrities Born in Canada.

Shroud Twitch Star. Richard Guay Journalist. Luke Pither Ice Hockey Centre. Noemie Dufresne Instagram Star. Brett Kelly Movie Actor. Stuart Zagnit Actor. Famous Birthdays November Aki Higashihara Model.

Margarete Bagshaw Artist. Wang Jingxia Football Player. Oh Jae-moo TV Actor.