He was called “Al-Shaitan Ramad” – the Devil of Rahmadi, and insurgents had a $20,000 bounty on his head. His fellow Navy SEALs called him “The Legend,” and he has been named as the deadliest sniper in America.

In the book American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History, Navy SEAL Chris Kyle gives readers a gripping first-person account of his combat experiences, as well as the pains brought about by war, both physically and emotionally.

Kyle earned the nickname “America’s deadliest sniper” after being credited with 160 kills during the Iraq war. This record beat the previous one, which was held by an Army rifleman credited with 109 kills during the Vietnam War.

His first long-range kill, Kyle shared in his book, was a woman who had a grenade in her hand as she approached a group of U.S. Marines. He shot at the woman upon receiving the order, preventing the attempted attack against the Marines.

His most famous shot, however, consisted of firing at an insurgent who had a rocket launcher trained at an approaching Army convoy, from 2,100 yards away, outside the Shia district of Sadr City in Baghdad in 2008.

Kyle hails from Texas, and learned the ropes of shooting as he went on childhood hunting trips with his father. He earned his career sniper kills from 1999 to 2009, and served with Charlie Company of SEAL Team Three. He retired, he said, to “save his marriage,” and currently runs a military contracting firm that assists in the training of American snipers.