255 confirmed kills: Meet Navy SEAL Chris Kyle... the deadliest sniper in US history

Served four tours of duty in Iraq, where he gained the nickname 'The Devil of Ramadi' from insurgents

Longest shot was a 2,100-yard strike against a man armed with a rocket launcher

Prefers a bolt-action .300 Winchester Magnum custom sniper rifle

Left the Navy after 10 years to 'save his marriage'

Chris Kyle hesitated the first time he killed a person at long range with a rifle. It was a woman who was about to attack a group of US Marines with a hand grenade.



The US Navy SEAL was overlooking an Iraqi town from a shabby building as US forces were still invading the country, before Saddam Hussein had been ousted. The Marines didn't see the woman coming.



'Take a shot,' Mr Kyle's chief told him.



Mr Kyle stammered: 'But...'

'Shoot!' the chief told him again.



Making the shot: Chris Kyle takes aim from on top of an overturned crib during the Second Battle of Fallujah

Four tours: During his time in Iraq, he gained infamy among the insurgents, who nicknamed him 'the Devil of Ramadi' and put a $20,000 price on his head

When Mr Kyle finally pulled the trigger, the woman dropped the grenade. He shot her again as it exploded.



But after four deployments to Iraq, he learned to stop hesitating and start shooting straight.



With 255 kills, 160 of them officially confirmed by the Pentagon, the retired Navy Seal sniper is the deadliest marksman in US military history.



During the Second Battle of Fallujah alone, when US Marines fought running battles in the streets with several thousand insurgents, he killed 40 people.

His feat blows away the previous American record of 109, set by Army Staff Sgt. Adelbert F. Waldron during the Vietnam war.

Carlos Hathcock, the famed Marine sniper who was the subject of the book 'One Shot, One Kill,' killed 93 people as a long-range sniper in Vietnam.



Telling his story: Mr Kyle (left) has just written a book about his experiences in Iraq called 'American Sniper.' It will hit bookshelves Tuesday



Despite the incredible number, Mr Kyle is still far from being the deadliest marksman in the world. That distinction goes to Simo Häyhä, a Finnish soldier who killed 542 Soviet soldiers during World War II.

DEADLY HALL OF FAME

Chris Kyle's 255 kills set a record among American marksman and his 2,100-yard shot is unbelievable. But snipers around the world have surpassed him in other ways. The most kills: Simo Häyhä, a Finnish sniper, holds the record with 542 Soviet soldiers shot during the Russian invasion of Finland in World War II. Numerous Soviet snipers killed more than 400 soldiers while fighting the Germans.



Longest shot: Corporal of Horse Craig Harrison, a British marksman, killed two Taliban machine gunners in Afghanistan in 2009 from 2,700 yards with a .338 Lapua Magnum rifle.

Most innovative: Legendary U.S. Marine sniper Carlos Hathcock made a 2,000-yard shot in 1967 during the Vietnam War with a .50-caliber Browning machine gun fitted with a scope mount of Mr Hathcock's own design. It was a record that stood for 35 years.



Previous record: Adelbert F. Waldron, a U.S. Army marksman in the Vietnam War, held the previous American record with 109 kills. Mr Hathcock had 93 kills.

Mr Kyle is a cowboy from Odessa, Texas, who was a professional bronco rodeo rider before he joined the Navy. He grew up hunting deer and pheasant with a rifle and a shotgun his dad bought him.



He never realized he was a good shot until he joined the Navy and got into the prestigious SEAL special operations unit.



For his deadly track record as a marksman during his deployment to Ramadi, the insurgents named him 'Al-Shaitan Ramad' -- the Devil of Rahmadi -- and put a $20,000 bounty on his head.



'I thought to myself, “Oh, hell yeah!” It was an honor,' he told Texas Monthly magazine when Army intelligence told him about his infamy.

But his Navy SEAL companions gave him a different name 'the Legend.'

His most legendary shot came outside Sadr City in 2008 when he spotted an insurgent with a rocket launcher near an Army convoy -- 2,100 yards away.

At that distance, 1.2 miles, he fired a shot from his .338 Lapua Magnum rifle. It struck home, knocking the man over dead.

'God blew that bullet and hit him,' Mr Kyle told the New York Post.

Mr Kyle's preferred weapon, though, was a custom-built bolt action rifle with a powerful scope. It was chambered in .300 Winchester Magnum, a cartridge originally developed for hunting North American big game.

However, Mr Kyle said he has found a new use for it -- making long range, highly accurate shots.



'I could hit a target from 1,800 yards, and it would shoot like a laser,' he told Texas Monthly.



Long shot: Mr Kyle poses here with the rifle, a .338 Lapua Magnum, he used to kill an insurgent from 2,100 yards away outside Sadr City

Mr Kyle, who retired from the Navy after 10 years of service, is telling his remarkable story as a deadly marksman in his new book, 'American Sniper,' which hits shelves Tuesday.



For his valor, he received three Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars with Valor, according to his book publisher, Harper Collins.



Additionally, he was shot twice and was in six separate IED explosions as his unit, Charlie company of SEAL Team Three, saw significant combat across the country.



Grateful nation: Kyle receiving an award from the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs

The action was enough that the members of the unit adopted the white skull of the gun-wielding comic book vigilante The Punisher.

They painted the symbol on their body armor, their vehicles and even their weapons.



Despite the astonishing number of people he has shot, Mr Kyle says he has never second-guessed himself since the first time he had to pull the trigger on the grenade-wielding woman in Iraq.



For him, the enemy is a 'savage,' he told the Post.



'It was my duty to shoot the enemy, and I don’t regret it. My regrets are for the people I couldn’t save: Marines, soldiers, buddies. I’m not naive, and I don’t romanticize war. The worst moments of my life have come as a SEAL. But I can stand before God with a clear conscience about doing my job,' he told Texas Monthly.

He left the service in 2009, deciding not to enlist in order to 'save his marriage' he told his publisher.



Mr Kyle has two children and lives in Dallas.

