American Sniper: Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

On a hot summer day, Kyle walks through Ramadi with the other SEALs, scanning for insurgents. He and Ryan Job are joking and laughing—Ryan is a funny guy, and always makes Kyle feel better. Kyle tells Ryan to stand on the side of the road, providing backup. Then, suddenly, shots fly out. After a few seconds, the shots subside—but Kyle turns and sees that Ryan has taken a bullet to the head, and he’s bleeding heavily. Kyle thinks that Ryan’s going to die; then, Ryan coughs and says, “I’m good. I got this.” Kyle walks Ryan to a personnel vehicle, which rushes Ryan to the hospital. Kyle is devastated by Ryan’s injury, and worries that he’ll lose his friend.

In the end, Ryan is evacuated from Iraq with severe wounds. He survives with his life but loses his vision. Kyle feels guilty for telling Ryan to stand by the road—it was he who put Ryan “in the spot where he got hit.” The SEALs agree that they need to go back into Ramadi and “get some payback” for Ryan.

The SEALs get a tipoff that the insurgents who fired on Ryan are hiding in a house nearby. They raid the house, but find no insurgents. While they’re gathered outside, a bullet hits Marc Lee in the head. Kyle sees that the fire is coming from a nearby house—he realizes that someone must have set up the Marines, sending a tip about the wrong house. Kyle realizes that now, Marc Lee is going to die. Tony, Kyle’s chief, gives the order that the SEALs need to stand down before they lose any more men.

Back at base, Kyle calls Taya and breaks down while telling her the sad news. Taya feels sorry for her husband, though she’s grateful that he wasn’t killed. In Ramadi, the troops hold a memorial service for Marc Lee, and the SEALs stand in the front row: as Kyle says, “We were his family.” Marc Lee is the first SEAL to die in Iraq. In the following weeks, Kyle spends more time than usual reading the Bible. He continues to feel guilty for putting Ryan in danger.

Despite missing seven men (Ryan, Marc, the soldier with a shrapnel injury, and the four soldiers who traveled back to the U.S. with Marc’s body), Kyle and the rest of his platoon decide to continue fighting, rather than “taking it easy.” The platoon gets seven new recruits—SEALs who haven’t seen much active duty yet. Kyle and his friends haze the recruits, but also respect them for their courage and humility.

The SEAL platoon tours Ramadi, isolating bombs and clearing buildings suspected of harboring insurgents. The platoon works closely with a fleet of Apache helicopters, which provide useful backup. The helicopters also provide the platoon with surveillance information about potential insurgent bases.

One day, Kyle sees two potential insurgents riding a moped. They stop and drop a heavy-looking backpack into a manhole on a busy street—it appears that they’re planting a bomb. Kyle kills both insurgents with one shot, noting, “The taxpayer got a good bang for his buck on that one.” Afterwards, Kyle begins to notice that Iraqis who ride mopeds are always carrying heavy backpacks, probably containing bombs. He asks his superior officers for permission to shoot anyone riding a moped—but much to his irritation, this request is denied. Kyle also complains that he was forced to write a “shooter’s statement” for every person he killed. Supposedly, statements are supposed to protect Kyle if there’s ever an investigation for an unjustified killing, but Kyle believes that the statements are designed to “cover the butts of people much further up the chain of command.” He complains that writing a shooter statement is just “the red tape of war.”

Kyle continues to discuss the bureaucracy of the war in Iraq. He notes that there were lawyers, journalists, and reporters in Iraq, alongside the troops. Every time a reporter filmed a soldier, it seemed, “the Marines got in trouble.” Marines didn’t only have to worry about fighting the insurgents; they had to worry about being court-martialed for breaking rules. Kyle says, “Most Americans can’t take the reality of war, and the report they sent back didn’t help us at all,” and adds, “Tell the military the end result you want, and you’ll get it. But don’t try and tell us how to do it.”

In September 2006, Kyle learns from Taya that their daughter is sick with leukemia. Kyle is devastated by the news, and decides that he needs to leave Iraq to be with his family. Kyle feels guilty about leaving his fellow soldiers behind in their time of need.