Sniper's Honor

Acknowledgments

My first thanks must go to my dedicatee, Kathy Lally, whom I have cleverly disguised as Kathy Reilly (while her husband, Will Englund, goes forth under the fiendishly altered nom de guerre Will French). Kathy, who currently shares the job of Moscow correspondent of my old rag The Washington Post with Will, was majordomo of my trip to Ukraine and most things Russian. Because of her, I got to depend on the kindness of friends, not strangers.

Two of those friends we nicknamed “The Two Vlads.” Volodymyr Bandrivskyy was our translator and guide, and despite the tragic history of his nation, he was a merry jokester the whole way. Volodymyr Bak (don’t have a cool name around me or I will steal it) was our historian, who had salient and necessary information at his fingertips or, if not, the next day. Both were boon companions and made the travel — especially over the liver-pulverizing Ukraine roads — a pleasure.

On the home front, Gary (“Gershon”) Goldberg was instrumental, particularly in the “Interlude in Tel Aviv” subplot. Like Vlad II, if he doesn’t know it now, he’ll know it tomorrow. Besides, he is a way-fun guy, and at certain points in any novel, a writer needs to have some way-fun. Gary is my go-to on way-fun. Through Gary, Dr. David Fowler, the medical examiner of the state of Maryland, looked at my anatomy lesson on Senior Group Leader Groedl. Gary also had his friend Larry Baker take a look at the MS, which was helpful.

My little circle of advisers also was of great help in this one: Mike Hill, Lenne Miller, Jay Carr, and Jeff Weber all issued astute advice.

In the professional gun world, Bill Smart, a great friend from Post days, connected me with the great gunscribes, writers Mike Venturino and Rocky Chandler. Rocky, a novelist himself, set me straight on the absolute necessity of zeroing at a thousand for a thousand-yard shot. Barrett Tillman, the great aviation historian, had lots of smart stuff for me. On my own, I found Martin Pegler, author of Out of Nowhere, who was of particular help with regard to the Enfield No. 4 (T) with No. 32 scope. Dan Shea, another good friend and owner of Long Mountain Outfitters in Henderson, NV, let me have a hands-on experience with three of the few remaining FG-42s.

I should also list the dozens of books, films, and websites that were so important to this effort, but I’m too lazy to copy the titles, and you probably don’t care that much anyway. I’d put them on my website except I don’t have a website. I would have read them on my Nook, Niche, Wombat, or Blazer 9, except I don’t have any of them, either. I’m just a book guy, I bought a lot of books. The Amazon bill was mind-boggling. So let me collectively thank the dozens of writers, historians, screenwriters, and directors who’ve tried to keep the memory of the horror and the scale of Ostkrieg alive. It’s too profound to be forgotten, too influential even now to be ignored, and too painful to be suppressed. This book is a humble attempt to be a part of that memory process.

Finally the publishing professionals — agent Esther Newberg, editor Sarah Knight, and publisher Jonathan Karp — oversaw and sustained the project; all manned up and did duties as required. And finally my wife, Jean Marbella, zeitgeist of Baltimore journalism, coffee- and martini-maker extraordinaire, and all-around best chum, provided a rest stop each night and a hot cuppa each morning. Couldn’t have made it to the end without ’em.

As usual, none of these fine people is responsible for errors in fact or spirit; I alone am the root cause.