Master Sniper Nicholas Irving: 'My First Kill Impacted My Life Quite A Bit'

By Rich Zeoli

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Rich Zeoli talked with Master Sniper Nicholas Irving on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about his recently released book, The Reaper.

Irving, a US Army Ranger, will appear with Zeoli tomorrow night to discuss the book at the Woodcrest Country Club in Cherry Hill, NJ as part of the WPHT Speaker Series.

Irving said it was always his life long dream to join the armed services.

"My initial goal was to be a Navy SEAL, so I grew up swimming. My dad would drive to the beach and I would do beach runs and ocean swims. It was my initial goal, I signed up for it, went into the physical portion of it, the physical test, the physical exam and it turns out that I'm color blind so they turned me down from that contract. Luckily, an Army nurse picked me up and got me signed up to be an Army Ranger, but it's something I've always wanted to do."

He confessed that killing people being a main requirement of his job is not something he likes to dwell upon.

"I grew up a very religious guy, I'm still religious and I don't really think too much about the killing aspect of it. My first kill, it impacted my life quite a bit."

Irving noted that his initial success was what earned him his nickname, and subsequent title of his book, the Reaper.

"One of the guys, he was a Staff Sergeant and he said I was batting a thousand and I had not idea what that meant. He was like, 'dude, every time you're going out there you're getting your targets, you're taking guys out.' It just went on from there. It seemed like every mission for the first few months, it was pretty intense. Every time we went out, I was getting somebody."

Tickets for the event are available at cbsphilly.com/speakerseries