I put the crosshairs on his head and then raised them a foot and a half above his head and squeezed the trigger. I was trying for a body shot. I was not prepared for what happened next, I had thought I was but I wasn’t. I was in a good prone shooting position so the recoil of the rifle did not knock me off of the sight picture. My shot was high and I watched as the bullet struck his head. At that distance with a 9 power scope I could see the impact as the bullet struck his head and he dropped instantly. It was like it was in slow motion and yet it happened in the blink of an eye. That picture is as clear in my mind today as it was 40 years ago. Webb said “You nailed that bastard” The weight of what I had just done hit me like a ton of bricks. It was a tremendous letdown; I didn’t feel the joy I thought I would. I didn’t feel the pride I thought I would, realizing I had just killed my first man. At the same time I felt very little remorse about what I just done. However I did realize that I had just broken the worst taboo possible. “Thou shall not kill” how would I be able to justify what I had just done when my time came? I had just killed a man who was just standing there waiting on the man in front of him to move. I knew now that I could never go back; I could never bring the man I had just killed back to life. I had not yet managed to completely de-humanize these people, and for that reason alone I had mixed feelings about what I had just done.