Bob Lee Swagger

Bob Lee "the Nailer" Swagger is a fictional character created by Stephen Hunter. He is the protagonist of a series of 12 novels (as of 2022) that relate his life during and after the Vietnam War, starting with Point of Impact (1993) up to the most recent Targeted (2022). Swagger is the protagonist of the 2007 film and the 2016 TV series Shooter, each based on Point of Impact. Hunter has said that Swagger is loosely based on Carlos Hathcock, a U.S. Marine Corps Scout Sniper. Fictional character biography Bob Lee Swagger is a retired Marine gunnery sergeant who was born in 1946 and raised in Blue Eye (a fictionalized version of Mena, Arkansas) in Polk County, Arkansas. He is the son of Arkansas State Trooper Earl Swagger, a retired Marine first sergeant and Medal of Honor recipient, and June Swagger. Bob Lee's father dies in 1955, but not before imparting an appreciation for firearms in his son, who harnessing a natural Swagger gift for firearms. Swagger joins the Marines, forging a successful career as a sniper. He serves three tours in Vietnam, working with Special Operations, and earning the nickname "Bob the Nailer'"for his uncanny ability with a rifle. Despite official credit for 87 combat kills, he has killed 391 men. His most notable engagement occurred when a battalion of the North Vietnamese Army were closing on a lightly defended Special Forces base. Swagger and his spotter, Lance Corporal Donny Fenn, delayed the battalion for two days until air support could arrive, killing more than 80 enemy troops before his ammunition ran out. In Vietnam, Swagger was shot in the hip from 1,400 meters away by T. Solaratov, a Soviet sniper who killed Fenn soon after with a shot to the chest.