# CBC Sniper Documentary - Rob Furlong



## Lockness

CBC Sunday Report - Broadcast on September 9, 2007. (cbc.ca)

Former Canadian Forces Sniper Rob Furlong discusses his world record shot of 2,430m in Afghanistan during Operation Anaconda in 2002 and his subsequent treatment by the military. Also includes some reporting from the Canadian Forces sniper school. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2knT8RwxKA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q76G7F4dV8


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## bms

This is definitely an excellent watch. I mean, it is proof that no matter who you are, what you do, or what you did, you do sometimes get the short straw.

 Plus, he is a Newfoundlander. Not that it means anything, but it is interesting that seemingly more Newfoundlanders are getting into the military, and in the main light.


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## CADPAT SOLDIER

"The mere sight of a .50 caliber round causes massive heart attacks in all that lay eyes on them"
"The weapon itself is made from the bones of vikings and the steel from spartan swords"


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## 1feral1

Watched both those links. I am impressed. Good on that bloke for coming thru, and getting to be where he is now.

I am sure he will do well and prosper. A casualty of politics. The CF's loss and the EPS's gain.

Regards,

Wes

EDITed for spelling


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## Delta

I guess he chose not to renew his contract?


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## canadian_moose

Delta said:
			
		

> I guess he chose not to renew his contract?



Yup he's a cop in Edmonton now


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## anglo-saxon

Delta said:
			
		

> I guess he chose not to renew his contract?



I think "left in disgust" might be more accurate. Him and his buddies were treated very shabbily, IMO. I saw the program. I thought he was very restrained and diplomatic, given the way he was treated and the opportunity he was presented with to publicly lash out. He showed a lot of class in keeping things "above the waist"! 

As an aside, he has a very apt last name for a sniper, "furlong" being an ancient agricultural unit of measure still used in horse racing today; "fur" meaning furrow and "lang" (as it was then in Old English) meaning long. It describes the long plough furrows of the early middle ages which came to be used as standard units of measure, one furlong X 1 "chain" (one tenth of a furlong) wide then being one acre. A furlong being a hair over 220 metres, his famed shot would have been almost exactly 12 furlongs.


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## ballz

This was originally posted over 2 years ago but whatever, I still watch the youtube video from time to time.

I also found this article "We Were Abandoned" http://www.macleans.ca/canada/national/article.jsp?content=20060515_126689_126689

It's a great article with a lot more information about both the shot and the investigation.


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## leroi

I'm posting this here because it's a tribute to Rob Furlong  although it concerns the (hopefully dying) Gutfeld/Fox controversy. It's a tribute to him and the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry. And it's an excellent positive reflection on all past, present and future CF members--IMHO :

Fox News Mocks Service of Canadian Soldiers 

http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2594

This is Rob Furlong: 







Rob is a Canadian.  These days, he's a police officer in Edmonton where he tries to live a pretty normal life.  But in military circles, Rob is sort of famous.  That's because in the early days of the war in Afghanistan--only months after the 9/11 attacks--Rob was serving in the Canadian infantry as a sniper in the Shah-e-Kot Valley during Operation Anaconda.  One day, while covering American soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division, Rob killed an al Qaeda fighter carrying an RPK machine gun.  It was one of many that week for Rob and his team.  For their service during the operation, the Americans of the 101st Airborne will always be indebted.  Maclean's put it this way: 


They destroyed al-Qaeda firing positions, saved American lives and tallied a body count unmatched by any Canadian soldier of their generation. U.S. commanders who served alongside the snipers nominated all five for the coveted Bronze Star medal. "Thank God the Canadians were there," is how one American soldier put it.
The thing was, the al Qaeda fighter with the RPK was nearly a mile and a half away when Rob took the shot--and no one before had ever recorded a kill at such a long distance. 

This is all true.  I was there. 

Now.  This is Greg Gutfeld: 






Greg wasn't in the Shah-e-Kot Valley and he's never been to Afghanistan.  In fact, Greg has never provided cover of any kind for American troops in the field.  I'll have more about Greg and some of his friends in just a minute. 

But back to Rob Furlong.  This is footage of Rob Furlong's colleagues--members of his Canadian infantry unit--in action, in Afghanistan, in 2006: 

http://www.youtube.com/v/ot2gu5tmJwA&hl

As you can see, Rob's colleagues are in what we in the military call "the shit."  And they've been putting their lives on the line there since 2001--after the United States was attacked.  They even decided to continue helping after the first four Canadian troops killed in Afghanistan were killed at the hands of an American pilot in 2002.  And they're still there now, even after four more Canadians were killed last week, bringing their total number of killed to 116. 

Okay.  Now, about Greg.  Greg hosts a TV show with his colleagues in the media on Fox News.  It's called Red Eye and it's on late at night.  Like him, Greg's colleagues have never provided cover of any kind for American troops fighting in Afghanistan or anywhere else.  But for some reason, when they all got together last week, they decided it would be funny to mock those who had.  That is, they decided to deride members of the Canadian military--troops like Rob Furlong and the four killed on Thursday--for being effeminate slackers and stupid pansies who can't hack it.   

This is Greg and his crew last week engaged in their version of "action:" 

http://www.youtube.com/v/tcJn5XlbSFk&hl

NewsHounds has a great write-up with the portions of the transcript here. 

At this point, Greg Gutfeld and his handlers at Fox News have embarrassed the United States.  And when I say that, I'm not exaggerating.  As the video clip featuring Fox's unabashed chickenhawks spread across the country, Canada's Defence Minister called for a Fox News apology--which he and the rest of the country received this afternoon. 

And it's great that Gutfeld has apologized for the ignorant chatter over which he presided last Tuesday, but it's still demonstrative of the larger problem we face in this country of the disconnect between those who serve in uniform and those who don't.  Fox News is part of the problem.  They always have been.  And until that culture changes, we can expect to see more Greg Gutfeld's on the air mocking those who've sacrificed in the service of their country--or someone else's country--like Rob Furlong and his brothers in Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.


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## gaspasser

I believe that David Paetkau's charactor Sam Braddock on Flashpoint is based on Rob Furlong.  CF makes it's way into tv's backdoor..cool


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## Greymatters

ballz said:
			
		

> This was originally posted over 2 years ago but whatever, I still watch the youtube video from time to time.
> 
> I also found this article "We Were Abandoned" http://www.macleans.ca/canada/national/article.jsp?content=20060515_126689_126689
> 
> It's a great article with a lot more information about both the shot and the investigation.



The writeup mentions that the ombudsman was going to submit his final report of his investigation, and this was in 2006 - has anyone found a copy of this report?


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## mellian

bms said:
			
		

> Plus, he is a Newfoundlander. Not that it means anything, but it is interesting that seemingly more Newfoundlanders are getting into the military, and in the main light.



I remember reading about that Rob Furlong when the longest shot hit the news, and then making the off the mark comment "I bet it was a Newfie", with a response that he was. Really sucks at what happened to them afterwards.


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## Gunner98

Sniper Investigation link: http://ombudsman.mil.ca/rep-rap/sr-rs/sb-bte/rep-rap-01-eng.asp#com-pla  and status of recommendations link: http://ombudsman.mil.ca/sr-er/snipers-te-eng.asp


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## Smity199

What happened to them afterwards??


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## Greymatters

Those two links dont seem to work anymore...


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## Roy Harding

Greymatters said:
			
		

> Those two links dont seem to work anymore...



The links in question are DWAN only (which means I can't see them either).  Are you trying to access them from home?


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## Gunner98

Three links from Internet:

http://www.ombudsman.forces.gc.ca/rep-rap/sr-rs/sb-bte/index-eng.asp

http://www.ombudsman.mdn.ca/mr-sm/nr-cp/2007/2504-eng.asp

Status of Recommendations - http://www.ombudsman.forces.gc.ca/sr-er/snipers-te-eng.asp


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## Roy Harding

Thanks for the internet links.  I hadn't googled it yet.

I was the CC for the unit when all this went down.  I'll save the reading for when I've got a fresh bottle of Rye and a long time to spend doing it.


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## Haggis

BYT Driver said:
			
		

> I believe that David Paetkau's charactor Sam Braddock on Flashpoint is based on Rob Furlong.  CF makes it's way into tv's backdoor..cool



If so, it's very loosly based.  "Braddock" is an ex JTF-2 sniper released after killing a fellow trooper in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan.  Other than being a sniper, the connection isn't there..


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## Greymatters

Roy Harding said:
			
		

> The links in question are DWAN only (which means I can't see them either).  Are you trying to access them from home?



Yes, but looks like problem solved...


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## Greymatters

Has anyone had a chance to review this report and notice anything they thought unusual with it?

FYI, I just did a quick skim but will be taking time to read it more thoroughly over the next week and list some points I find unusual, meaning that the way that some of the paragraphs are phrased dont tend to reflect reality, but will need to read the entire thing in depth to make sure my impressions are correct...


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## TCBF

anglo-saxon said:
			
		

> ... As an aside, he has a very apt last name for a sniper, "furlong" being an ancient agricultural unit of measure still used in horse racing today; "fur" meaning furrow and "lang" (as it was then in Old English) meaning long. It describes the long plough furrows of the early middle ages which came to be used as standard units of measure, one furlong X 1 "chain" (one tenth of a furlong) wide then being one acre. A furlong being a hair over 220 metres, his famed shot would have been almost exactly 12 furlongs.



- A chain being 66 feet, a furlong 660 feet (220 yards).  I have a seventy year old topo map of the Dog Lake area of NWO and the old portages are marked with their length in chains.  As well, a lot of old city buiding lots were surveyed 33 feet wide - a half chain.


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## gaspasser

Haggis said:
			
		

> If so, it's very loosly based.  "Braddock" is an ex JTF-2 sniper released after killing a fellow trooper in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan.  Other than being a sniper, the connection isn't there..


Thanks for the correction Haggis.  I wasn't too sure on my info when I wrote my statement.  Either or, a Canadian soldier IS mentioned in a Canadian show!     
                 



sort of makes the chest swell a bit


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## cupper

Not sure if this has been posted before but could not find anything when I did a search.

Saw a commercial for an upcoming series on the History Channel's H2 channel called Sniper which looked interesting. But what really caught my eye was one episode "Through the Crosshairs" has an interview with Rob Furlong, and uses CGI to break down the record setting shot.

Not sure if this will be run in Canada, but something to keep an eye out for.


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## cupper

It appears that the series originally ran in March. The whole 2 part series is available on the History Channel Youtube channel. And I realized that I had already seen it. It was a very interesting program. I'd recommend it for those who know little of the sniping art, the deconstructions are well demonstrated and informative.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsIUbRPLq1Y


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## Bruce Monkhouse

http://www.torontosun.com/2011/12/19/canadas-best-sniper-protects-edmontons-streets

By Kris Sims ,Parliamentary Bureau 
First posted: Monday, January 02, 2012 02:00 AM EST 


Retired corporal Rob Furlong protected his American brothers by taking out a Taliban fighter from 2,430 metres away. Now the former sniper is protecting the streets of Alberta's capital as a night beat cop.
"I feel that on a much smaller scale, rather than being on the front lines in Afghanistan, I'm back at home, looking after the homefront, still dealing with bad people who bring ill will on innocents," said the soft spoken Furlong, originally from Fogo Island, N.L.

His dad, Cyril, is a marksman himself, and taught Rob how to shoot when he was a wee lad.
"I've wanted to do this since I was a child, and 14 years with the military and the police, I have always had a job where I look to help others."

Furlong is featured in a newly updated book, Ultimate Sniper, written by retired major John Plaster and published by Paladin Press, and appears in the documentary by the same name. Plaster is an icon in the sniper world, and among retired special forces in the U.S. military.
"I carried the original book with me to Afghanistan and got Plaster to sign it," Furlong said, looking at the book on his shelf.

Furlong was a member of the Canadian sharpshooting five-man Special Forces Sniper Cell with 3 P.P.C.L.I., based out CFB Edmonton. The cell was sent to watch the backs of U.S. allies in the mountains of Afghanistan. During one well-documented mission, they spotted Taliban fighters carrying a machine gun up a mountain trail, trying to get above the U.S. forces for an ambush. That's when Furlong took aim.
"That shot that we made that day, we didn't realize what we managed to do."

The bullets used in the .50-calibre McMillan Brothers Tac-50 Rifle were the size of a pop can, and took three seconds to travel the 2.4 km to reach their target.
Furlong was decorated for his efforts by the U.S., but did not receive any similar commendation in Canada.

"I'm not bitter against the army, I loved my career in there," he said back home, where he's settled into his life as an Edmonton cop.
"I still have my dress uniform in my closet. I will never forget it. It means a lot to me," said Furlong. "Policing gives me a little taste of that, but I can be home at night."


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## aesop081

Bruce Monkhouse said:
			
		

> The bullets used in the .50-calibre McMillan Brothers Tac-50 Rifle were the size of a pop can,



.50 Cal ammunition has obviously change quite a bit since i last fired some out of an M2...........


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## Journeyman

I did the initial "WTF" too, but I suspect the writer meant the round's length


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## HItorMiss

Bruce Monkhouse said:
			
		

> Furlong was a member of the Canadian sharpshooting five-man *Special Forces * Sniper Cell with 3 P.P.C.L.I., based out CFB Edmonton.



Bold is my issue, I really wish Media would actually know what they are talking about. I wont ever take anything away from being a Sniper but Snipers aren't SOF.... A minute of research and clarification goes a long way.

As for Rob really good guy and one hell of a Sniper.


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## Jarnhamar

Bruce Monkhouse said:
			
		

> Furlong is featured in a newly updated book, Ultimate Sniper, written by retired major John Plaster



Thread drift.

Mr Plaster is a pretty awesome guy.
Years ago I read something that I had questions about so I emailed him not  really realizing who he was. He emailed me back and we exchanged emails a few times. He was really helpful, humble and interesting to chat with.  He then mailed me his book The Ultimate Sniper and a dozen other books (guides and novels) for free.
That's always stuck with me.


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## blacktriangle

CDN Aviator said:
			
		

> .50 Cal ammunition has obviously change quite a bit since i last fired some out of an M2...........



Sounds like a 40mm grenade sniper to me!


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## The Bread Guy

canadian_moose said:
			
		

> Yup he's a cop in Edmonton now


Necrothread bumped with the latest on Furlong, shared under the Fair Dealing provisions of the _Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42)_ ....


> An Edmonton cop who was fired and then reinstated and then fired again for drunkenly urinating on a fellow officer at a training exercise can appeal the latest decision.
> 
> In a ruling handed down Wednesday, Judge Ronald Berger granted Const. Rob Furlong leave to appeal the Law Enforcement Review Board's decision in August that upheld his original firing following a police disciplinary hearing.
> 
> In 2011, Furlong was among several police officers conducting annual off-site training exercises near Red Deer, Alta.
> 
> A few members went out one night to drink and socialize and when a drunk Furlong and other officers returned to their quarters at 2:30 a.m., they began pestering those who were sleeping, requesting they get up for a drink.
> 
> Furlong entered an officer's room and demanded he get up. The officer refused and turned his back and Furlong unzipped his fly and urinated on the man's sleeping bag at waist level. The officer leapt up and pushed Furlong backwards.
> 
> Furlong pushed the officer into a wall while walking past him and confined him to his assigned room.


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## Humphrey Bogart

milnews.ca said:
			
		

> Necrothread bumped with the latest on Furlong, shared under the Fair Dealing provisions of the _Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42)_ ....



LOL!  I always wondered what happened to this guy.  I now have my answer.


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## Jed

F&#k 'em if they can't take a joke.  I guess it went a little far.


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## Humphrey Bogart

Jed said:
			
		

> F&#k 'em if they can't take a joke.  I guess it went a little far.



LOL I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.  In any case, that article makes him sound like a little bit of a dink tbh.  What kind of grown man urinates on someone anyways?


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## Jed

RoyalDrew said:
			
		

> LOL I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.  In any case, that article makes him sound like a little bit of a dink tbh.  What kind of grown man urinates on someone anyways?



Not acceptable behavior but when you mix in some wobbly pops stupid sh!t happens. In my youthful exuberance I have been on both the receiving and the delivery of such stupidity.


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## Humphrey Bogart

Jed said:
			
		

> Not acceptable behavior but when you mix in some wobbly pops stupid sh!t happens. In my youthful exuberance I have been on both the receiving and the delivery of such stupidity.



Yep, same here!  Problem is that Furlong isn't exactly "youthful" anymore.  Plus, I'd imagine police forces look pretty poorly on this sort of thing.  Far more so then the army would, but maybe I am wrong  :dunno:


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## Jed

Well the police forces and the military definitely does so now. Far more politically correct in today's world. In the days before video cameras in everybody's Iphone, people would play hard and work hard. Not much activity stays behind closed doors anymore unless it is really, really bad sh!t.


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## jollyjacktar

He does have a Marksmanship Academy.  I ran across the website some time ago and pondered it as I thought he was still an active member of the EPS.  He does have to have some money coming in from somewhere just like all of us.  Might as well try and parlay his skills and fame if he needs to make ends meet.


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## Jed

jollyjacktar said:
			
		

> He does have a Marksmanship Academy.  I ran across the website some time ago and pondered it as I thought he was still an active member of the EPS.  He does have to have some money coming in from somewhere just like all of us.  Might as well try and parlay his skills and fame if he needs to make ends meet.



Yep I saw his website too, I know some of his story but not the man in particular. I personally would never condemn him or his capabilities for something like this stuff bandied about on the net.


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## jollyjacktar

Agreed


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