Bob Lee Swagger

Bob Lee Swagger
First appearance	Point of Impact (novel)
Last appearance	Shooter (film)
Created by	Stephen Hunter
Portrayed by	Mark Wahlberg
In-universe information
Nickname	Bob the Nailer
Gender	Male
Occupation	Former Marine Gunnery Sergeant
Family	Earl Swagger (father) June Swagger (mother) Lamar Pye (half-brother)
Spouse	Julie Fenn-Swagger
Children	Nikki Swagger
Nationality	American

Bob Lee Swagger (also known as Bob the Nailer) is a fictional character created by Stephen Hunter. He is the protagonist in a series of books that relate his life after and during the Vietnam War - Point of Impact, Black Light, Time to Hunt, The 47th Samurai, and Night of Thunder. He is also the protagonist of the film Shooter (based on Point of Impact).

Biography

Bob Lee Swagger is a former Marine Gunnery Sergeant who was born and raised in Blue Eye (a fictionalised version of Mena, Arkansas) in Polk County, Arkansas. The son of Arkansas State Trooper Earl Swagger, also a former Marine First Sergeant and Medal of Honor recipient, and June Swagger. Bob Lee had a natural gift for firearms from an early age, something seemingly possessed by all male Swaggers. He had a half brother, named Lamar Pye, the product of a one night stand between his father and Edie White Pye.

After his father died in 1955, Bob Lee joined the Marines, forging a successful career as a Marine Sniper. Bob Lee served three tours in Vietnam, working with Special Operations, and earned the nickname 'Bob the Nailer' for his uncanny ability with a rifle. Despite official counts crediting him with 87 combat kills, in reality he has killed a total of 391 men, with his most notable success being an engagement with a battalion of the North Vietnamese Army who were closing on a lightly defended Special Forces Base. Bob Lee and his spotter, Lance Corporal Donny Fenn, succeeded in delaying the battalion for two days until air support could arrive, and during the engagement Bob Lee killed in excess of 80 enemy troops, only stopping when his ammunition ran out.

While serving in the 'Nam, Swagger was shot in the hip from a distance of 1000m+ by T. Solaratov, a Soviet sniper who also killed Fenn soon after with a shot to the chest from the same distance.

Bob Lee was retired by the Marine Corp in 1975, suffering from a permanent disability due to the hip wound. He became an alcoholic to numb his depression, which resulted in the break-up of his first marriage, and he retreated to a hermetic existence on family land near Blue Eye. Sworn off killing, he hunts trophy deer using an innovative paintball style bullet which stuns them for several minutes, during which he saws off their antlers so they are no longer attractive to trophy hunters.

The events of Point of Impact begin at this stage of his life (1992) when he is approached by a clandestine organization to prevent the assassination of the President by a highly trained sniper, who he is told is the same sniper who shot him and killed his spotter. When the assassination attempt kills a visiting dignitary from Salvador, Bob Lee finds himself framed as the 'lone gunman'. With the help of Nick Memphis, an FBI agent assigned to the case, and attorney Sam Vincent, an old friend of Earl Swagger, Bob Lee manages to clear his name and destroy the people who set him up.

He goes on to marry Julie Fenn, the widow of his spotter, and they have a daughter, Nikki Swagger. In Black Light, Swagger unravels a conspiracy behind the murder of his father by a prominent presidential candidate.

In Time to Hunt, Swagger solves the mystery of his spotter's death, which results in the death of Solaratov.

A fourth Bob Lee Swagger novel has been published. It is titled The 47th Samurai and was released September 11, 2007. In this novel, Bob Lee travels to Japan to return a samurai sword recovered by his father in World War II to its rightful owner, but quickly finds himself wrapped up in yet another deadly plot.

Stephen Hunter is currently taking a hiatus from The Washington Post while he works on a fifth Bob Lee Swagger novel.

Shooter

Point of Impact is the basis for the movie Shooter, starring Mark Wahlberg as Swagger. The film brings Swagger's timeline forward into a more contemporary setting, with Fenn's death occurring during a fictional peace-keeping operation in Ethiopia. Swagger is thought to have been responsible for the disappearance of the CIA agent who decided that he and Fenn were disposable and should be left in the battle zone to fend for themselves. He lives in a hunter's cabin with his faithful companion dog, who he has trained to retrieve him beer. It is later revealed that his mission in Ethiopia secretly allowed mercenaries to massacre Ethiopians who were refusing to leave their homes to allow an oil pipeline to be constructed.

External links

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