FORGOTTEN VETERAN: Tatang Koswara

This is a tribute for Warrant Officer (Ret.) Tatang Koswara, the best Indonesian sniper of all time who fought for motherland without counting cost and benefit, and life without glamorous as war hero.

Warrant Ofocer (Ret.) Tatang Koswara in
old age

Warrant Officer (Ret.) Tatang Koswara was an Indonesian sniper legend of all time, he was born in Bandung, 16 December 1946. According to Sniper Training, Techniques, and Weapons written by Peter Brookesmith, Tatang Koswara was included to 14 Sniper’s Roll of Honor in the world, by scoring 41 kills during the Seroja Operation in East Timor.

His military career begin in 1967, after passed Indonesian Army test. The army training become so easy for him because of his habit as a hardworking villager. The young Tatang, then selected to join Mobile Training Teams (MTT) in Green Berets Training Center, US, under Captain Conway command. Then, after two years of uneasy training, only 17 out of 60 applicants were graduated and rewarded with Winchester Model 70 Featherweight sniper rifle.

In 1970s the world surprised by conflict in East Timor between The Republic of Indonesia facing Fretilin Communist Militant. Even the Indonesian Forces more superior in number and equipment than the militant, but it was futile because the militant used guerilla warfare to fight. To handle it, armed forces headquarter approved to sent special forces unit, such as special Army Forces Commando (Kopassus), Special Forces Corps of the Air Forces (Paskhas), and Naval Elite Frogman Commando (Kopaska) that have anti-guerilla capability.

In Operation Seroja, “Siluman-3” (Tatang’s call sign) act as a scout to monitoring every enemy movement in absolute silent and reported it to the HQ. Then, if he found a Fretilin commander, he turned into ruthless killer who shown no mercy, and take him out. In every deployment he always carried 50 rounds. Even though, he always only took 49 shoots and left 1 round for him self after put the rifle out of action, rather than capture by the communist militant. 

One day, Tatang  was being hit on his leg, he felt afraid to be capture by militants but he was ready for the death. He crawl through the jungle and says "if I die here, my blood must spill for The Sacred Red and White (the national Indonesian flag)". Tatang Koswara retired from military services in 1996 as Warrant officer and passed away in March 2015.