Carlos Hathcock

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Carlos Norman Hathcock II
May 20, 1942 - February 23, 1999
Image:CarlosHathcock color.jpg
Nickname	"White Feather sniper"
Place of birth	Little Rock, Arkansas
Place of death	Virginia Beach, Virginia
Allegiance	USMC
Years of service	1959-1979
Rank	Gunnery Sergeant
Battles/wars	Vietnam War
Awards	Silver Star Medal Purple Heart

Carlos Norman Hathcock II (May 20, 1942 – February 23, 1999) was a Marine sniper during the Vietnam War. He was the subject of four books:

• Marine Sniper by Charles W. Henderson.
• 'Silent Warrior by Charles W. Henderson.
• White Feather: Carlos Hathcock, USMC Scout Sniper--an Authorized Biographical Memoir by Roy F. and Norman A. Chandler.
• One Shot, One Kill details his exploits.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Marine Corps career 3 Civilian life 4 Decorations 5 Legacy 5.1 MythBusters 6 In fictional works 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links

Early life

Carlos Norman Hathcock, II., was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on May 20, 1942, and died on February 23, 1999, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, after a long struggle with multiple sclerosis. From the age of seventeen Hathcock spent his lifetime in the U.S. Marine Corps, eventually settling in Virginia.

Marine Corps career

Hathcock enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on May 20, 1959, at the age of 17.

Before deploying to Vietnam he won many shooting championships, including the prestigious Wimbledon Cup — long-range shooting's most prestigious prize — in 1965. A year later he was sent to Vietnam.

Widely recognized as the Marines' most proficient sniper, Hathcock killed a confirmed 93 North Vietnamese and Viet-Cong personnel.^[1] His actual total is believed to be well over 400, with at least an additional 300 being uncomfirmed, which the official count does not reflect. (During the Vietnam War, U.S. forces usually counted enemy dead: this was feasible on a battlefield, but sniper casualties were generally recovered and buried by their comrades, which made confirmation difficult.) He is second only to U.S. Marine Corps sniper Chuck Mawhinney on the list of most kills for an American sniper. North Vietnam even put a bounty of $50,000 on his life, which was far more than other rewards put on U.S. snipers—typically only $50-$100 USD. The Viet Cong and NVA called Hathcock Long Tra'ng du'Kich, translated as "White Feather Sniper", because of the white feather he kept in a band on his bush hat.

He only once removed the white feather from his bush hat while deployed in Vietnam. During a volunteer mission on his first deployment, he crawled over a thousand meters of field to shoot a commanding NVA general. He wasn't informed of the details of the mission until he was en-route to his insertion point aboard a Bell UH-1D Huey helicopter. During this pursuit of the NVA general, he had to crawl more than 1,000 meters of open terrain. This effort took three days and nights of constant inch-by-inch crawling. In Carlos's words, one enemy soldier (or "hamburger" as Carlos called them), "shortly after sunset", almost stepped on him as he lay camouflaged with grass and vegetation in a meadow. At one point he was nearly bitten by a bamboo viper and had the presence of mind to not move and give up his position.^[2]

Hathcock's career as a sniper came to a sudden end outside Khe Sanh in 1969, when the amphibious tractor he was riding on struck an anti-tank mine. Hathcock pulled seven Marines off the flame-engulfed vehicle before jumping to safety. He came out of the incident with severe burns over ninety percent of his body, 49% of which were third-degree burns. He was evacuated to Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas, where he underwent 13 skin graft operations. His injuries left him unable to perform effectively in combat with a rifle. He was told he would be recommended for the Silver Star, but he stated that he had only done what anyone there would have if they were awake, so he rejected any commendation for his bravery. Nearly 30 years later he was awarded the U.S. military's third highest award, the Silver Star.

Hathcock said in the book he wrote about his career as a sniper: "I like shooting, and I love hunting. But I never did enjoy killing anybody. It's my job. If I don't get those bastards, then they're gonna kill a lot of these kids we got dressed up like Marines. That's just the way I see it."

Civilian life

After returning from active duty, Hathcock helped establish a scout and sniper school at the Marine base in Quantico, Virginia. In 1975, Hathcock's health began to deteriorate and he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis — an incurable, degenerative nerve disorder. He stayed in the Corps but his health continued to decline and was forced to retire just 55 days short of the 20 years that would have made him eligible for 50% retirement pay. Being medically retired, he received 100% disability. He fell into a state of depression when he was forced out of the Marines because he felt as if the service kicked him out, which he later realized wasn't true. During this depression his wife Jo almost left him, but finally stayed. Hathcock eventually picked up the hobby of shark fishing with the locals, which is accredited to helping his depression.^{[citation needed]} Hathcock often paid visits to the sniper training facility at Quantico, where he was welcomed by students and instructors alike as being "bigger than life" due to his status in shooting circles.^{[citation needed]}

Hathcock once said that he survived in his work because of an ability to "get in the bubble," to put himself into a state of "utter, complete, absolute concentration," first with his equipment, then his environment, in which every breeze and every leaf meant something, and finally on his quarry.^{[citation needed]}

After the war, a friend showed Hathcock a passage written by Ernest Hemingway: "Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and like it, never really care for anything else thereafter." He copied Hemingway's words on a piece of paper. "He got that right," Hathcock said. "It was the hunt, not the killing."^{[citation needed]}

Decorations

• Image:Silver Star BAR.svg  Silver Star
• Image:Purple Heart BAR.svg  Purple Heart

Legacy

Hathcock remains a legend within the U.S. Marines. The Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock Award is presented annually to the Marine who does the most to promote marksmanship training.^[3] A sniper range is also named for Hathcock at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

In 1967, Hathcock set the record for the 20th century's longest combat kill with a Browning M2 .50 BMG machine gun mounting a telescopic sight. The distance was 2,286 meters (2,500 yards) or 1.42 miles. Hathcock was one of several individuals to utilize the Browning M2 machine gun in the sniping role. This success led to the adoption of the .50 BMG cartridge as a viable anti-personnel and anti-equipment sniper round.

The record stood until 2002 when it was broken during Operation Anaconda by a Canadian three-man sniper team led by Master Corporal Graham Ragsdale from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI). The record itself was set by Corporal Rob Furlong with a shot of 2,430 meters (2,657 yards) from a McMillan TAC-50 Long-Range Sniper Weapon on a Taliban fighter.

On March 9, 2007, the rifle and pistol complex at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar was officially renamed the Carlos Hathcock Range Complex.^[4]

MythBusters

In an episode of the fourth season of the television show MythBusters (29 November 2006, Episode 67), stars Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman attempted to test the feasibility of shooting through the scope of another rifle, citing the confirmed Hathcock incident of shooting a North Vietnamese sniper through his victim's scope. They were unable to replicate the results in the story using the modern equipment they had on hand, so they declared the myth "busted." However, they did not replicate the exact conditions of Hathcock's combat incident. The MythBusters did not take into consideration powder loads, bullet weight, muzzle velocity, angle, or variations in air pressure and density. On the show, they conceded that they were not shooting at the same scope that Hathcock shot at and stated that under the exactly ideal conditions and with extreme luck, the shot may have been possible. In the episode aired on March 21, 2007, the MythBusters revisited this myth and confirmed that it was possible, but they had to use armor-piercing rounds to fully penetrate the scope. They used a vintage scope this time, which was much smaller than modern scopes, and Jamie successfully fired a bullet through the scope. The bullet penetrated the dummy's face to a depth of about two inches, which would be lethal to a human.

In fictional works

• There is a nod to Hathcock in the movie, Saving Private Ryan. Steven Spielberg stated, "the idea of a sniper putting a bullet through another sniper's scope came from the true story of Carlos Hathcock, who killed a Vietcong sniper who was stalking him by putting a bullet through the sniper's scope."

• There is also a reference to Hathcock in the television show NCIS during the episode "One Shot One Kill", a small white feather is found at the crime scenes of a sniper's victims.

• The protagonist of Stephen Hunter's Bob Lee Swagger Trilogy (consisting of the novels Point of Impact, Black Light, and Time to Hunt) is loosely based on Carlos Hathcock. The film Shooter is based on Stephen Hunter's work.

• The movie Sniper^[5] features actor Tom Berenger shooting the enemy sniper through his own scope. This is probably based on Hathcock's story as well (Berenger's character was loosely based on Hathcock).

• In the episode 14 of the anime Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG, Section 9 member Saito is shot through the scope of his Seburo SR50 bolt-action sniper rifle during his freelancer days in the Central/South American campaign, a tactic by Motoko Kusanagi similar to that used by Hathcock.

• The movie RoboCop 2 contains a segment where the camera is from the point of view of the sniper scope. The sniper is looking at RoboCop, who turns around and shoots the enemy, the bullet going through the sniper scope.

• In Frank Miller's graphic novel, Sin City, episode "To Hell and Back", protagonist Wallace shoots a sniper in the head, the bullet entering through his (the sniper's) rifle scope.

• The final duel between the snipers of the film Enemy at the Gates features the same Hathcock-inspired ending.

See also

• Jack Coughlin, a retired Marine sniper with over 60 confirmed kills whose service includes Iraq and Somalia.
• Winchester Model 70, the Marine Corps sniper rifle used by Hathcock.
• Chuck Mawhinney holds the highest number of confirmed kills (103) for any American sniper in history.
• Billy Sing, an Australian sniper who had 201 confirmed kills.

Notes

References

• Henderson, Charles W. Marine Sniper, Stein and Day Publishers, 1986. (ISBN 0-425-10355-2)
• Henderson, Charles W. Silent Warrior, Berkley, 2003. (ISBN 0-425-18864-7)
• Chandler, Roy F. Carlos Hathcock "Whitefeather", Iron Brigade Armory Publishing, 1997. (ISBN 1-885633-09-2)

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