Carlos Hathcock

Just want to give my deceased Vietnam war buddy a mention. Don't want him to be forgotten. Carlos was a Marine sniper with 93 confirmed kills. He estimated his total kills to be between 300 and 400. Once stalked a targeted Vietnam sniper for 3 days with no sleep. Got him after seeing a glint in the sun of enemy rifle scope. Hathcock took a shot at the glint. The round went cleanly through the scope and into the enemy's eye killing him.

His stalking of The General was amazing and grueling, not to mention The Frenchman and The Apache

I watched a show on him. Much respect.

Read One Shot, One Kill many years ago. That's one book i couldn't put down.

Semper Fi, I believe Carlos son is a Marine also...

I was privileged to get to meet Gunny Hathcock at the firing range for the Norfolk,Va. PD.
many years ago. I had gone to see a friend who was going through K9 school there. He introduced me to Gunny Hathcock and I was honored to meet such a humble and soft spoken man who was respected and dearly loved by all the swat team guys and the K9 handlers who were around him almost every day.
Even with his health deteriorating, his presence alone commanded the respect of all and you could tell that no matter what was going on when he spoke you could hear a pin drop.
GOD bless him, his family at home and in the USMC.

Thank you for your post Bodycount and for your service to our country. Semper Fi

Have always had the utmost respect for the man.

How many here know his nephew was once a member here? I believe he passed away a few years ago. He was also a sniper for the Army.

A sincere thank you Leary Sink. I in return give you all due respect for every bit of your service. It is just that it seems like we are losing sight of what past generations sacrificed.

That was Mark.

I agree. That was one of the best books I've ever read.

His bushcraft skills and patience were unreal. read the book several times & saw the one candid interview he gave Maj. Plaster. He refered to his targets as "hamburgers"
Springfield Armory presented his son (a Marine LTC at the time) with serial number 1 of a M1a national match rifle dubbed the white feather edition.

There is another book by the guy that wrote that one. Its a lot that got cut out of the first one. Lent my coppies to a friend and never saw them again. That friend is now dead so they are gone.

An amazing man for sure.

Best book ever

That is a great read.

THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE!!

I knew Mark Hathcock. Conversed with him many times. Mark was a trapper also. Sent him some Sumac berries for him to dye his traps with.

I've read the book about him several times. He was a true American hero. Gone, but never forgotten.

I knew Gunny from his days at the Bait Barn in Virginia Beach. He dipped minnows for fishermen to help pass the time of day between telling limericks and lies. He never told jokes, just limericks and lies.
In the book about him, he told me that the only part which wasn't true was the description of the color of the shark boat at the Bait Barn. He said authors like to embellish. Everything else was spot on, straight skinny.
We became friends over time. I was always proud just to have met him, but one day he said to me, "I go to a lot of events and such and meet a lot of people." He said, "A lot of them will go on to say that they are friends of mine." Then he gives me that wry, crooked smile of his, and just reaches out and shakes my hand with that death grip Marine handshake and doesn't say another word about it.
I will carry the thought of that day for as long as I can still hold thoughts in my head.
He was a great Marine, a great man, and a great friend.
Semper fi

Yea his results were achieved by practice and unparalleled skill. Very little technology and tank busting calibers like today’s snipers use Yes today’s snipers have skill with modern scopes and computer backed ballistics hitting targets at long range is easier
Read his book decades ago Couldn’t put it down!

i read a book about him years ago. talked about him mounting a scope on a 50 caliber machine gun. turn it down where he could easy squeeze off one round at a time . in essence he created the modern sniper

found this on line

Yep. That's a Unertl scope. The tube slides forward from the gun's recoil and has to be manually brought back into place for the next shot.

That's the setup that he used to kill the NVA at a mile on the bicycle. First shot took out the front axle, second shot killed the NVA. When I was at Little Creek NAB in VA the top grad in my MOS class got to meet him. I was honor grad, but since I had already picked up LCpl they sent a Pfc instead. The first of many times the Marine Corps shafted me. That one hurts the worst. He came back with an autographed picture and book and had his pic taken with him.