The Terrifying Sniper Who Owned the Most Chilling Record

The weather was humid and extremely hot, and

sniper

Carlos Hathcock and his spotter, John Roland Burke, were tired of running through the Vietnamese jungle in search of their next prey.   Still, Hathcock remained unmoved. Peering through his binoculars, the experienced gunman silently inspected his target, a feared counter-

sniper

known as Cobra who had become his nemesis while fighting the North Vietnamese. But Hathcock was confident that Cobra was no better than him. After all, the brave soldier had a $30,000 bounty on his head, the highest ever placed on an American sniper in Vietnam. After failing on the first attempt, Cobra and Hathcock ran deeper into the jungle in a game of cat and mouse until the two men were within sight of each other.

They then turned their rifles on each other, and what happened next only cemented the so-called sniper White Feather as a Marine Corps legend... LOGO White Feather Carlos Hathcock served on two tours in Vietnam.  The 5-foot-10, 120-pound sniper never voluntarily took a day off and volunteered for so many dangerous missions that, at one point, his commanding officer had no choice but to restrict him to his quarters. Hathcock primarily used the standard Winchester Model 70 .30-06 caliber rifle with an 8x Unertl scope, and on some occasions also used a Browning M2 machine gun. It was with his Winchester rifle that he set the

record

for the longest confirmed sniper shot: 2,500 yards, a

record

that stood unchanged for 35 years.

As the sniper's notoriety grew among the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese military, the enemy began referring to him as Du kích Lông Trắng, or the White Feather Sniper. The nickname was a reference to the white feather that Hathcock used to wear in a band of his bush hat. The feared sniper claimed so many lives that there was soon a bounty on his head.   While bounties offered by the People's Army of Vietnam to American snipers ranged from $8 to $2,000, Hathcock's head was worth $30,000. On one occasion, after an enemy sniper platoon was sent to hunt down the White Feather, many Marines in the same area decided to wear the distinctive white feather on their hats, thus fooling the North Vietnamese and further complicating the Marines' job. countersnipers.

Still, although he held the record for the highest bounty, Hathcock shot and annihilated all the shooters who tried to catch him. Carlos Hathcock Carlos Norman Hathcock II taught himself to shoot and hunt from an early age, primarily out of necessity to help feed his family. Throughout his childhood and adolescence, Hathcock and his dog would venture deep into the Arkansas wilderness, where he would pretend to be a soldier and hunt imaginary Japanese soldiers using a J.C. single-shot rifle. Higgins .22 caliber that his father brought from his house. service in World War II. As a child, Hathcock dreamed of becoming a United States Marine and achieved it in 1959 when he enlisted in the service at age 17.

By 1965, the young Marine had won several shooting championships and awards, including the Wimbledon Cup, the

most

prestigious prize in long-distance shooting. Hathcock arrived in Vietnam a year later and began his first deployment as a military police officer, protecting soldiers and resources at Army installations and enforcing military laws and regulations. However, Hathcock wanted adventure and soon volunteered for combat. Captain Edward James Land, an officer who pushed the Marines to train snipers in each platoon, personally selected Carlos after learning of his shooting records, and the Arkansas native later became a sniper. Hathcock was then transferred to the 1st Marine Division's sniper platoon stationed on Hill 55, 10 miles southwest of Da Nang, where he would become a Marine Corps legend and the world's top sniper. deadly of the Vietnam War.

Apache Sniper Hathcock wasn't the only infamous sniper lurking in the jungles of Vietnam. There was also an alleged platoon leader, interrogator, and sniper on the Viet Cong side who the Marines nicknamed Apache, and she was known for her sadistic methods while she operated in the Vietnamese jungles long before Hathcock arrived. By various accounts, Apache was as beautiful as she was deadly, and was not only known for her leadership and sniping skills, but also for her propensity for torturing American soldiers. It is said that she and her victims were often placed near US Army bases to ensure that other US officers could hear her agonizing screams.

Apache and her crew operated around Hill 55, which was Hathcock's base, and her weapon of choice was a Russian-made 7.62-millimeter Mosin-Nagant Model 44 rifle with a telescopic sight. In November 1966, after taking the life of one of her closest comrades, Hathcock searched the vast landscape for the sniper, but returned every night with no news. One afternoon, Captain Edward James Land is said to have seen a small-built Vietnamese woman carrying a rifle fitting the description of an Apache, accompanied by five armed Viet Cong guerrilla members. As the American duo approached the group, Hathcock and Land moved forward carefully and waited for the right moment to fire.

Finally, as the woman bent over to relieve herself, Land ordered an artillery barrage on the Vietnamese sniper group. Realizing they were being ambushed, the group began running towards them while being shot at, and Captain Land ordered Hathcock to shoot her down. According to accounts, Hathcock quickly attacked Apache with her Winchester sniper rifle, and when the woman fell to the ground, she fired one more bullet at him for good measure. Then the men looked at each other in disbelief, and a few seconds later the silence turned to laughter and shouts. They just killed the deadliest woman in Vietnam.

A legendary shot Carlos Hathcock was constantly pursued by another North Vietnamese known as Cobra, a feared counter-sniper who used a powerful Mosin Nagant 91/30 rifle with a telescopic sight. The feared gunman had made it his personal mission to take down Hathcock, taking several other Marines in the process, including a gunnery sergeant outside Hathcock's own home. Hathcock later recalled finding his partner fallen on the ground: "I made a promise, right there. I was going to get him one way or another." The American recognized that Cobra was skilled and it was only a matter of time before one took down the other.

However, he was sure that no matter how good his enemy was, he was no better than him. One day, Hathcock and his spotter John Roland Burke left the base with their team and began following the enemy sniper in the Vietnamese jungle near their fire base, Hill 55. When Cobra saw Hathcock and his team, he silently took aim at the American sniper. However, Hathcock accidentally fell into a tree and the shot missed and hit Burke's canteen. After missing the shot, Cobra abandoned his position and ran deeper into the jungle, and the two opposing shooters and their spotters ended up on opposite sides of where they had started.

Unfortunately for the North Vietnamese, they were now facing the sun and a flash of light reflected in the sniper's scope. Seeing the glow in the bushes, Hathcock immediately grabbed his rifle and fired at his enemy. Then, upon approaching his victim, he was shocked to discover that his bullet passed through Cobra's sights and hit the counter-sniper right between his eyes. Hathcock then took possession of the countersniper's rifle, hoping to take it home as a trophy. However, the weapon was eventually stolen from the base's armory. A Marine through and through Believing that Hathcock was exhausted after his recurring dangerous missions, top US officials decided to discharge the sniper in 1967.

However, he re-enlisted after only a week back home with the his wife and son.   The patriot was not trained in anything else and he was a Marine through and through, wanting to continue protecting his country and his comrades. Hathcock was then assigned to the rifle training team in Quantico, Virginia, but he was not happy there and was eventually sent back to Vietnam, where he took command of a sniper platoon. On September 16, 1969, the LVT-5 amphibious armored fighting vehicles he and his team were traveling in struck an anti-tank mine along Highway 1, north of Landing Zone Baldy.   The vehicle immediately burst into flames.

Determined to save as many lives as possible, Hathcock paced back and forth and continued to endure the flames while pulling seven Marines from the burning vehicle before collapsing in a rice field, unaware of his own injuries. Several other Marines then came to his rescue and placed him in the water. Hathcock and the seven rescued Marines he pulled from the vehicle were evacuated by helicopter to the hospital ship USS Repose.  They were then taken to a naval hospital in Japan and finally to the Brooke Army Medical Center burn center in Texas. The incident left burns on 43 percent of his body, some of which were third degree, ending his career as a sniper.

While recovering, Hathcock received the Purple Heart, followed by a Silver Star for his brave performance in the amphibian tractor incident. The Marines attempted to remove it once again that same year, but had no luck. Quantico The still young 27-year-old desperately wanted to fight even though he walked with a limp and was beginning to suffer mobility problems. As such, higher-ups decided to send him to Spain to work as a gunnery sergeant on the submarine USS Simon Lake. However, when a new commander arrived on the ship in 1975, he was stunned to discover that Hathcock could no longer move without assistance.

The sniper was then sent to the hospital, where his doctors revealed a discouraging diagnosis: he suffered from multiple sclerosis. After receiving the terrible news, Carlos Hathcock returned to Quantico Marine Base, where he helped establish the Marine Corps Scout Sniper School, providing sniper instruction to police departments and select military units, including SEAL Team Six. . Due to his multiple injuries and the progression of his illness, Hatchcok was continually in pain, but he dedicated himself to teaching a new generation of snipers. However, his health continued to deteriorate, and in 1979, the legendary sniper collapsed while teaching a class. With no more mobility and only 55 days before completing 20 years of enlistment, the beloved instructor was forced to retire.

Legacy Carlos Hathcock remains a legend among the US Marine Corps and even has an award named in his honor: the Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock Award. This award, presented annually, was established to:    "Recognize an individual who... has made significant contributions to the operational employment and tactics of small arms systems that have impacted the readiness and capabilities of the Army or Army forces." "U.S. order." Hathcock would say during an interview that he only survived as a sniper thanks to his ability to enter a concentration bubble, putting himself in a state of complete, utter, absolute concentration with his equipment and his environment, where every breeze and every leaf meant something, so also in its objective.

In the end, Hathcock had nearly 100 confirmed lethal attacks against Viet Cong and North Vietnamese personnel. However, such actions had to be confirmed by a third party during the conflict, and he had to be someone other than the sniper's observer. These third parties were not always present, making confirmations quite complicated, especially when the target was behind enemy lines, as was common in Vietnam. Hathcock estimated that the actual number ranged between 300 and 400 enemy troops during the war. Despite his undeniable efficiency, the sniper always claimed that he did not enjoy killing, and the only thing he had in mind whenever he went on a mission was to protect as many Americans as possible.

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