foreign
counters was a counter sniper engagement in which you had to think a very professional North
Vietnamese sniper. Yes sir. Why don't you tell me that story? Well it's just that uh he was doing a bad
job this North Vietnamese sniper was sent down there to get me, and uh which I really didn't appreciate.
Marine Corps snipers are legendary a very select few who are chosen for excellent
marksmanship and highly trained in field craft such as reconnaissance observation stalking and
call for fire. In Vietnam there were a few men Marines and Army who became legends. One became
so famous even among the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong, Ho Chi Minh placed a bounty on his head.
They even sent their top sniper called the Cobra to shoot Marines and lure the Marine sniper out
to kill him. He was known as White Feather. How did he become so famous as a sniper? Why
did the Communists put so much effort into killing him? Hello I'm Colin Heaton former
soldier Marine Corps Scout sniper history professor historian and book author and we
will answer these questions and other issues on this segment of Forgotten History [Music]
Carlos Norman Hathcock was born on May 20th 1942 in Little Rock Arkansas.
He grew up in Wayne Arkansas he lived with his grandmother for 12 years of his life after his
parents separated. Hathcock supported his extremely poor family by shooting and hunting at an early
age with a .22 caliber J.C. Higgins single shot rifle. He later graduated to using a Kar 98 German Mauser
that his father had brought back from World War II. Hathcock joined the Marines on May 20th 1959 at
the age of 17 and rapidly became a known quantity. He had won the matches at Camp Perry in 1965 and
the Wimbledon Cup Shooting championships in 1966. Hathcock deployed to South Vietnam as a military
policeman but later became a sniper after Captain later major Edward James land wanted snipers in
every infantry platoon. At that time there was no formal sniper school in the Marine
Corps and snipers were designated according to a Marine's marksmanship record and field expertise.
Land knew right away that Hathcock was a natural. Hathcock soon went to work protecting Marines and
one enemy was a woman. The story of the woman VC called the Apache has been questioned but here is
how Carlos explained it. "She had been torturing captured Marines with an earshot of the base
she skinned one kid that she'd captured all night and half the next day when she turned him loose. He
died right in the wire," he recalled with a sigh. "It was a very, very personal story." He finally killed
her while out on a regular patrol mission and he was calling it a day when a group of VC were spotted
within range. Carlos said, "I saw her squat down to tinkle. The guys with her tried to get her to stop
but I stopped her. I put one extra round in her for good measure. The NVA and VC called Hathcock Long
Trang which means "White Feather" because of the white feather he kept in the band on his bush hat.
After a platoon of Vietnamese snipers failed to kill him many Marines in the same area donned
white feathers to deceive the enemy and confuse them. Ho Chi Minh placed a bounty
of thirty thousand dollars on Hathcock because he was so effective and through a mishap they'd
learned his name. It was believed that one of the local women working on the base accessed Hathcock's
service record book. In those days sniper kills were recorded in the SRB. Generally rewards put
on U.S snipers ranged from eight dollars to two thousand dollars. Hathcock held the record for
the highest bounty ever placed on a Marine and he killed every Vietnamese sniper who came after him.
In one of the most remarkable sniper versus sniper duels in history Hathcock and his spotter John
Roland Burke were stalking the enemy sniper called the Cobra in the jungle near Hill 55.
This was a firebase southwest of Da Nang where the Cobra had already killed several Marines to
lure Hathcock out to kill him. The stalking lasted for two days. Carlos said, "He was close to being as
good as I was but ain't no way; ain't nobody that good." The Cobra fired at Hathcock as the Marine
accidentally tripped over a decayed tree forcing the shot to miss and hit his spotter's canteen.
Then the Cobra took off running. Eventually the two opposing teams worked their way around the
entire area until they had completely exchanged positions. The Cobra was now facing the sun when
Hathcock saw a glint of light reflecting off the enemy sniper's scope in the bushes and fired at
it. He shot through the scope killing the sniper. That meant both men were looking at each other at
the same time but Hathcock was faster. Hathcock and Burke collected the dead sniper's rifle as
Hathcock wanted to keep it as a trophy but it was later stolen from the armory after he checked it
in. Once Hathcock and his spotter encountered an NVA company as they tried to cross a rice paddy;
that battle lasted five days. On day one Hathcock dropped the commander and his spotter took a toll
of the enemy as well, then they killed more. To make a bad day worse for the enemy Hathcock's
spotter called in artillery support through the long nights as they constantly relocated.
At daylight the enemy would always attack where the two Marines had been the previous day, and the
Marines picked off even more as they were bogged down in the knee-deep watery mud. Hathcock was
offered a top secret mission which he accepted knowing nothing about it until he was briefed
after acceptance. The mission was to kill a North Vietnamese general far behind in the enemy lines
and he would be alone this time. Following his insertion several miles away he entered the enemy
controlled area. It took him four days and three nights without sleep as he crawled inch by inch
over 1,500 yards of an open field after already covering two miles just to get to that point.
Hathcock was wearing a hastily assembled ghillie suit from the local vegetation to blend in with
the surrounding terrain and he was almost stepped on by patrols as he lay camouflaged
with grass and vegetation in a meadow shortly after sunset. During this process he came face
to face with a deadly bamboo viper and managed to outlast the reptile until it crawled away.
He then managed to complete the stalk and get into a concealed position and not long afterward
the general came into view. Hathcock fired a single shot that struck the general in the chest killing
him with from a distance of 700 yards using his preferred Winchester 300 Magnum bolt action rifle.
Carlos was deep inside the enemy compound but this was the easy part; now he had to escape
the area without being captured. His egress and evasion was on. He egressed out of the area as
the soldiers went to the trees to hide and he made his escape without being actively pursued. That is
the toughest part of a deep penetration mission surviving after making the shot. Another one of
Carlos Hathcock's most insane shots was a 2,500 yard kill with the M2 .50 caliber machine gun set to
single shot. He had just fitted the optics and was ranging when an enemy appeared downrange exactly
where the ANPVS-2 telescope was pointing. One long range shot-one confirmed kill. This was Hathcock's
last mission before he rotated back to the states in 1967 but he returned in 1969 to command a
platoon of snipers where he was almost killed. On September 16, 1969, Hathcock was ridiing on an
LVTP-5 armored personnel carrier full of Marines on Highway 1 North of Landing Zone Baldy a U.S
Marine Corps and Army, Army Republic Vietnam base located northwest of Chu Lai in Quang Nam Province
with the APC rolled over an anti-tank mine. The explosion rocked the heavy vehicle and wounded
all the Marines on board and a fire broke out. Hathcock jumped off and ran to the rear and
pulled seven Marines from the vehicle which was an incinerator. Hathcock then collapsed suffering
first second and third degree burns to his face arms and legs and his uniform was aflame. Another
Marine grabbed him and pulled him away and placed him in water alongside the road in a rice paddy
and he was still smoking. Hathcock had no idea how badly he had been burnt. Hathcock and the seven
Marines he rescued were evacuated by helicopter to hospital ship USS Repose then to a naval hospital
in Tokyo Japan finally arriving at the burn center at Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio Texas.
While recovering Hathcock received the Purple Heart. Nearly 30 years later he received the
Silver Star for this action saving those Marines. His recovery was a very slow process.
Although Hathcock had 93 confirmed kills which had to be confirmed by the spotter and a third party
who had to be an officer he estimated that he had killed between 300 and 400 enemy personnel during
the Vietnam War. Hathcock was never certain since a hit not always mean a kill and the third party
confirmation was difficult especially when targets were behind enemy lines which was the most common
problem for Hathcock or any sniper. However not to be sidelined Hathcock returned to active duty and
along with now Major Ed Land established the Marine Corps Sniper School at Marine Corps Base Quantico
Virginia. The results of his efforts saw the establishments of scout sniper schools at Stone's
Bay Camp Lejeune North Carolina, Camp Pendleton California and Marine Corps Base Kaneohe Bay
in Hawaii. Today the original school at Quantico is home to the Scout Sniper Instructor School. Despite
returning to active duty Hathcock was in daily constant pain but he continued teaching snipers.
Hathcock's health began to deteriorate and in 1975 he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis
and he was medically retired with full benefits and 100 percent of his pay just 55 days short of
the full 20-year retirement requirement. Hathcock was honored by having a rifle named after him
derived from the older semi-automatic M14 and named the Springfield Armory M25 white feather
due to his nickname. I met Carlos Hathcock twice as he was one of several military snipers I wanted to
interview but I did not get the chance. Having been a sniper myself I was well versed in his exploits
along with other snipers in history a couple that I did interview. Carlos summed up his philosophy
quote; "I like shooting and I love hunting but I never did enjoy killing anybody. It was my job. If I
didn't get those bastards then they were going to kill a lot of those kids dressed up like Marines
that's the way I looked at it." Carlos Hathcock the legendary white feather
died on February 22nd 1999 in Virginia Beach Virginia .
He is buried at Woodlawn Memorial Gardens in Norfolk Virginia and his Legend still stands.
We hope you enjoyed this segment of Forgotten History. Please click like and subscribe for
free and please stay tuned and be engaged and informed. Send us comments if you have questions
or even show ideas and we will respond to all requests and comments as soon as we can thank you
foreign [Music]