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Revisiting my shelves some old reads...
Some of you will know this person and may have had the good fortune to have actually have met him in person.
There have been some excellent persons whom plied their trade as a sniper both in WWI - II, Korea, and other conflicts of a more recent nature.
The thing with Carlos that got me intrigued was his ability for a sustained effort under incredible stressors some lasting days on end his so called "in the Bubble".
Just a couple of things that really stand out where he and Burke pinning down for a period of over 4 days and nights a VC element comprising of 150 armed combatants.
This was called their Elephant Valley episode and epitomises good concealment, accurate shooting, keeping relentless pressure on those pinned down even at night.
Whilst at night picking by gut feeling when the enemy were going to break for it and killing them by the light of star shells.
The Apache woman needs no intro on what she did to GI's that she captured it is the only time I read where Carlos put another round into a corpse to make sure, did not matter the first round toasted her heart.
The shot he regretted taking was the General after a 3 day crawl to the firing point 800 yds and a 2 day light speed crawl out to the extraction point.
So imagine crawling snake style on your side for 3 days with the enemy nearly stepping on him, coming face to face with an asp at ground level.
Then on the morning using the smoke from fires to get the dope on the shot a cold bore 800yds and killing the target.
Carlos said later that american casualties spiked after that shot and in a way he felt maybe responsible for the fact.
He did take out a top notch Chinese whether advisor or not in a canoe on a river who the Chinese were not supposed to be there, also a person in a white suit enemy spook perhaps.
Lastly the VC sniper sent to get him and very nearly did scene of the infamous shot through the scope sadly the rifle was stolen and never recovered Carlos tagged it to be sent home!
There is plenty more in the books plus he is interviewed on you tube a good watch he is very humble.
Sadly John Burke was KIA selflessly helping wounded marines getting severely wounded then rushing out to repel the enemy which he did posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.
Lastly Carlos was severely injured when their APC rolled over a tank mine but he went into that burning machine time and again getting injured marines out that's courage.
He was very badly burned and this finished his VN but he kept up shooting when recovered even at times blood seeped from his wounds on the mat.
So grab a copy and read about a person who only took the hardest of missions that required a sustained effort over days not hours.
RIP Carlos Hathcock II
