Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills

5 stars for the bravery of this Marine, during and after his service in the Vietnam War. He was indisputably an outstanding, championship winning shooter and a skilled sniper and brave and selfless warrior, and a man who believed entirely in what he was doing. My hesitations around this book maybe center on (1) the almost Pecos Bill or Paul Bunyan style legendary telling; and (2) some kinda uncritically repeated as fact racist sexist stuff in this book. I have no doubt Mr. Hathcock was a product of his era and upbringing, at least in part -for good and ill-, as evidenced both by his bravery and the confederate flag tattoo he chose to wear. So my 3 star rating goes to that stuff and the way it’s written about in this book.

Very well told story about Sgt. Carlos Hathcock, a Marine veteran and hero during the 60's. Packed with action and adventure. I'm glad we have people like him.

However, it does return me to questions regarding the moral ambiguity of what must be done to defend our nation.

This is the story of Carlos Hathcock. He is a legend in the world of sniping. There is far more to his story than this book mentions. It's a short read, but good enough to highlight the key engagements he had in Vietnam. The story of him being sent to kill the NVA general was my absolute favorite. I cannot even imagine the discipline it takes to do something like that. I have read other sniper books, but the story of Carlos Hathcock is still my favorite.

My reaction to reading this book in 1994.

A fascinating (though a bit hagiographic in parts) biography of Carlos Hathcock, legendary sniper in the Vietnam War and possessor of the sniper kill record. Interesting stuff on the uses and techniques of sniper warfare. One of Hathcock’s exploits – shooting an enemy sniper through the dead man’s scope – made it into the most seemingly unbelievable part of the movie Sniper.

I finished Charles Henderson’s Marine Sniper an excellent first person account of Carlos Hathcock service in the Marine Corp, primarily as a marine sniper and shooting instructor.

Carlos Hathcock made him self the preeminent sniper in Vietnam who would take himself to legendary staus through his work. He would go into the bush for extended missions who led by example not from a desk.

Among his deeds were taking the shooting of a Chinese military officer and his legendary long distance shot in enemy country of a NVA General.

I read this over 30 years ago and I couldn’t believe all that I forgot.

A prime focused read on a man who gave his all to country and Corp and in his last mission while deployed rescued fellow marines at the cost show more of significant 2nd and 3rd degree burns across his body and later in life he was diagnosed with MS.

A worth read. show less

Have you ever heard of a marine sniper that was so accurate that he was able to kill his enemy sniper by hitting him directly in the eye through his own scope ? This book is a true story based on the life of marine sniper, Sergeant Carlos Hathcock during the Vietnam War. It gives great details about what it must have been like to do this job. Carlos Hathcock grew up in Mississippi and hunted to get food for his family. He always dreamed about being a marine. He joined the marines and was in the Vietnam war and became a really good sniper. During his time in the war he was sent on many challenging missions. One of the missions was him slowly sneaking into enemy lines and avoiding searches for any intruders trying to attack the Apaches. show more Another challenging mission was when he was trying to shoot a sniper and the sniper was trying to shoot him, and then they both were looking at each other through their scopes. Hathcock was the first one to shoot and killed the other sniper by shooting him through his scope. The North Vietnamese Army called him white feather because he always wore a feather on his helmet. Hathcock was so good that he had the highest bounty placed on his life by the enemy and killed all the snipers who tried to kill him. Hatchcock's career ended when the enemies attacked their tank and he saved several marines lives by pulling them out of the fire after an explosion. He was badly burned and ended up receiving the Purple Heart and Silver Star for his accomplishments. After retiring, he ran a sniper school.

My opinion on this book was that I think that it was a good book and that it had a lot of action, with descriptive details and showing imagery instead of just explaining what happens. I thought this because I was able to visualize a lot of things while I was reading this book. Also the book kept my interest during the book so I wanted to keep reading. One of my favorite parts was when an enemy sniper shot at his friend and Hathcock couldn't even see because the sun was shining like a mirror in his eyes. He took a chance and took one shot at the light. He killed the guy. His friend was amazed and he said, “One shot- one kill.” And there was a lot of that in this book. show less

Well written by Charles Henderson, Marine Sniper is an exceptional biography of a legend, Carlos "White Feather" Hathcock USMC sniper.