Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills

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

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. 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. ( )

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. ( )

Biography of an unassuming US Marine committed to becoming the most proficient marksman possible. This book is an overview of his career achievements highlighting those aspects that have become Marine sniper lore. This book reads like military fiction. This book emphasizes his discipline and practice along with his extensive training which allowed him to be successful in several near impossible situations. This book is followed by a sequel by the same author. ( )

Carlos Hathcock is recognized as one of the all time greatest snipers and is a world-class shooter. Very easy read which highlights his career and time in Vietnam. Pleasure to learn about his service to his country at a time when service was not popular. ( )