Carlos Hathcock

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carlos Hathcock (1996)

Carlos Norman Hathcock II (born May 20, 1942 in Little Rock , Arkansas , † February 23, 1999 in Virginia Beach , Virginia ) was an American soldier and sniper in the US Marine Corps . He reached the rank of Gunnery Sergeant and had 93 confirmed kills and, according to his own statements, over 200 unconfirmed kills. Hathcock is considered a legend of the US Marines because of his kills and some challenging operations in the Vietnam War . He still serves as a model for many snipers today.

Because of a white feather on his headgear, he was nicknamed Lông Trắng (White Feather) by the North Vietnamese (Hathcock: “That was my trademark ... it showed them a long nose ... snipers don't usually do that .. .but I wasn't normal ”). On him and his commanding officer Edward James Land junior the enemy also offered a high reward.

Beginning of the military career

He joined the Marine Corps in 1959 at the age of 17 and was trained as a sniper at Camp Pendleton . During his subsequent stationing in Hawaii , he won the Pacific Division Rifle Championship, a competition for the best riflemen stationed in the Pacific . In 1965 he was able to surpass this achievement when he won the Wimbledon Cup at Camp Perry , the most prestigious competition for snipers in the USA.

Hathcock first came to Vietnam in 1966 and was initially employed as a military policeman. As such, he scored his first kill with an M14 after a short time . While on patrol, he spotted an armed " Viet Cong " who was apparently busy laying booby traps. As a reminder of his first kill, Hathcock photographed the Viet Cong through his telescopic sight before fatally striking him from a distance of about 350 meters.

When Captain Edward James Land established a sniper training facility in Vietnam, Hathcock was appointed one of 17 instructors there. Land and Hathcock already knew each other from a training course in the States. The teachers and students of this "Sniper School" were able to neutralize more enemy forces during a 90-day operation than all of the US infantry battalions deployed on site combined. This earned her the nickname "Murder Incorporated".

Calls

Hathcock had his operational area in the area around the hill Núi Ðất Sơn , referred to by the Americans as Hill 55 (Hill 55). This was about 35 miles southwest of Đà Nẵng on South Vietnamese territory. Hathcock's mission was to fight enemy snipers. He was armed with a Winchester Model 70 in caliber 7.62 × 63 mm (.30-06).

On one of these missions, he succeeded in killing a female sniper who was known as the "Apache" because of her shooting down and torture of captured Americans and South Vietnamese. Hathcock and Land were in enemy-controlled territory when they were recognized by a North Vietnamese scout. However, the two did not manage to turn it off. They then changed their position and observed the area. After a few hours they discovered Apache, along with a group of other shooters, about 600 m away. Hathcock and Land then requested artillery support, whereupon the group dispersed. Apache fled exactly in the direction where Hathcock was, who then shot them from a distance of about 500 m.

One of his most astonishing hits came after a lengthy game of cat and mouse when he hit an enemy sniper through his telescopic sight from about 450 m in the eye and thus killed him. Hathcock had aimed at a reflection of the sun in the sight of his opponent.

His most important assignment was the killing of a North Vietnamese general in his headquarters, for which he had volunteered. Hathcock was dropped behind enemy lines and was able to get within 600 m of the headquarters in the following three days and nights. Previously, he had worked his way around 1000 m over open terrain without being discovered. After realizing and killing his target, he was able to escape undetected.

These three missions are under the titles "Stalking the Apache", "Hunting The Cobra" and "The Suicide Mission" part of the history documentary Sniper: Inside the Crosshairs (German title: Sniper - US snipers on a dangerous mission ).

In February 1967 he also achieved the largest confirmed kill in military history to date. To test the caliber 12.7 × 99 mm (.50 BMG) for future sniper rifles, Hathcock was deployed on the hill Đức Ph Hügel , about a mile north of the city of the same name. He used a Browning M2 with the same 8x rifle scope that he used on his Winchester. He fatally hit a Viet Cong at a distance of 2286 m. This record was only set in 2002 by the Canadian Master Corporal Arron Perry , who shot down a McMillan Tac-50 over 2310 m in Afghanistan.

End of the mission in Vietnam

On September 16, 1969, he was in an armored personnel carrier that was badly damaged by the detonation of an anti-tank mine and caught fire. Despite the flames and exploding ammunition, he was able to rescue seven wounded comrades from the vehicle and bring them to safety, but suffered second and third degree burns in the process. Because of his injuries, he had to be flown to Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston , where he had to undergo a variety of skin grafts .

Although he could no longer be used as a sniper, he was still active as an instructor and was involved in a leading position in the establishment of a training facility for scouts and snipers (Scout / Sniper School) at Marine Corps Base Quantico .

In 1975 his health deteriorated and he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis , which forced him to retire from the Marine Corps in 1979 after nearly 20 years of service. However, he continued to be invited by various police authorities as a trainer and advisor.

The Marine Corps honored him with the introduction of the Carlos Hathcock Award, which is presented annually to selected snipers, and a Navy library in Washington and a training facility at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar have been named after him. He was also the namesake of the M25 White Feather , a sniper rifle based on the M21 . A unit of the Virginia Civil Air Patrol also bears his name.

Hathcock's awards include a. the Purple Heart and the Silver Star .

In his 1993 novel Im Fadenkreuz der Angst (original title: Point of Impact ) by the author Stephen Hunter , the fictional character Carl Hitchcock is a direct reference to Hathcock.

literature

  • Henderson, Charles (1986), Marine Sniper - The explosive true Story of a Vietnam Hero , Berkley Publishing Group, ISBN 0-425-18165-0
  • Chandler, Roy F. (1997), White feather: Carlos Hathcock USMC scout sniper: an authorized biographical memoir , Iron Brigade Armory Publishing, ISBN 978-1-885633-09-5

Individual evidence

  1. Marine Corps Sniper Carlos Hathcock, Grunt.com ( Memento of the original from February 20, 2012 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.grunt.com
  2. ^ The Story of Legendary Sniper Carlos Hathcock, Modern American Heroes.com
  3. US Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Carlos N. Hathcock II, specialoperations.com ( Memento of the original from July 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.specialoperations.com
  4. ^ Carlos Hathcock Tribute Page, Angelfire.com
  5. Stephen Hunter : Dead Zero: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel . Simon and Schuster, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4391-3865-6 , pp. 404 .
  6. ^ Otto Penzler: The Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives . Hachette Digital, 2009, ISBN 978-0-316-03193-6 , pp. 161-167 .