US Marine Corps sniper Carlos Hathcock is renowned as one of history’s greatest snipers, ranking alongside icons like Vasily Zaytsev, Lyudmila Pavlichenko and Simo Häyhä. In Vietnam, he achieved nearly 100 confirmed kills, with many more probably unrecorded. His incredible reputation led the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) to hire a sniper named “Cobra” specifically tasked with eliminating him.
Carlos Hathcock served valiantly with the US Marine Corps
Carlos Hathcock was born in 1942 in Little Rock, Arkansas, into a family that depended on hunting for survival, fostering his early familiarity with firearms. His lifelong ambition was to join the US Marine Corps, which he fulfilled at the age of 17.
Deployed to Vietnam in 1966 as a military policeman, Hathcock swiftly garnered attention for his natural marksmanship abilities. Recognizing his exceptional talent, his commanders reassigned him to Capt. Edward James Land’s sniper platoon, a role he enthusiastically embraced.
Taunting enemy soldiers with a white feather
Before long, Hathcock had dispatched a large amount of targets and earned himself a fearsome reputation. He was known to wear a white feather during missions as a way of taunting the enemy soldiers, which became infamous among the North Vietnamese, who called him “White Feather.”
Given how lethal Hathcock was, the North Vietnamese Army placed a $30,000 bounty on his head, the highest of the war. Plenty of snipers attempted to collect the reward, but, as Marty Robbins’ song “Big Iron” goes, “Many men had tried to take him and that many men were dead.”
Recounting his encounter with ‘the Apache woman’
Carlos Hathcock’s fame can be attributed in part to the striking detail he used when recounting his missions. One notably harrowing episode featured “the Apache woman,” a female sniper who had been operating in the Vietnamese jungles long before he arrived, inflicting suffering on captured Marines within earshot of their bases.
During a patrol, Hathcock came across a group of Viet Cong fighters. At first, there was nothing out of the ordinary, but when one of them crouched down to urinate, he recognized her as the Apache woman and swiftly took her out.
Carlos Hathcock vs. ‘Cobra’
Carlos Hathcock’s most famous wartime tale revolves around his encounter with “Cobra,” an NVA sniper tasked with killing him. Acknowledging Cobra’s skill, Hathcock anticipated a tense standoff to see who would act first. While navigating the thick Vietnamese jungle, he stumbled over a fallen tree. At that exact moment, Cobra fired, narrowly missing Hathcock and instead hitting his spotter’s canteen.
Following the missed shot, Cobra adhered to sniper protocol and relocated, prompting both snipers to shift from their original positions. However, Cobra accidentally positioned himself with the sun behind him, which exposed his location. Seizing the opportunity, Hathcock swiftly aimed and eliminated Cobra before he could fire again.
How many enemy soldiers did Carlos Hathcock dispatch?
Carlos Hathcock ended his service in Vietnam with 93 confirmed kills and the world record for the longest sniper shot, which remained unbroken for 35 years. Due to the way kills were confirmed during the war, his tally is likely much higher, with he himself having estimated it to be between 300 and 400.
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The heroic Marine Corps sniper passed away on February 22, 1999, at the age of 56.
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