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Title: Silent Warrior by Charles Henderson ISBN: 0-425-18864-7 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 07 January, 2003 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.56 (25 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Mixed feelings
Comment: I finished reading this book with very mixed feelings. The author deserves infinite praise for "Marine Sniper", bringing Carlos Hathcock's story to a far broader audience than previously knew about him. To the extent that this second book helps get the story out to a newer generation of readers, that's terrific too. However, as a book on its own merits, it wasn't all that great. Other reviewers have criticized the device of presuming to know Carlos' thoughts in his final days. It made me a bit comfortable as well. All told, I came away with the sense that Henderson tried to stretch a 2nd book out of too little new material. If I was advising a friend on a first read about Carlos Hathcock, I'd recommend the first book instead of this one. But, just to flip flop one last time, bringing ANY additional material about such an amazing man to the public deserves credit. I said I had mixed feelings...
Rating: 5
Summary: Marine Hero
Comment: This book was written after the death of Carlos Hathcock, in 1999.
Henderson wrote the original book about Hathcock, Marine Sniper, 93 confirmed kills also.
This book contains details of his training under Lt Land with the one shot, one kill idea for snipers. Never to take more than one shot from one location, listen, look, be aware of surroundings.
The book had a good start already as about 300 pages of his original book had been edited, so he included some of them in this one, which is 286 pages.
He added information gleaned from interviews from the North Vietnamese in
1994.
For me, it was one of those "cannot put it down until I finish it" type books.
He tells the story using assumed final Hatchcock dreams. Thereby the book contains details of his boyhood, basic Marine training, stateside duty, as well as the Vietnam periods.
Hathcock had 300 probable kills in addition to the 93 confirmed kills.
The book does into detail about his close relationship with Burke, his partner, who got killed at Khe Sanh after Hathcock left Vietnam on his first tour. A chapter in the book is devoted to Burke, who won the Navy Cross for his valor.
His close relationship with Ron McAbee is described too.
They established a sniper school at Hill 55, and soon Hathcock and his commander, Lt Land, had a huge reward out for their deaths. Hathcock was known as White Feather by the enemy as he wore a white feather in his cap.
The North Vietnamese established a sniper company to take them out. He killed them.
He was a national champion rifle shot and wanted to go to the Olympics.
Details about his killing of the Frenchman, a Frenchman , Philip Metz, who had fought for the Viet Minh against the French, and now against the Americans are described. The Frenchman was famous for stripping his prisoner naked, torturing them, and after extracting all information, slitting their throats. The CIA wanted the Frenchman dead as the North Vietnamese had captured a couple of CIA agents, and they did not want the Frenchman to get them to talk.
His killing of the Apache is also described. She was one of a team of female VC who used BAR's to kill. She liked to torture her captives by skinning them alive.
He also took out a North Vietnamese General on a special mission.
Hathcock got out of the Marines, and tried to become an electrician. He found it too dangerous, and went back in the Marines.
He went back to Vietnam in '69, and turned down a safe training assignment in the rear. He went back to Hill 55 and restarted the sniper school there. When he got there, the troops did not shave, wear military clothes, or fight. Their job was just clean up work including burning the excrement in the johns. Hatcock soon got them back in training and his platoon got a Presidential Unit Citation for having the most enemy kills.
He and the Sgt Major did not get along well. Once, a barrel of gas rolled down the hill from where they were training. Hathcock told the Sgt Major, no problem, he could fire a bullet into the barrel, wait awhile, then fire a tracer to start a fire and burn the gas so it did not fall into enemy hands. Instead, the Sgt called in an artillery strike. No hits. Then, he called in an air strike, no hit. The artillery and air strikes did wipe out a lot of the barbed wire protecting the camp though.
Finally, a sniper started shooting at them. The guard in the tower on a .50 cal gun fired, per Hathcock at the gas and finally ignited it. Then fired and killed the enemy sniper.
The Sgt Major was happy until he found out that the guard was one of Hathcock's snipers.
Once, Hathcock was watching the movie The Green Berets, when the enemy snipers fired at the tent. Everybody ducked but Hathcock, who continued to watch the movie, and even changed the reels as needed to see the finish.
Hathcock volunteered to help when the 1/7th got in trouble. He was on an APC that got hit in the battle, and stayed on top to rescue 7 people in the APC. He got burned over most of his entire body, and 43% was 3rd degree burns. No award.
It is believed this is what started the MS that he later got. He never was the marksman he was before, but taught shooting. He would bleed just from wearing the shooting vests. His skin had no elasticity.
Land, now a major, got Hathcock assigned as his chief shooting instructor.
In 1979, he was finally declared medically unfit, and retired.
In 1995 he finally got a Silver Star for saving the Marines on the APC.
In retirement, he started going deep see shark hunting, and loved it.
Rating: 4
Summary: One Shot, One Kill
Comment: Even though it is a sequel, of sorts, this book could easily stand alone as one of the finer military history pieces recounting the Vietnam era. Henderson retells the story of Marine Sniper from different perspectives, even those of the Viet Cong and peasants. Many issues are dealt with, including the homecoming of the warrior and the difficulties that situation can bring, military "careerism" that has turned away some of the best Marines, and the psychological effects of the individual combatants.
Henderson goes more in depth into the later years of Carlos Hathcock, which hadn't occurred yet in the first book. Also included is more analysis into the sniper program and its role in modern warfare and how snipers deal with daily stigmas and resentment from other units.
An excellent read, it could easily be mistaken for fiction. A must read for all military professionals and especially infantrymen.
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Title: Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills by Charles Henderson, E. J. Land ISBN: 0425103552 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: September, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: One Shot One Kill : One Shot One Kill by Charles W. Sasser, Craig Roberts ISBN: 0671682199 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1990 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Dead Center : A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War by Ed Kugler ISBN: 0804118752 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 29 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: 13 Cent Killers : The 5th Marine Snipers in Vietnam by JOHN CULBERTSON ISBN: 0345459148 Publisher: Presidio Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Dear Mom by Joseph T. Ward ISBN: 0804108536 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 31 August, 1991 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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