Speaker 1: And we continue with our American stories. No single soldier
Speaker 1: on the battlefield is more revered or more reviled than
Speaker 1: the sniper. They are seen as either cowardly assassins or
Speaker 1: surgical soldiers. With a single bullet, snipers can change the
Speaker 1: outcome of a battle or even a war. Long before
Speaker 1: Chris Kyle penned American Sniper, which became Clint Eastwood's Oscar
Speaker 1: nominated movie masterpiece, Carlos Hathcock was already a legend. Hathcock
Speaker 1: was so efficient and fearless during the Vietnam War that
Speaker 1: he wore a white feather on his gear, taunting the
Speaker 1: Communists to come find him. Our next story comes to
Speaker 1: us from Colin D. Heaton and Mike Droberg, two military
Speaker 1: veterans and the founders of the YouTube channel Forgotten History.
Speaker 1: Their videos focus on military heroes, actions and events spanning
Speaker 1: across the globe and are watched by hundreds of thousands
Speaker 1: of people. Here's Colin Heaton with the story.
Speaker 2: Carlos Norman Hathcock was born on May twentieth, nineteen forty two,
Speaker 2: in Little Rock, Arkansas. Hathcock supported his extremely poor family
Speaker 2: by shooting and hunting. At an early age, with a
Speaker 2: twenty two caliber J. C. Higgins single shot rifle. He
Speaker 2: later graduated to using a car ninety eight German Mauser
Speaker 2: that his father had brought back from World War II.
Speaker 2: Hathcock joined the Marines on May twentieth, nineteen fifty nine,
Speaker 2: at the age of seventeen, and rapidly became a known quantity.
Speaker 2: He had won the matches at Camp Perry in nineteen
Speaker 2: sixty five and the Wimbledon Cup Shooting Championships in nineteen
Speaker 2: sixty six. Hathcock deployed to South Vietnam as a military policeman,
Speaker 2: but later became a sniper after Captain later Major Edward
Speaker 2: James Land wanted papers in every infantry platoon. At that time,
Speaker 2: there was no formal snipers school in the Marine Corps,
Speaker 2: and snipers were designated according to a marine's marchsmanship record
Speaker 2: and field expertise. Land knew right away that Hathcock was
Speaker 2: a natural. Hathcock soon went to work protecting Marines, and
Speaker 2: one enemy was a woman. The story of the woman
Speaker 2: VC called the Apache has been questioned, but here is
Speaker 2: how Carlos explained it.
Speaker 3: I really don't like to talk about her to you.
Speaker 3: True she was a I don't like these bad words.
Speaker 3: She was a very a very bad woman, had her
Speaker 3: own sniper platoon down there, and I don't think they
Speaker 3: were allud to get all last snippers, myself, everybody, and
Speaker 3: she had been torturing a lot of people prior to
Speaker 3: us getting there, and that was a primary objective kind
Speaker 3: of for me. And Uh, I was in her own backyard.
Speaker 3: She was trumpling out her mind and I didn't like that.
Speaker 3: And she skent that one kid that she'd captured. This
Speaker 3: was a very very person.
Speaker 4: Very person.
Speaker 3: Saw her kind of saw the group coming in, about
Speaker 3: five of.
Speaker 4: 'em, and UH.
Speaker 3: Saw her squat down to tinkle, and I certained it
Speaker 3: was her, and UH guy in front of her was
Speaker 3: trying to get her to stop, cause they were running
Speaker 3: eye twa towards us for where they had seen her
Speaker 3: for he trying to get her stop. She didn't, but
Speaker 3: I stopped her. I pulled one extra for good measure,
Speaker 3: because I I was the best shot I ever made.
Speaker 4: I think the best shot ever made.
Speaker 2: The NBA and BC called Hathcock long Train, which means
Speaker 2: white feather, because of the white feather he kept in
Speaker 2: the band on his bush hat.
Speaker 4: At that time of Vietnam.
Speaker 3: All the troops was wearing garbage on the dog tags,
Speaker 3: peace symbols. Right, we need to pee some of them
Speaker 3: in all kinds of garbage, grenade pins, all kind of
Speaker 3: mess and the hats and stuff. Well, I picked it up.
Speaker 3: Why I picked it up, just because I was just going.
Speaker 1: To the bed.
Speaker 3: Guys see and the snipers don't do this. I'm not
Speaker 3: supposed to do it. But I was kind of a
Speaker 3: very belligerent individual, I guess as a sniper and kind
Speaker 3: of like flump my authority.
Speaker 4: I guess. Yes.
Speaker 2: After platoon of Vietnamese snipers failed to kill him, many
Speaker 2: Marines in the same area donned white feathers to deceive
Speaker 2: the enemy and confuse them. Hocheimen placed a bounty of
Speaker 2: thirty thousand dollars on Hathcock because he was so effective,
Speaker 2: and through a mishap they learned his name. It was
Speaker 2: believed that one of the local women working on the
Speaker 2: base accessed hathcock service record book. In those days, sniper
Speaker 2: kills were recorded in the SRB. Generally, rewards put on
Speaker 2: US snipers ranged from eight dollars to two thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Hathcock held the record for the highest bounty ever placed
Speaker 2: on a marine, and he killed every Vietnamese sniper who
Speaker 2: came after him. In one of the most remarkable sniper
Speaker 2: versus snipery duels in history, Hathcock and his spaughter John
Speaker 2: Roland Burke were stalking the enemy sniper called the Cobra
Speaker 2: in the jungle near.
Speaker 1: Hill fifty five.
Speaker 2: This was a fire base southwest of Denange where the
Speaker 2: Cobra had already killed several Marines to lure Hathcock out
Speaker 2: to kill him. The stalking lasted for time days.
Speaker 3: Carlo said, listen, if away sniper was sent down there
Speaker 3: to get me, and uh, which I rather didn't appreciate,
Speaker 3: and he was doing a bad job on the hill
Speaker 3: they called a gunnery sertain right outside my door by
Speaker 3: hooch U, and uh I watched him die, and uh
Speaker 3: I took a bow right then I was gonna get
Speaker 3: him somewhere or another. And uh cause I left Vietnam
Speaker 3: the first time with eighty six and firmed and the
Speaker 3: whole gob of probables, and I figured I was a
Speaker 3: little bit better than what they were, so just a smidge,
Speaker 3: cause I was still alive. And uh I got John Burke,
Speaker 3: who's my partner, and we went out as a teammader.
Speaker 3: I trailed him, a very cagy, very smart individual, and
Speaker 3: I figured he was close to me as good as
Speaker 3: I was. But it ain't no way, ain't no how
Speaker 3: did that go?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 3: And you got to think like that too, You got
Speaker 3: to think like that. And I made a mistake. I
Speaker 3: fell on a old rotted tree, and he made a
Speaker 3: shot and hit no partner's canteen, and working up both
Speaker 3: thought he was hit cause all the warmness running down
Speaker 3: overs lads and stuff, and uh, I noticed the homeless canteens.
Speaker 3: You ain't hurt, Yeah, you ain't hurt. Just to kill
Speaker 3: the devilted canteen, that's all. And we mosed it around
Speaker 3: and mingled around, and he started running. The bad guy
Speaker 3: started running now, and we worked around to where I
Speaker 3: was in his old spot. He was in my n
Speaker 3: old spot, which was a bad thing for him, cause
Speaker 3: he was facing the sun by that time. That was
Speaker 3: afternoon by then, and uh the sun glanted off his
Speaker 3: lands of the scope, I guess, and which I didn't
Speaker 3: know at that time.
Speaker 4: Well, I saw the glint.
Speaker 3: I shot at where the glint was, and it just
Speaker 3: happened to me the right time and by books of things,
Speaker 3: I was just the quickest on the trigger. Otherwise Andrey
Speaker 3: kill me because I I shot right through his cup,
Speaker 3: right straight through his cup, didn't touch sides, didn't touch
Speaker 3: his size, and it didn't do his eyesight no good
Speaker 3: in that side either.
Speaker 2: Hathcock and Burke collected the dead sniper's rifle, as Hathcock
Speaker 2: wanted to keep it as a trophy, but it was
Speaker 2: later stolen from the armory after he checked it in.
Speaker 1: And you're listening to the story of Carlos Hathcock, and
Speaker 1: it's being told by Colin Heaton and Mike Droberg of
Speaker 1: Forgotten History, and you're also hearing from Carlos Hathcock himself.
Speaker 1: Born in Little Rock, he supported his family hunting and
Speaker 1: obviously that marksmanship came in handy when at seventeen he
Speaker 1: signed up for the Marines. There was a thirty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars bounty on his head by Ho Chi Minh himself.
Speaker 1: That's how feared Hathcock was. When we come back, more
Speaker 1: of this remarkable story a true American sniper, And believe me,
Speaker 1: you want a good sniper on your team in deployment
Speaker 1: for sure. More of this remarkable story here on our
Speaker 1: American stories, and we continue with our American stories. Few
Speaker 1: Vietnam era marines are more storied than legendary sniper Carlos Hathcock.
Speaker 1: Yet his legend is not rooted in confirmed kills or
Speaker 1: the longest shots taken, but we held both records in
Speaker 1: his lifetime. It was his talents for tracking and hunting
Speaker 1: his greatest weapons. He taught himself to shoot as a boy,
Speaker 1: just like Alvin York and Audie Murphy before him. He
Speaker 1: dreamed of being a US Marine his whole life and enlisted,
Speaker 1: as I said before, at the age of seventeen. Hathcock
Speaker 1: was a world class sharpshooter, by then, winning the Wimbledon
Speaker 1: Cup shooting championship in nineteen sixty five, the year before
Speaker 1: he would deploy to Vietnam and change the face of
Speaker 1: American warfare forever. I like shooting and I love hunting,
Speaker 1: but I never did enjoy killing anybody. It's my job,
Speaker 1: he said famously. Let's continue with the story here again
Speaker 1: is Colin Heaton.
Speaker 2: Hathcock was offered a top secret mission, which he accepted,
Speaker 2: knowing nothing about it until he was briefed after acceptance.
Speaker 2: The mission was to kill a North Vietnamese general far
Speaker 2: behind the enemy lines, and he would be alone this time.
Speaker 2: Following his insertion several miles he entered the enemy controlled area.
Speaker 2: It took him four days and three nights without sleep
Speaker 2: as he crawled inch by inch over one thousand, five
Speaker 2: hundred yards of an open field, after already covering two
Speaker 2: miles just to get to that point. Hathcock was wearing
Speaker 2: a hastily assembled gilla suit from the local vegetation to
Speaker 2: blend in with the surrounding terrain, and he was almost
Speaker 2: stepped on by patrols as he laid camouflage with grass
Speaker 2: and vegetation in a meadow shortly after sunset. During this process,
Speaker 2: he came face to face with a deadly bamboo viper
Speaker 2: and managed to outlast the reptile until it crawled away.
Speaker 2: He then managed to complete the stalk and get into
Speaker 2: a concealed position, and not long afterward, the general came
Speaker 2: into view.
Speaker 3: I did not want none of my people did, so
Speaker 3: I took the mission on myself and figuring I was
Speaker 3: maybe a little bit better than I rushed up because
Speaker 3: I was one training supposed to be better and uh,
Speaker 3: I come out of tree line back there and UH
Speaker 3: got onto the other land and I went to my
Speaker 3: side and didn't go flat on my belly cause I
Speaker 3: made a bigger slug trail when I was on my belly,
Speaker 3: and I wormed on my side very minutely, very minutely.
Speaker 4: I knew had a long ways to get.
Speaker 3: They want to tire myself out too much, and UH
Speaker 3: patrols were went in alarms for each other.
Speaker 4: I could have.
Speaker 3: Tripped the majority some of 'em.
Speaker 4: And they didn't even know I was there. I was
Speaker 4: in their backyard.
Speaker 3: I was in their backyard, and they did expect a
Speaker 3: one man attack.
Speaker 4: They didn't expect that, okay.
Speaker 3: And I knew from the first time when they's come
Speaker 3: up wiley, gay and buy me that I hadn't made.
Speaker 4: Now this be good, this be real good.
Speaker 3: So I just continued swirming along, worming a law and
Speaker 3: UH come many patrol many patrols come by. There was
Speaker 3: two uh twenty fifty one on my left, two twin
Speaker 3: fifty ones on my right, and I see them cooking
Speaker 3: their groceries and wishing I was there to have a
Speaker 3: little bit of it.
Speaker 4: But I was definitely hungry. I was thirsty.
Speaker 3: But he got a job today, can't lend now that
Speaker 3: enter just you're in your bubble, and that's all it is.
Speaker 4: Your job, your job.
Speaker 3: And crawl up on that little rise with an escape
Speaker 3: route to my right, and that's waite her to win.
Speaker 3: And the temporary humidity, the whole ball of wax try
Speaker 3: to run through my mind real quick, and I dumped
Speaker 3: the bad guy.
Speaker 2: Halfcock fired a single shot that struck the general in
Speaker 2: the chest, killing him from a distance of seven hundred
Speaker 2: yards using his preferred Winchester three hundred magnum bolt action rifle.
Speaker 2: Carlos was deep inside the enemy compound, but this was
Speaker 2: the easy part. Now he had to escape the area
Speaker 2: without being captured. His egress and evasion was on. He
Speaker 2: egressed out of the area as the soldiers went into
Speaker 2: the trees to hide, and he made his escape without
Speaker 2: being actively pursued. That is the toughest part of a
Speaker 2: deep penetration mission, surviving After making the shot. On September sixteenth,
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty nine, Hathcock was riding on an LVTP five
Speaker 2: armored personnel carrier full of marines on Highway one north
Speaker 2: of Landing Zone Baldy, a US Marine Corps and Army
Speaker 2: Army of Republic Vietnam base located northwest of Chuli and
Speaker 2: Quangdam Province. When the APC rolled over an anti tank mine.
Speaker 2: The explosion rocked the heavy vehicle and wounded all the
Speaker 2: Marines on board, and a fire broke out. Hathcock jumped
Speaker 2: off and ran to the rear and pulled seven marines
Speaker 2: from the vehicle, which was an incinerator. Hathcock then collapsed,
Speaker 2: suffering first, second and third degree burns to his face, arms,
Speaker 2: and legs, and his uniform was aflame. Another marine grabbed
Speaker 2: him and pulled him away and placed him in water
Speaker 2: alongside the road in a rice paddy, and he was
Speaker 2: still smoking while recovering. Hathcock received the Purple Heart. Nearly
Speaker 2: thirty years later, he received the Silver Star for this
Speaker 2: action saving those marines. Although Hathcock had ninety three confirmed
Speaker 2: kills which had to be confirmed about the spotter and
Speaker 2: a third party who had to be an officer, he
Speaker 2: estimated that he had killed between three hundred and four
Speaker 2: hundred enemy personnel during the Vietnam War. However, not to
Speaker 2: be sidelined, Hathcock returned to active duty and along with
Speaker 2: now Major ed Land, established the Marine Corps Sniper School
Speaker 2: at Marine Corps based Quantico, Virginia. The results of his
Speaker 2: efforts saw the establishments of Scout sniper schools at Stones Bay,
Speaker 2: Camp Lejiun, North Carolina, Camp Pendleton, California, and Marine Corps
Speaker 2: based County Yoe Bay in Hawaii. Despite returning to active duty,
Speaker 2: Hathcock was in daily constant pain, but he continued teaching snipers.
Speaker 2: Hathcock's health began to deteriorate, and in nineteen seventy five
Speaker 2: he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and he was medically
Speaker 2: retired with full benefits and one hundred percent of his pay,
Speaker 2: just fifty five days short of the full twenty year
Speaker 2: retirement requirement. Hathcock was honored by having a rifle named
Speaker 2: after him, derived from the older semi automatic in fourteen
Speaker 2: and named the Springfield Armory M twenty five White Feather
Speaker 2: due to his nickname. I met Carlos Hathcock twice. Having
Speaker 2: been a snipper myself, I was well versed in his exploits.
Speaker 2: Carlos summed up his philosophy.
Speaker 3: Second live fact was great. It's very very great and
Speaker 3: very harmful. The bad guys very harmful. One shot, one
Speaker 3: shot upon a whole company now a whole company because
Speaker 3: it denies the movement. It denies the movement, restricts their movement.
Speaker 3: And that's which is good for Lanian, very good for Lanian.
Speaker 3: I did not like to kill him. I really didn't
Speaker 3: like to killing. But to pit myself against another living,
Speaker 3: breathing human being who could kill me just as squat
Speaker 3: as I could in that was the challenge of it.
Speaker 3: That was a challenge. See only when you're needed, Only
Speaker 3: when you're needed, or you the good guy, only when
Speaker 3: you're needed, seems like because that's training into powers that
Speaker 3: are they look down on snipers and everybody else.
Speaker 4: Looks down on snippers because we have a job.
Speaker 3: People down below do not understand that job, do not
Speaker 3: understand what can be done for bys Night.
Speaker 2: Carlos Hathcock, the legendary White Feather, died on February twenty
Speaker 2: second nine in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He is buried at
Speaker 2: Woodlawn Memorial Gardens in Norfolk, Virginia, and his legend still stands.
Speaker 1: And a terrific job on the editing storytelling in production
Speaker 1: by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
Speaker 1: Colind Heaton and Mike Droberg, two military veterans and the
Speaker 1: founders of the YouTube channel Forgotten History and terrific partners
Speaker 1: of this show. Visit their YouTube channel. Visit it often.
Speaker 1: And a special thanks posthumously to the legend to the
Speaker 1: great Carlos Hathcuck, this sniper par excellence who in the
Speaker 1: end started marine sniper training it had not existed before.
Speaker 1: And my own mother's brother, well, he did something called
Speaker 1: paratrooping which had not existed before in World War Two,
Speaker 1: and so many of those innovators and those dreamers paid
Speaker 1: the price of being the first. And imagine being a
Speaker 1: sniper without training, because it is one of the deadliest
Speaker 1: jobs there is in the military, because the other guy
Speaker 1: sniper is looking for yours and yours theirs. It is
Speaker 1: a very special and very singular type of talent. And
Speaker 1: my goodness, that secret assignment that he described to kill
Speaker 1: a Vietnamese general, and how many lives it could save.
Speaker 1: Crawling those fifteen hundred yards, as he said, squirming, not
Speaker 1: just crawling like a snake, and then I dumped the
Speaker 1: bad guy with his Winchester Bolt action rifle. The hard part,
Speaker 1: of course, to get away. And what a thing. So
Speaker 1: many of our soldiers do for us, doing things like this,
Speaker 1: crawling in a swamp, and of course the record is surreal,
Speaker 1: ninety three confirmed kills and estimated three hundred or more
Speaker 1: by his account, and then establishing the Marine Corps Sniper School,
Speaker 1: and ultimately his final statement, I did not like the killing.
Speaker 1: It was his job. The story of Carlos Hathcock, the
Speaker 1: legendary White Feather, an American sniper. Here on our American
Speaker 1: stories