Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Hathcock is a Marine’s Marine. He is one of those rare individuals who has carved a niche in Marine Corps history.

He was a top shooter in all of the Marine Corps. Then he became a Marine sniper and eventually had 93 confirmed kills in Vietnam, a record by far. Snipers were always accompanied by a spotter, most often a sniper himself. At one time Sg. Hathcock along with his spotter, Sgt. Burke, held off and had over 100 Viet Cong pinned down. Later, Hathcock went stateside and Burke was killed.

After Hathcock was back in Vietnam. They were having trouble with a Viet Cong sniper who was killing and wounding Americans. They assigned Hathcock to him and he eventually got him. Snipers would have to crawl to their objectives to set up their ambush sites, sometimes taking hours. And often they would be out for a week, with just peanut butter and snacks to eat.

Another time, a Viet Cong pretty woman of about 30 was raising lots of troubles, with her crew. Again Hathcock was assigned to get her and he did kill her. Another time a North Vietnamese general was leading charges against Americans. To get him, you had to crawl into the enemy's camp itself. It took Hathcock a couple of days to do it, but he did and he killed the general. Then Hathcock was riding in a Marine vehicle that hit a mine, and the truck exploded, killing several, and leaving many badly burned, including Hathcock. Then the tough part, telling his wife. His wife, Jo Hathcock had been out shopping, and upon returning home, she saw this Marine Corps sedan pull up to her house with a captain dressed in his dress blue uniform getting out. Her immediate thought was, “ My God, Carlos is dead." She went to Texas and stayed there for a month while Carlos was in the burn center. His recovery was long, but he recovered, but because of his burned hands and arms, he could never shoot competitively anymore, but the Marine Corps assigned him to be an instructor of Marine snipers, which he did until he was out just shy of 20 years. He was on 100% disability, but the Marine Corps didn’t treat him right by not letting him stay 20 years for full retirement.