One of the deadliest snipers in Marine Corps history was Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Hathcock. He once had snipers hunting him, and instead of them killing him, he killed them.

Vietnam

While in Vietnam, he took on a mission with not a lot of details, but it looked like it would be a rough mission. So he opted to go himself instead of sending one of his men.

“Normally, when you take on a mission like that, when you’re that short, you forget everything. Ya know, tactics, the whole ball of wax, and you end up dead. And, I did not want none of my people dead, and so I took the mission on myself.”

Carlos Hathcock

A place took Hathcock close to where he needed to be, but he still had 1500 yards between where he was and where he needed to be. So to make it to his target, he crawled.

“I went to my side. I didn’t go flat on my belly, because I made a bigger slug trail when I was on my belly. I moved on my side, pretty minutely, very minutely. I knew I had a long ways to go, didn’t want to tire myself out too much.”

Carlos Hathcock

Almost Caught

There were multiple times where Hathcock was almost caught. he said that the patrols were "within arm's reach of me."

"I could’ve tripped the majority, some of them. They didn’t even know I was there," Hathcock said. Since they were not very aware, he got within 700 yards from his target.

The patrols were ready for a larger-scale attack. They were not looking for just one man. "And I knew, from the first time when they came lolly-gagging past me, that I had it made."

Successful Shot

He set up for his shot. Hathcock said, "Seen all the guys running around that morning, and I dumped the bad guy." The shot he fired went through the chest of his target, a general.

All the men ran to the trees, to fight, but Hathcock was crawling out the ditch and to the field. He got to stand for the first time in four days.

"So, I went to that ditch, little gully, and made it to the tree line, and about passed out when I stood up to get a little bit better speed.”