Feb. 23, 1999
Famed Vietnam sniper Carlos Hathcock dies at age 57
BY JACK DORSEY, The Virginian-Pilot
Copyright 1999, Landmark Communications Inc.
VIRGINIA BEACH -- While he became a Marine Corps legend in Vietnam by
delivering 93 confirmed sniper kills on the North Vietnamese, friends of
retired Staff Sgt. Carlos ``Gunney'' Hathcock II always believed he would be
better remembered for saving lives during the war in Southeast Asia.
Hathcock, 57, will be remembered for both.
Battling multiple sclerosis since 1975, four years before he retired from
the corps, Hathcock died Monday.
His death came just two weeks after he helped pin a new rank on his
34-year-old son, Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Norman Hathcock III, during a promotion
ceremony in the family's Pembroke area home.
The debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis and severe burns he suffered
during Vietnam prevented Hathcock from traveling to North Carolina, where
his son is stationed.
He was burned almost beyond recognition by a Vietnamese mine on Sept. 16,
1969. He was credited with saving the lives of a group of Marines he dragged
from the burning halftrack that day.
Like the other Marines, he had been riding atop an assault vehicle when it
struck a land mine. He was ``sprayed with flaming gasoline caused by the
explosion,'' reads the citation that presented him with the Silver Star. But
``with complete disregard for his own safety and while suffering
excruciating pain from his burns, he bravely ran back through the flames and
exploding ammunition to ensure that no Marines had been left behind.''
The explosions ended Hathcock's fighting career, but as his admirers in a
ceremony at Quantico pointed out in November 1996, the wounded he helped
that day were a small fraction of the number that he saved by hunting down
some of the enemy's most skilled killers.
The Viet Cong called him ``Long Tra'ng,'' The White Feather, because he was
accustomed to wearing one in his hat. A newspaper once named him the
deadliest gun in the corps. His vanity Virginia license plates read: SNIPER.
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