Marine Sniper by Charles Henderson

Author:Charles Henderson [Henderson, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Vietnam War, Soldiers - United States, Vietnam War; 1961-1975, Commando operations, Hathcock; Carlos, Fiction, United States, Soldiers, Biography & Autobiography, Military, Vietnamese Conflict; 1961-1975, General, Vietnamese Conflict; 1961-1975 - Commando operations, Biography, History
ISBN: 9780425181652
Publisher: Berkley Books
Published: 2001-09-30T23:00:00+00:00

"7th Marines. Just talk and the regimental CP will answer."

While Hathcock spoke with an operations officer at the regimental command post, Captain Land talked with the 1st Marine Division's operations officer, Col. Herman Pogge-meyer, Jr.his boss. Land was getting short. His orders home had arrived.

"Captain," the colonel said, "you've done an impressive job with the snipers. General Nickerson is extremely happy with the program and sad to see you go. But you need to go home. I want you to stop in and see the G-2. He'll show you one good reason why you should not consider extending in-country."

What the intelligence officer showed Land shocked him a little and concerned him a lot. "God damn it, Hathcock!" he roared.

A newspaper story that had appeared in the Sea Tiger* extolling the greatness of "Hathcock and company" had fed the enemy vital information about the 1st Marine Division's sniper school, its officer in charge, and the sniper with the most scalps-the one who wore the white feather-Sergeant Carlos Page 140

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Hathcock. The Viet Cong had issued a leaflet based on the story.

Land stared at the black-and-white leaflet, written in the Vietnamese language, to which the intelligence officer had attached a translation. A pen-and-ink sketch on the left half of the front page depicted a perfect likeness of Hathcock, complete with bush hat and white feather, and on the right, a perfect likeness of himself, square-jawed and steely eyed.

The translation stated that the two Americans were wanted by the People of Vietnam for the murder of hundreds of innocent women and children. They offered the pay that a middle-class city worker would make in a period of three years as a reward for either man-dead or alive.

Captain Land handed the leaflet back to the captain who had custody of it.

"You know, Charlie has a standing reward of eight dollars a head on any sniper. What you're looking at is several thousand bucks for each of you two. If I were you-and I thank God I'm not-I would get in the bunker in the center of the compound and not come out until the Freedom Bird took me back to the world."

Land smiled. "I've got work to do, Captain. Good day."

Seeing the leaflet made Land feel naked. He wondered who might be watching even now and walked near cover, consciously avoiding the open.

Hathcock must be warned. He had no way of knowing that Charlie wanted him bad enough to pay literally a king's ransom for his head.

"God damn that Hathcock!" the captain swore. He walked to a pickup point, where he could catch a truck from Hill 327 back to Hill 55.

A helicopter rushed Hathcock to a debriefing at the 7th Marines command post, while Captain Land bounced and jarred in the back of a "six-by" truck headed south. Several officers crowded around as the sniper read from the notes that he had jotted in his log book during the night.

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"Are you certain he was Chinese?" a lieutenant asked.

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