ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 13, 1996 TAG: 9611130086
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: QUANTICO
SOURCE: DALE EISMAN LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
THROUGH TWO TOURS of duty in Vietnam, sniper Carlos N. Hathcock II executed 93 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers.
``I never looked at it like this was some sort of shooting match, where the man with the most kills wins the gold medal,'' Gunnery Sgt. Carlos N. Hathcock II once told another Marine.
``Hell, anybody would be crazy to like to go out and kill folks. I never did enjoy killing anybody. It's my job. If I don't get those bastards, then they're going to kill a lot of these kids. That's the way I look at it.''
Slipping through jungles with the stealth of a panther, Hathcock tracked down and executed 93 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers during two tours of duty as a Marine sniper in the late 1960s. His deadly skill led the enemy to put a price on his head and made him a legend in the Corps.
But when he was burned almost beyond recognition by a Vietnamese mine in 1969, ``Gunny'' Hathcock came home to a country that looked at sniping, even in service to fellow soldiers, less sympathetically. A purple heart recognized his wounds and respectful young Marines studied shooting under his direction, but America never really thanked him for his heroism.
Until Tuesday.
Retired since 1979 and a resident of Virginia Beach, Hathcock came back to Quantico, the ``Crossroads of the Marine Corps'' to receive the Silver Star, the military's third-highest honor.
The crowd of 100 Marines and civilians who gathered at an indoor pistol range to honor him included a delegation of Virginia Beach police officers. Hathcock has taught marksmanship to police trainees in the resort city for the past decade.
``He comes out on the range and he commands the range,'' even though a debilitating illness keeps him from shooting, said Officer D.C. Lackey.
The award citation signed by Navy Secretary John Dalton praises Hathcock's courage in saving the lives of a group of Marines he dragged from a burning halftrack on Sept. 16, 1969.
Like the other troops, Hathcock had been riding atop the vehicle when it struck a land mine. He was ``sprayed with flaming gasoline caused by the explosion,'' his citation reads, 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.''
As his admirers told it, those wounded comrades were a small fraction of the number that Hathcock saved by hunting down and shooting some of the enemy's most skilled killers.
Hathcock's victims included a woman sniper platoon leader the Americans respectfully referred to as ``the Apache,'' and a general he picked off from 800 yards away after crawling through 1,200 yards of open field to get in position for the shot.
``We have false prophets in the '90s, who tell us that computers will do the terrible bloody business of war,'' said Lt. Gen. Paul K. Van Riper, head of the Marines' Combat Development Command. But as long as there are wars, ``we will need Gunnery Sergeant Hathcocks to do the nation's business.''
Hathcock took out his victims cleanly, almost always with a single round to the head or heart, then disappeared back into the jungle. Other Vietnamese around his targets would fire back wildly, guessing at the source of his shot, but none ever hit him.
Now 54 but looking far older, Hathcock is slowly losing a long battle with a biological killer, multiple sclerosis. Unable to shoot for years, he retired from the Corps in 1979 and now gets around only in a wheelchair. His son, Carlos III, now a Marine staff sergeant himself; and a friend, Richard R. Carroll of Suffolk, had to help hold him up as Van Riper pinned on Hathcock's award Tuesday afternoon.
Still, Hathcock insisted that ``I feel fantastic'' and said he has no regrets about his ``19 years, 10 months and 5 days'' in the Corps. ``A lot of fire'' is his only memory of that day on the halftrack, he said.
Hathcock said he was able to survive and succeed as a sniper because of an ability to ``get in the bubble,'' putting himself into a state of ``utter, complete, absolute concentration,'' on his quarry and his environment.
It's an ability few men acquire, observed retired Staff Sgt. Edward J. Land Jr., who recruited Hathcock to be a Marine sniper. ``Every breeze, every leaf, meant something. He was able to log it all in, and use it.''
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Retired Marine Sgt. Carlos N. Hathcock II isby CNBsupported by his son as Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper shakes hands after
presenting him with a Silver Star during a ceremony at the Quantico
Marine Base Tuesday. He received the Silver Star for valor in
Vietnam. color.