During his career, Hathcock was a Marine sniper. His service record included 93 confirmed kills. Nicknamed “White Feather,” Hathcock even had a rifle named after him. During a family trip to Mississippi, Hathcock took up shooting and hunting, which ultimately helped feed his family. At an early age, Hathcock used a .22 caliber single shot rifle and pretended to be a soldier.
Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Hathcock III is a legend for a bunch of reasons.
Among them is a shot he took in 1967. In the book, “Inside the Crosshairs: Snipers in Vietnam,” Army Col. Michael Lee Lanning described it:
Firing from a hillside position using an Unertl 8X scope on a .50-caliber machine gun stabilized by a sandbag-supported M3 tripod, Hathcock engaged a Vietcong pushing a weapon-laden bicycle at 2,500 yards. Hathcock’s first round disabled the bicycle, the second struck the enemy soldier in the chest.
Read more about Carlos Hathcock and his incredible sniper kill in this article, and be sure to check out the WATM Podcast where the boys talk about his insane adventures in Vietnam.
Despite his success as a sniper., Hathcock actually got his start as an MP. But after a leadership decision to incorporate snipers into every platoon, Hathcock was “discovered” by Capt. Edward Land. The rest, as they say, is history.