MARINE SNIPER: 93 CONFIRMED KILLS by Charles Henderson. Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. Stein & Day Scarborough House 1986 . If you are an ex-Marine, or served in Vietnam, or are interested in shooting, or have permanently lost the ability to perform the one skill you have attained and been honored for, or a historian in search of effective methods to wage war then this book is for you. Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills, by Charles Henderson is a book with a title that turned me off but a story inside that enthralled me. It is in fact a very short biography of Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hatchback. This 229 page biography was distilled by the editor Bill Fryer from more than 700 pages. Perhaps it was this distillation that makes every page of the volume alive with activity. If you are looking for a read that describes 93 separate sniping incidents go someplace else. If you are interested in the most effective way to subdue a region and deny it to opposing forces this is your book. While the book is unavoidably concerned with killing it is more concerned with winning. Carlos entered the Marines at 17 in Little Rock Arkansas in 1959. Seven years later he was on a hill in Viet Nam on his way to becoming the most effective sniper in the world. During those years Carlos served on various Marine rifle teams and had achieved the distinction of winning the Wimbledon Cup, the United States 1,000 yard Long Range Rifle Championship in 1965. In Chapter 3 you are introduced to events one never imagined. Two snipers holding down about 150 Viet Cong along the Ca De Song River in the Elephant Valley. For four days! Killing, and I don't mask the word, they killed an estimate thirty or more. Finally leaving them to the artillery. Then there is the assignment for Carlos to assassinate a sadistic Frenchman who was allegedly on his way to interrogate two shot down U.S. Air Force flyers. Perhaps the most wildly known story of Carlos was his three day odyssey to shoot a Viet Nam General. Enough. That was the killing, this book covers much more. What happens during your second tour in Nam when you are blown up in a Amtrac with severe burns over 43 % of your body. Probably because you stayed in the Amtrac pushing out wounded Marines and saving their lives. Then you find you're also suffering from multiple sclerosis and the Corps doesn't want you anymore. You can no longer do the thing you love best, which is shoot because the grafted skin breaks and bleeds when you try. A forced retirement, depression, a wake up call, and finally a new hobby, and a renewed life end this saga. This is definitely a book you don't want to miss. Back to Cry Havoc #9 Table of Contents Back to Cry Havoc List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1994 by David W. Tschanz. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com