One day later, Capt. E. J. Land departed Vietnam, leaving Hathcock and Burke. He passed his concern for their safety to his relief, Major Wight.
“Hathcock’s a dichotomy,” Land told the major. “The man will put himself into the most dangerous situations imaginable, yet once he’s out there on his own, he’s the most cautious and thorough sniper I’ve ever seen. The only reason he’s alive is because he is so damned good, once he’s in the bush.
“Burke’s just like him. Hathcock taught him everything he knows. They’ll never say no. So watch ’em. Don’t let them get in over their heads.”
14. Stalking the General
THE LATE AFTERNOON sun shone through the camouflage netting draped over the old plantation house that now served as a North Vietnamese Army division’s command center. The yellow light cast spotty shadows through the window and over the old commander who sat behind his table like desk, scratching out a note.
His division continued to expand and improve. But the old commander was like the great tiger that lived in these mountains and now limped because of a thorn that festered in his paw. This “thorn” was the increasing number of U.S. Marine snipers and especially the one who wore a white feather in his hat—a symbol that enraged the Communist general because he saw it as an insult to the abilities of his best guerrillas. News of someone sighting the sniper who wore the white feather spread fear among his troops, as well as among the local peasants. Whenever this man was seen, people died.
He gazed out the window, looking through the blotchy netting as the blood red sun stood at the crest of the mountains that arose from the sanctuary of Laos. The setting sun’s highlights sparkled from the gold and silver that ornamented the large, red patches sewn on his collar. He thought of the war and the increasing numbers of American soldiers and weapons that now flooded into South Vietnam. And he thought of the increasing number of heavy bombs dropped daily from the bellies of high-flying B-52s.
As those bombs fell along the Demilitarized Zone and the Laotian border, Hathcock wadded a green-and-white cigarette pack and tossed it into the wooden ammunition box that he had turned into a combination ntght stand, stool, and trash container. He lay back on his cot and took a long and deep drag off his last cigarette. The sun now set behind the distant hilltops in the west, and he watched the blazing orange sky turn dark as night fell.
As he lay there, he thought of his conversation with Gunny Wilson earlier that day just after he’d finished writing to Jo; recounting his past six months as a sniper made him realize that many things had permanently changed in his life. The Carlos Hathcock who reported to Maj. George E. Bartlett at 1st Marine Division’s military police company nearly one year ago at Chu Lai, and who worked there as a machine gunner and desk sergeant, was a completely changed person from the Carlos Hathcock who spent the last six months on duty as a sniper and assistant chief sniper instructor at Da Nang. When he reported to the “Mustang” major, himself a competitive marksman, Carlos had never killed anyone. He had never known the heat of combat or the reality of war. Now, he had eighty kills confirmed to his credit and had trained several hundred snipers, more than one hundred of them personally. When he came to Chu Lai, he equated marksmanship to targets. Now he equated targets to living, breathing human beings.
In a few days, he would pick up the orders that canceled his temporary additional duty as a sniper, and he would return to the Military Police Company, his parent command, that would process him for travel back to the World. He came to Vietnam a green kid, twenty-three years old, still immature and full of ideals and dreams. Now, his face bore wrinkles at twenty-four years, his ideals and dreams were tempered by the lessons of combat. And his boyishness had disappeared, drained from his soul at Elephant Valley, Charlie Ridge, An Hoa, and Da Nang. Now he felt old.
Hathcock looked at the letter that he had written to Jo apologizing for not telling her that he was actually a working sniper, not just an instructor. The idea of her reading about it in the newspaper continued to rouse his anger. “Once I got home, I would have told her,” he thought. “I just didn’t want her worrying.”
“Sergeant Hathcock! You in there?” a voice called in the night.
“Yo!” Hathcock called from his cot and raised himself on his elbows to see outside his hooch. “Yeah, Burke, what’s up?”
Burke peered through the screen door. “Gunny needs to see you. I think they want you for one more trip to the bush.”
Hathcock sprang to his feet like a fireman hearing the alarm sound. “What do you know? They tell you anything?”
“No. Gunny just said for me to roust you up.”
Hathcock slipped on his shirt as he walked toward the sniper headquarters where he could see two figures standing outside.
“Looks like some sort of powwow,” Burke said in a low voice as they drew near.
A hulking Marine captain who looked as though he could play on any National Football League team’s front line stood next to the gunny. Wrapping his enormous paw around Hathcock’s outstretched palm, he started shaking it.
“I’ve heard a lot about you, especially from Major Wight. That’s why I made the trip down here to see you. Vfe have a very risky job. And we think you’re the only man who can pull it off and survive. I know you’re due to go home in a matter of days, so I’m not here to order you. You may accept or reject our proposal. I can only tell you that the need is urgent.”
The words “the only man who can pull it off” overshadowed everything else the. captain said. No sales pitch was necessary beyond that. Hathcock knew that if they believed that he was the only man who had a chance at surviving this mission, then he must accept. If he rejected the request they’d select a less experienced sniper. A man who had less chance of surviving. He couldn’t go home with that on his conscience.
“What’s the job, Sir?” he said, folding his arms, ready for some sort of hint at this very dangerous assignment.
“I can’t say. You have to accept or reject this request based totally on the prospect that it will be extremely hazardous. The odds of your surviving are slim, so I can only ask you to volunteer.
“If you accept, you will come with me and receive a briefing and a package containing all the information and planning that we’ve done on this mission. You can then tailor this plan to suit your needs and abilities. You will receive total support.”
Hathcock scraped the toe of his boot through the dirt and thought of the short-timer stories about Marines who took one more mission with only days remaining in-country and died on it. To take such a mission violated a superstition. Go on patrol when you’re a newbee or a short-timer and you’re dead. But, he also thought that the odds stood in his favor more than in any other sniper’s, despite the short-timer superstition.
He looked at Burke, standing silently in the moonlight. What if they turned to him or to the gunny or the top? Which friend would he allow to go in his place?
He looked at the captain and took a deep breath. “Sir, I’ll go. I wouldn’t be able to face myself if I didn’t.”
The captain put his arm over Hathcock’s shoulder and patted him. “I’ve got a map and some recon photos up at operations, we’ll talk there.”
The two Marines walked away from the sniper hooch, and Burke watched them disappear in the darkness. A feeling of emptiness suddenly pulled at his souclass="underline" he would never go hunting with his partner again. The reality of it struck him as he watched his friend leave. He wished he could go too.
“Oh, Carlos, oh, Carlos, you ain’t a comin’ back alive from this one! You and your big ideas,” Carlos Hathcock said aloud. Johnny Burke sat on a wooden crate scrubbing his M-14’s bolt-face with a doubled-up pipe cleaner. Carlos sat on another crate. Between his feet a topographical map and several photos lay spread on the dirty plywood floor of me sniper platoon’s command hooch.