This book is Creative Non-fiction. It is a true account of the first American Sniper, sourced and documented. It is creative in that it injects enemy dialogue and thoughts into the story, as well as spruces up some of the Americans’. It describes the landscape and terrain (Vietnam in the 6o’s/war) in descriptive detail that the author might have only imagined—the jungle, the rain, the insects, the swampland (rice paddies); the sun’s rising and setting, the mist and fog—in poetic prose. In other words, it brings the story to life – much as Clint Eastwood did in directing the movie, American Sniper (2015); an adaptation of Chris Kyle’s memoir (2013) of the same name. And the similarities don’t end there. Eastwood might have read Henderson’s Marine Sniper because they both, the movie and the book, begin with the sniper having to decide whether or not to kill civilians, seemingly — children. The Marine sniper is Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock, who is responsible for the sniper weapons system now used by the US Military. He convinced the Marines of its value in warfare. “One shot, one kill,” was his motto and MO. His experience in Vietnam was eerily similar to Kyle’s. (Maybe Kyle read about Hathcock.) Hathcock was a legend in Vietnam and had a bounty, a reward, put on his head by the enemy. Hathcock was hunted as well as being the hunter. This book is thrilling – dangerous. The epigraph is a quote by Hemingway: There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter. Like Kyle, Hathcok is stalked by an enemy sniper. But, this is not a movie or a memoir, it happened. Hathcock kills his hunter, and when they confirm the kill, it is seen that Hathcock’s shot went through the hunter’s rifle’s scope, into his eye, the enemy sniper’s eye, and exploded his brain. Dig it … ? In another episode Hathcock was given the mission of killing a female combatant, THE APACHE, who tortured her captives by having rats eat their faces and skinning them alive; and also cut the genitals off a captured US Marine, while alive, then released him after torturing him all night long so as the Marines, bunkered nearby, could hear his screams while they tried to sleep. Get it? Are the enemy savages? Dig it. In another episode (what else can you call them?) Hathcock ‘worms’ his way across a swamp for three days to assassinate an enemy general. The distance is less than a mile. At one spot he encounters a viper. He cannot do anything but move, inch-by-inch, for three days, on his belly, so-as-to be able to get the shot. He was eaten by ants, but could not flinch! He did it! He was successful. He is a legend!But “We” lost that war, as we lost the Iraq war. What good does it do, these advanced weapon systems, killing systems?Hathcock got sick. He was diagnosed with MS, but maybe it was PTSD. He trained snipers, re-uped. His wife wondered. Hathcock taught again still more snipers. He’s a hero. He loved John Wayne. Get it? Should you read this book? IDK … men are complicated creatures.PSMy best friend was a Navy SEAL in Vietnam. In the beginning, in Vietnam, they were Navy frogmen – underwater demolition specialists. He, my friend, drank himself to death … and yet, he was the last survivor of his team. They, his team, killed themselves, one- by-one, one way or another … and “We,” lost the wars. Get it?Winter 2015
In the book Marine Sniper 93 Confirmed Kills by Charles Henderson (the author of Silent Warrior) is an explosive true story on how Staff Sergeant Hathcock became America’s deadliest sniper. I believe the author’s purpose on why he wrote this book is because he wanted to tell the story of one of the best Marine snipers to ever live and to let people know about him. The main characters in this book are of course Staff Sergeant Hathcock himself and his spotter and best friend Corporal Burke.In this book the author talks about Staff Sergeant Hathcock and his journey through Vietnam and his story on how he became the Marines deadliest sniper and how he has to try to survive through Vietnam with his sniper rifle and his good friend and spotter Corporal Burke. Throughout this book Staff Sergeant Hathcock and Corporal Burke have to learn how to defeat difficult task and get out of the jungle of Vietnam alive and complete their mission. On their through the jungle Hathcock tells Burke his story on how he became what he is today. I believe the theme of this book was discipline and confidence. I believe this because Hathcock got to where he was today with self-discipline and confidence. He would not be anywhere close to where he is if he would not have used self-discipline to focus in on all of his shots and confidence that he could do anything if he had the discipline to do so. I think that this book was a little bit of narration and manly description. I think this because at some points when he told his story to Burke on how he won all of these trophies and how he was distinguished. Then at other times the whole story is description because the author made it feel like I was right there with Hathcock and Burke when they were going through the jungle and other trips. So that is why I think this book is both description and narration.So in my opinion I think that this book was pretty good. The things I like and disliked were that I like how he explained his past and how it was so well said so I knew what was going on the whole time. I never really was confused what was going on I knew what was happening the whole time. The thing I disliked the most and what I would have change was sometimes he kind of just went into the past and I sometimes was think what happened but then once I understood what I was going on I was fine. Same goes for when the story of the past ended he kind of just continued with the present so I first had to find out what was going on but when I did it was all fine from there.So in the end this book is not like any other book I have read because I have never read something that is this detailed about Marine Snipers. I would give this book a eight out of ten if ten was the highest. I would highly recommended this book to people that are interested in books that are about war or survival.
What do You think about Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills (2001)?
Charles Henderson's 'Marine Sniper' is a dramatized account of the life of a Vietnam War sniper. Based on the life and times of Sergeant Carlos Hathcock - an American soldier who apparently eventually became the posterboy of the Marine Sniper program - the book seemed an interesting prospect at first. One, I love war books and two, I love history books (Marine Sniper is set in the Vietnam War). Sadly, the book was a disappointment.The amount of melodramatic fictionalization of everything Hathcock did was extremely jingoistic. Dialogues were overwritten with Henderson trying to explain the scene or pace along the narrative with incredibly explanatory (and thus, weird) dialogues. And the focus on battle tactics or history was minimal.The only thing that made the book tolerable was Hathcock... real, gritty and human in the parts of the book Henderson allows him to be so.
—Vaibhav Anand
Marine sniper was a book about an officer in the maries and his job was to patrol the streets from any enemy combat personal. he was known for his eagle eye of a shot because he would rarley ever miss a shot. Every shot he took he had to explain every moment and every breath he took. He also had this book that he kept, like a journal of all the people he had killed. When henderson quites" Marines die as fast from bullets fired by twelve-year old boys as they do from bullets fired by men." (Henderson 2). I can relate to this by when i am playing rat hockey with my dad and the younger guys are in better shape then he is and it seems that he hates that hockey grew fast and he grew old. I gave this book five stars because of how adventurous and personal life was in war. I would recoment this book to high school students because they can learn the true meaning of what war was like.
—Q U
This was lent to me by a guy at work last week. I told him that I probably wouldn’t get to it anytime soon, and he said that was fine, but I ended up finishing it pretty quickly. It’s the true story of the most prolific sniper in the history of the Marines: 93 confirmed kills in Vietnam. And there were many more unconfirmed ones. The things he had to do, laying in the jungle for hours or days with bugs eating him alive, crawling through all kinds of foul water and jungle slime, are just amazing. In one story, he had to crawl 1500 yards (about ¾ of a mile) to get close enough to an enemy camp to kill a general. Because there was no cover, he had to worm crawl the whole way, inch by inch, and it took him 3 days! 3 days to go ¾ of a mile! Fascinating book.
—Dan
