Carlos Hathcock

Carlos Norman Hathcock II
Hathcock in November 1996
Nickname(s)	"White Feather"
Born	(1942-05-20)May 20, 1942 Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.
Died	February 22, 1999(1999-02-22) (aged 56) Virginia Beach, Virginia, U.S.
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Marine Corps
Years of service	1959–1979
Rank	Gunnery Sergeant
Unit	1st Marine Division
Battles/wars	Vietnam War
Awards	Silver Star Navy Commendation Medal Purple Heart

Carlos Norman Hathcock II (May 20, 1942 – February 22, 1999) was a United States Marine Corps (USMC) sniper with a service record of 93 confirmed kills. Hathcock's record and the extraordinary details of the missions he undertook made him a legend in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was honored by having a rifle named after him: a variant of the M21 dubbed the Springfield Armory M25 White Feather, for the nickname "White Feather" given to Hathcock by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA).

Hathcock was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on May 20, 1942. He grew up in rural Arkansas, living with his grandmother after his parents separated. While visiting relatives in Mississippi, he took to shooting and hunting at an early age, partly out of necessity to help feed his poor family. He would go into the woods with his dog and pretend to be a soldier and hunt imaginary Japanese with the old Mauser his father brought back from World War I. He hunted at that early age with a .22-caliber J. C. Higgins single-shot rifle. Hathcock dreamed of being a Marine throughout his childhood, and so on May 20, 1959, at the age of 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. Hathcock married Jo Winstead on the date of the Marine Corps birthday, on November 10, 1962. Jo gave birth to a son, whom they named Carlos Norman Hathcock III.

Before deploying to Vietnam, Hathcock had won shooting championships, including matches at Camp Perry and the Wimbledon Cup. In 1966, Hathcock started his deployment in Vietnam as a military policeman and later became a sniper after Captain Edward James Land pushed the Marines into raising snipers in every platoon. Land later recruited Marines who had set their own records in sharpshooting; he quickly found Hathcock, who had won the Wimbledon Cup, the most prestigious prize for long-range shooting, at Camp Perry in 1965.

During the Vietnam War, Hathcock had 93 confirmed kills of North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong personnel. In the Vietnam War, kills had to be confirmed by an acting third party, who had to be an officer, besides the sniper's spotter. Snipers often did not have an acting third party present, making confirmation difficult, especially if the target was behind enemy lines, as was usually the case.