Haunted Texas and Beyond is brought to you by Austin Ghost Tours and RenegadeRadio.net. This is the fourth and final podcast for the Military Ghosts series.
During my research for this series, I came across multiple interviews with Chris Kyle when he was promoting his book. In the interviews, he frequently mentions the person he believed was the best sniper ever, a man named Carlos Hathcock. Primarily because During the War on Terror Kyle was using technology enhanced weapons that were not available to Hathcock during the Vietnam war.
A gunnery sergeant with the Seventh Marines, FIRST Marine Division
Carlos Hathcock did not write a book about his exploits during the Vietnam War, he was a private person, but many books have been written by others about him. Henderson, Charles (1986). Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills. Also, the Hathcock biography “Marine Sniper.”
Sergeant Hathcock spent the first 12 years of his life with his mother and grandmother in a household that was not affluent. Based on the choices he made and his way of thinking during his career in the USMC, I doubt his mother had to ask him to hunt to provide food for his family. As a country boy and man of the house he probably was aware of his family’s situation and took it upon himself to utilize the abundance of free food in the wilderness around him. This self-taught ability to hunt would serve him in the future when he would become the most accomplished sniper during the Vietnam War with 93 confirmed kills, and according to Hathcock, around 300 probables. Sergeant Hathcock was the sniper who fired the famous “scope shot” where he shot a sniper in the eye through the sniper’s own scope which was aimed at him
He enlisted with the marine core when he was 17, served two tours in Vietnam and was an instructor and founder of the Marine Corps Scout Sniper School at the Marine base in Quantico, Virginia. As a marine one of the most important things he did in his career was to champion the importance of the sniper role in the military.
One night I was alone in my house. It was early evening and dark outside. I was sitting at my kitchen table with my laptop on. I decided to watch a video by Lionheart Film Works. On youtube They had a complete interview, and the only interview Hathcock ever granted, from 1993 entitled “In his own words”. There is a link at the bottom to the interview as well as another Lionheart Film production The Original American Sniper .
During the interview he talks about the difficulty of setting up Quantico while his health was deteriorating from multiple sclerosis. Sergeant Hathcock also spoke about his sniper training techniques including the importance of shooting under stress, extreme patience, how to be an observer, concentration and the relevance of dry firing. He also talks about How to learn when you miss your target, what it means to be an area shooter and counter sniper tactics. And of course his amazing feats during the Vietnam War. “Only when you are needed are you the good guy” “People look down on snipers because we have a job people below don’t understand.
I was intently watching the video – so intent that I didn’t notice a thunderstorm had rolled in. When I finally realized what this was, I immediately thought of what had happened while my team and I were recording during a thunderstorm in the previous podcast.
I wanted to experiment, so I paused the video, went into the dining room, opened the door to the outside to hear the rain and let in the cool air, I put my cell phone on the dining room table and turned on the recorder. You can hear the rain and the thunder, me walking. I let my dog Camp in, announced who is in the room and went back to listening to the YouTube video on my laptop in the kitchen. I heard nothing as all of this was taking place – I did not move except to get up and turn off the recorder.
I will play my whole recording at the end.
As I played back the recording it was hard to hear at first. It sounded like the recorder was far away from my computer because it was.
Actual dialogue on my recorder: With earphones I could hear the host ask “What kind of character is the man behind the rifle? Carlos Hathcock gives us some insight on that.” Hathcock is asked “Is the Resolve to pull the trigger a skill or ingrained?” ) he responds “I don’t believe it is a skill you can be taught. It has to be ingrained in you like a hunter. Rabbit, squirrel, whatever the game is, if you miss it, you don’t eat so it’s got to be ingrained. I did not like the killing but to put myself against another living breathing human being who could kill me just as quickly as I could him. That was the challenge of it
Hathcock is asked if he has any advice for the viewer.
“For police snipers, continue your training on all aspects of sniping. You cannot do it too much, do it as much as you can, put all of your mind and body into it; when you’re training,
VOLUME GOES UP ON MY RECORDER AS IF IT IS RIGHT NEXT TO ME nothing has changed. I am still sitting and listening in the kitchen, and I don’t hear anything but the YouTube video.
He continues don’t just be training, be quality training, quality, quality. All the instructors out there, if you just teach them to shoot then whoa be unto you, because that’s their life, the life of the hostages and the lives of everybody else around them. The entry team they support the entry team. And for the military, pay attention to the details! Pay attention to the details! Train, train, train. Like I said you are only area shooting but you have to make each and every one the best one there is. For counter snipers, you are not area shooting, you are pinpoint precision surgical shooting.
And then there is a high-pitched scratching sound followed by a HOLLOW SOUND AND THEN LANGUAGE I CAN’T UNDERSTAND. Then there is SILENCE until you hear my flip flops walking around the kitchen. A faint sound of voices can be heard, I think there was nothing playing on my computer after the interview. Not sure.
And listen to this you hear it when Carlos is giving advice to the police about the importance of training and that they support the entry team Listen. What do you hear?
When I decided to do this podcast I wanted to share with the Austin Ghost Tour people we have met over the years the craziness in my world. Unexplainable things happening all the time but always in an interesting and what I consider to be a brilliant way.
I am going to quote the host of Carlos Hathcock In his Own Words
“All the snipers in the free world owe a debt of gratitude to Carlos Hathcock. He paved the road we’ve all followed. Since then, especially the viewers of this video owe gratitude to this proud and private man. He has never before conceded to do an on camera interview so you are exclusively seeing the insights of America’s most accomplished sniper”.
This concludes, our 4-part series about the military by Austin Ghost Tours join us for a tour or investigation go to austinghostours.com If you want to listen to more sound anomalies not in these podcasts go to renegaderadio.net
