Marine Sniper by Charles Henderson Read Free Book Online

tether.
     
    Carios never mastered the knack of hunting with the shot-
     
    gun, although he tried shooting dove and pheasant and quail. He hunted with the shotgun often, but always wound up get-teg his old single-shot rifle to bring home the game.
     
    Warm damp air hung heavily in the morning stillness when pleasant childhood memories blurred into conscious thought • aad Hathcock awoke. He felt sticky and uncomfortable. The nun, which had lulled him into a restful sleeo, now heralded Ike beginning of another humid day in Vietnam.
     
    Outside Hathcock's hooch, Lance Corporal Burke sat quietly whittling on a stick. Hathcock saw the back of Burke's bush hat resting against the wire screen and called out drowsily, "You been there long?"
     
    "No, not really. Figured you weren't in any special hurry . since we're going for the week. Thought I'd let you sleep some."
     
    • "Let me grab my pack and rifle, and Til be with you. What's the timeT'
     
    "Almost six thirty."
     
    Hathcock and Burke walked to the Combat Operations Center, where radios crackled around the clock and a tired-eyed gunnery sergeant sat at a field desk jotting notes on a yellow pad, assembling bits and pieces of an intelligence report from messages scrawled in pencil on flimsy, yellow slips of paper.
     
    "Morning, Gunny," Hathcock said in a low voice to the intelligence chief.
     
    "Hi there, Sergeant Hathcock. Want some coffee? That jog's fresh."
     
    Each man poured himself a cup and then Hathcock looked Over at the sergeant. "Anything going on north-up around Elephant ValleyT1
     
    "Happenings everywhere, Sergeant Hathcock. Take your pick. Ream's sighted lots of movement. Already had reports , Of contact this morning from two patrols-one up toward Ele-fhant Valley. You planning to work up there?" i-     "Had that in mind, unless someone has something else to flffer. Lance Corporal Burke and I coordinated a long-range nassion up that direction." v      "Good. I could use some intel-reps from up there. Let me know your call sign when you check out with operations. And be careful -Charlie's up to something."
     
    Hathcock finished checking out in the operations center and joined Burke outside in the drizzle.
     
    "What's the plan on getting up there?" Burke asked.
     
    We chop north to a fire base where we join a patrol. They'll take us to a good drop-off point. After that, we'll be by our lonesome. A long-range patrol will pick us up on its way in Sunday, at the edge of Elephant Valley. That's six days alone with no rear guard.
     
    "We're Bravo-Hotel on the radio net. We will only make contact on the move or when departing our position."
     
    "Or in case shit hits the fan?" Burke added with a sarcastic smile.
     
    Hathcock unfolded a map that he had made waterproof with a clear-plastic laminating film. "We've got a battery of 105s here," he told Burke, pointing to a hill located southeast of Elephant Valley. "They'll fire on our call, if we need help. If we need air or some other kind of help, we call the S-3."
     
    "Sounds good, Sergeant." The rain was ending, and Burke looked up at the brightening sky. "Weatherman says possible light showers off and on in the evening, and sunny days."
     
    "Good. We ought to be able to move pretty fast. Shouldn't make any noise with the world soft and soggy."
     
    In less than an hour, the two snipers were climbing out of a helicopter at the fire base* where a rifle squad stood in a U-shaped formation. A tall, black corporal moved from man to man, checking each rifle and inspecting each Marine. Two Marine sentries sat behind sandbags, near a gap in the barbed wire that encircled the compound. The corporal turned toward the approaching snipers. A Marine standing in the squad crowed, "Looky here. It's Murder Incorporated!"
     
    "Shut the fuck up, asshole," the black corporal snapped. "You the snipers we're taking up toward Dong Den and Nam Yen?"
     
    "I'm Corporal Perry."
     
    The men shook hands, and, in less