Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills Page 50 - 100

Summary- The beginning of this chapter depicts how Carlos Hathcock won the Wimbledon Cup, the U.S. National 1,000 yard shooting competition. It shows Hathcock as he passes through each round with his Marine squad cheering him on. The goal of the competition was for the competitors to shoot at a target through many rings that gave them points for each one the bullet went through. During the final round, Hathcock is finally realizing he has a real chance winning the championship. The wind was strong so calculations had to be precise. The other snipers and Hathcock took more than a few minutes lining up there shot before they shot at the same time. There was a loud bamm. And then the crowd was silent with anxiety. The results were being spoken one by one. They finally announced Hathcock as the winner. He didn't believe it until he was carrying the cup that he won. He later found out that he had won by just 4 inches. The story returns to the present as Burke listens and replies with amazement. The Vietnamese group that they had cornered were starting to die from dehydration. Rain was falling and the sky was dark from the night. A portion of the group made a desperate run back to the village huts while the other portion covered for them by spraying bullets at Hathcock and Burke. They realized it was time to call in backup as they held them off. The sweep team came, and they sweeped them away, with the exception of one prisoner. The prisoner is interrogated by ITT or Interrogator Translator Team. They found out that the team Hathcock had held up was a mass of new Viet Cong. Carlos arrives back at base with Burke as they laugh at the battered appearance of one another. Carlos receives a letter after he rests up. It is from his wife, who is extremely worried. She had found out that he was part of a two man team taking down many Vietnamese soldiers alone. She wants to know the truth, but says she understands that Carlos only wanted her not to worry about him. There is then a short history of how the Sniping School was founded. Lieutenant Land and Arthur Terry had proposed a letter explains the importance of a solid sniping team that the USMC lacked. The army did not have a sufficient amount of teaching material for sniping while they had many unused sniper rifles. Hathcock actually graduated from this school's second group of snipers. The story then advances from after Hathcock was first deployed in Vietnam. He was with his classmates and his instructor to participate in the Vietnam war. Their main target was a Viet Cong woman whose codename was Apache. She was infamous for torturing U.S. soldiers in the most brutal ways. The team was on their first battle when they got ambushed! The Viet Cong were waiting for them and they captured some soldiers, none from the sniper team, but some from the marine team accompanying them. They heard the tortured screams of a young soldier as Hathcock and his team tried to combat the ambushers.

Quote-"I was so intent on looking at where I had hit the target and so disturbed that I had landed outside the V-ring that I hadn't even stopped to realize that the other two guys were out and I had won." (Henderson 59)

Reaction- Charles Henderson continues to write with flashbacks to provide more insight on Hathcock's personality and his background. This allows the reader to understand the character who is shrouded in mystery piece by piece. The author also uses many descriptive words to describe a scene and event. This imagery allows the reader to connect with the setting or event. The quote above shows Hathcock's extreme concentration. In this quote and many others, he blocks out everything around him except for his target. This quote also reveals that Carlos is a perfectionist. He is extremely worried about missing even just a little.