Military Myths & Legends: Charles
Sniper Charles "Chuck" Mawhinney, may not have the name recognition of Marine sniper Sgt. Carlos Hathcock, but military records show Mawhinney has 103 confirmed kills - 10 more than Hathcock - and 216 probable kills during the Vietnam War; making him the deadliest sniper in Marine Corps history.
To him, his job wasn't all about taking lives, it was about saving them. Every person he killed was not only one less person to kill a fellow Marine, but he was also sapping the enemies will to fight. Always at the forefront of his mind was to keep his fellow Marines safe - even when he was becoming disillusioned with America's presence in Vietnam, he extended his tour twice to keep his Marines safe.
One of Mawhinney greatest engagements came when a large North Vietnamese Army force was spotted moving its way south on Valentine's Day to attack an American base near Da Nang. But a monsoon shut down air support. So Mawhinney volunteered to cover a river crossing where the force was expected to march.
Mawhinney left his sniper rifle at the base and moved forward with an M14 semiautomatic rifle and a Starlight scope, an early night vision device.
The sniper and his spotter positioned themselves overlooking the shallowest river crossing. A few hours later, a single scout approached the river first, but Mawhinney waited. When the rest of the NVA began to cross the river, Mawhinney kept waiting. It wasn't until the men were deep into the river that Mawhinney began firing, nailing one man after the other through the head. As he describes it, in 30 seconds "I shot dropped 16 NVA soldiers with 16 headshots."
He engaged the enemy at ranges from 25 to 75 meters, nailing one man after the other through the head. As he describes it, in 30 seconds "I shot dropped 16 NVA soldiers with 16 headshots."
The two Marines then hastily fell back as the NVA tried to hit them with small arms and machine gun fire.
"I just did what I was trained to do," he says in a tone that is neither defensive nor boastful. "I was in-country a long time in a very hot area. I didn't do anything special."
The numbers suggest otherwise.
By all accounts other than his own, Mawhinney is a master of one of the most dangerous, deadly and misunderstood roles in the military. Yet for more than two decades after he left the Marine Corps in 1970, nobody except for a few fellow Marines knew of his assignment.
Other snipers have written books or had books written about them. Mawhinney always figured war stories were for wannabes and bores. At home in Oregon, he never told even his closest friends about what he did in Vietnam.
But a tell-all paperback by Joseph War, a friend, and fellow Marine sniper, finally flushed him out. The book was �??Dear Mom: A Sniper's Vietnam.'
At first, embarrassed and annoyed at losing his privacy, Mawhinney reluctantly decided to tell a cold tale of killing in service to country and is now in heavy demand within military circles to describe his techniques, his emotions, his assessment of what he accomplished from ambush.
So, what changed his mind about never rehashing Vietnam?
First, because anonymity was no longer an option, he decided he could help change the public image of snipers as bloodthirsty assassins. A good sniper, Mawhinney said, saves more lives than he takes because he undercuts the enemy's will or ability to fight.
Second, going public offered a chance to say something that might help some other scared servicemen stay alive someday.
"Once I had a Charlie in my scope, it was my job to kill him before he killed me," said Mawhinney, now 69 and retired from a desk job with the U.S. Forest Service.
Even in an age of million-dollar, computer-driven missiles, the ability of one man to kill another with a 20-cent bullet is a much-prized skill among military forces. In the ugliness of war-making, the sniper is assigned to harass, intimidate and demoralize the enemy, make him afraid to venture into the open and deny him the chance to rest and regroup.
"It was the ultimate hunting trip: a man hunting another man who was hunting me," he said. "Don't talk to me about hunting lions or elephants; they don't fight back with rifles and scopes. I just loved it."
One memory that sticks with Mawhinney the most is the "one that got away." Having just returned to Vietnam from leave, Mawhinney was getting his rifle back from the armorer, who assured him they didn't make any changes to his rifle. Trusting the armorer, Mawhinney went out with his sniper team to support an infantry squad that was in the field.
From a concealed location hundreds of yards away from where the engagement was expected to occur, his team was charged with picking off any stragglers or North Vietnamese Army or Viet Cong reinforcements attempting the join the fight or thinking the area was safe from the fight.
From about 300 yards away Mawhinney spotted an armed enemy combatant in a rice paddy dike. He took the shot and missed. As a routinely deadly shot at that range, Mawhinney knew someone at the armory had done something to his scope. He took several more shots while trying to compensate for his altered scope, but couldn't hit the target, and the enemy got away.
It's one of the few things that still bother him about Vietnam. Mawhinney wonders how many people that man could have killed, how many of his friends, of his fellow Marines. He will never truly know, but it haunts him to this day.
He was invited to talk to snipers in training at the Marines' Camp Pendleton and the Army's Ft. Carson in Colorado.
"I give them Chuck Mawhinney's three rules of becoming a good sniper: Practice, practice and more practice," he said.
On the wall of the Marine sniper school at Camp Pendleton is a Chinese proverb: Kill one man, terrorize a thousand.
On another wall is a framed picture of Mawhinney as a teenage sniper in Vietnam, stripped to the waist in a mock-macho pose with the government-issued Remington M700 bolt-action rifle that he considered "my baby."
"It's good for the young Marines to see someone like Chuck who had the intangibles that you need to be a good sniper: heart, backbone, desire, and discipline," said Gunnery Sgt. William Skiles, who runs the 30-student sniper school.
When training rookie snipers, he would make sure they understood that. Their job was to kill the enemy and missing a shot or having second thoughts on taking the shot could get them or a fellow Marine killed.
Mawhinney has been a guest of honor at various marksmanship competitions around the country attended by military personnel and police SWAT snipers. He is also the spokesman for Strider Knives, which produces a knife with his signature on the blade. One of these knives is presented to the top graduate of each USMC Scout Sniper School in Camp Pendleton, California.
Other Vietnam snipers with high killing rate records include Carlos Hathcock, Eric R. England, and Adelbert F. Waldron. Their impressive records - including Mawhinney's - stood for many years until Navy SEAL Christopher Scott Kyle was officially confirmed more than 160 kills during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.