White Feather and Billy Dixon

LARRY ANDERSON
Larry Anderson

American Sniper, Marine sniper Chris Kyle’s recently published account of his shooting exploits in Iraq, was followed by a wildly successful film of the same title with superstar Bradley Cooper in the lead role.

The movie is arguably one of the best ever about war and the toll it takes on those with the courage and purpose to serve.

Kyle was a force determined to do a dangerous job, protecting troops on the ground who were rooting out an intractable enemy.

Kyle did most of his work from rooftops where he spotted and picked off threats to Americans. He had 160 confirmed kills, mostly those doggedly supporting the deposed Saddam Hussein regime.

There is no question that Chris Kyle saved many Marines with spectacular shots few in this world could make.

Great shots come from those who have state-of-the-art weapons at their disposal, and a steady hand. In June of 1874, Billy Dixon, renowned buffalo hunter, scout, and one-day Congressional Medal of Honor winner, became famous for one amazing shot.

He did it with a single shot Sharps .50-70 buffalo gun. No scope.

Dixon was holed up in a nothing place in the north Texas prairie called Adobe Walls, a handful of cut-sod buildings. With him were 27 others including a young man named Bat Masterson.

The group came under attack by an estimated 700 ticked off Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne. Even well fortified and with superior fire power, the situation did not look good. A siege began.

Many hours later, Billy noticed a gathering of 15 or so Indians on a ridge surveying the situation. They were about a mile away.

With nothing to lose, Dixon sighted the Sharps and let go. Three or four seconds later a Comanche tumbled from his horse.

Powerful medicine from the natives’ perspective.

The siege ended and Billy Dixon entered the history books.

No shot in military history was more significant than the one scored by Carlos Norman Hathcock II during the Vietnam War. Hathcock worked mainly out of a fire base near DaNang.

Hathcock, like Chris Kyle, was a Marine sniper arduously trained at picking off killers at distances most people can barely see. Hathcock was blessed with a peculiar sense for placement, an eagle’s eye, and an uncanny ability to fade into the environment. Hathcock is credited with 93 confirmed kills; he placed his own number at around 300.

Hathcock was given the nickname White Feather because of the small feather he had placed in his bush hat.

The Marine was knocking off so many of the enemy, the feather became a challenge to those who wanted to end his threat. A $30,000 bounty was put on his head. That interested was a North Vietnamese Army sniper nicknamed Cobra for good reason. Cobra began to stalk.

One morning, White Feather was scanning the bush with his scope, looking for a target. He noticed a pinpoint of reflected light in the distance and instantly fired. He was confident he had scored and investigation proved it true.

Cobra was dead, shot through the eye at precisely the time he was scoping a shot on White Feather. Hathcock’s bullet, fired a split second before Cobra would have taken his shot at Hathcock, went through Cobra‘s scope.

Incredible.

As legendary as that shot is, it is secondary, in my opinion, to another of White Feather’s feats.

It was a job he volunteered for before he even knew what he was getting into. However, I doubt prior knowledge would have mattered. Hathcock was that kind of man and a Marine, after all.

The assignment was to knock off an NVA general. This task required he work alone without the customary spotter to assist.

Getting set up required White Feather to crawl 1,500 yards. It took hours, often crawling inches at a time to leave as little trail as possible. Enemy patrols passed within feet of the concealed sniper, but his camouflage was so complete he avoided detection.

White Feather got position, took out the general with one spectacular 700-yard shot, and crawled back to base untouched. No doubt the general’s death disrupted the NVA’s plans and saved American lives.

That shot also sent a message: No one was safe with White Feather around.

In September of 1969, just north of LZ Baldy, Hathcock’s armored vehicle struck an anti-tank mine. Even though severely burned, Hathcock pulled seven fellow Marines to safety. For this he was awarded the Silver Star 30 years later.

Illness forced Carlos Hathcock out of his beloved Marine Corps prematurely, but he developed the modern Marine Corps sniper program. It was White Feather’s methodology that was so critical to Chris Kyle’s success a generation later.

Larry W. Anderson believes few have the qualities of hero. Chris Kyle and Carlos Hathcock are two.