Greatest sniper during Viet Nam

Passed on the 12th. Seemed too young.

Many moons ago, a guy from church who was a bit of a character in his own right used to take me hunting. Chuck was one of the guys he hunted with, but only introduced as a vet (back then maybe a quarter of my friends had dad's who were Vietnam vets so didn't really think much of that). I was told that if he shoots the same time as you at a squirrel or coyote chances are it was him that hit it and not you. Fact that'd be the running joke in the truck with all the old guys on our way to meet up to hunt. It was just fun to sit in the back of the old jeep and listen to the stories while we meanederd through sage and fields on old ranch roads.

Didn't really understand who he was till college, sitting in the dorm watching History Channel avoiding homework. Watching an episode about snipers... and went "hey I know that guy". In a world of self promotion and blow hards all I knew up until that point was my friends dads think this guy's special. Credit to his character, shot squeaks with him a couple times and did a couple coyote hunts... took a TV for me to learn he was a living legend. Wish the world had more men like that....


Have one superhuman coyote shot I remember, I'll try and get to a computer to type up.
 
I read an article about Sgt Mawhinney years ago. He seemed to be a down to earth person. @comfisherman- it would be a interesting to have hunted with guy. May he rest in peace.

It's funny, what I remember most is how unassuming of a person he was. Only indicator of who he was was how men his age treated him.

Remember one day my brother and I got invited to go with a group ground squirrel hunting. Mind you this was not an uncommon occurrence, couple of dads and a gaggle of boys armed the teeth with 22s. Usually we would post up in rolling fields near the irrigation line and they would let us boys go and get all the stupid ones in close. Then the men would pull out the real rifles and shoot the longer range ones. Us boys would help spot or keep looking for a close squirrel...or learn patience.

At any rate I'm prone laying under a wheel line scanning with my lousy scope trying to manifest a squirrel out of the dirt. One of the men kicked my foot to get my attention, and said "come watch, Chucks shooting". Honestly I don't remember the shooting prowess as much as the fact that we all stopped and gathered round to watch. Probably due to the fact that kids process things they don't understand by watching the adults around them, Or there was the other possibility that I didn't have binoculars and he was shooting so far My eyes couldn't see what was actually happening...


More people solo circumnavigated the globe on a sailboat, or walked across the south pole than duplicated his record. Even so he was probably 50 before showing up on TV and in his 60s before he started telling his story. As a millennial raised in a generation of self promotion, I'll remember his humility and pass that memory on to future generations even more than the memory of his shooting prowess.
 
I`ve always found it interesting that the public knows so little about Chuck Mawhinney and absolutely nothing about Adelbert ( Bert ) Waldron, US Army, the top scoring sniper for the war. All of them no doubt had more kills than was recorded and confirmed.
 
Before the movie "Sniper" came out in 1993 most soldiers hated snipers. They ate alone, slept alone and were generally treated as spooky psychos. I doubt its changed much. When Mr. Mawhinney got back he mentioned what he did over there and suddenly nobody would talk to him anymore. So he stopped telling folks. Thinking snipers are cool is really a new thing. I didn't get a chance to meet Mr. Hawhinney but his kid Donny and my wife grew up together.
 

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