We’ve had a book from about everyone by now. Thankfully a lot of Vietnam vets have written their stories or provided their stories to a writer to help them make a book. I was really worried we would never get a bio of Chuck Mawhinney after Peter Senich died and took his work on Chuck’s bio with him to the grave. Last year though, Chuck allowed his old friend to write up his story for us.

As most of my readers know, Chuck had the most recorded kills of the war among the Marines. Recorded anyway. I’m sure he had more unconfirmed. As Carlos Hathcock had a probably 300 some kills unconfirmed but only 93 confirmed. While not as famous as Carlos until more recently because he went back to his life in post war and didn’t tell anymore until a dude named Joseph T Ward wrote a memoir about his time as a sniper and described Chuck as he was Chuck’s spotter for a while. When the book came out, many authorities didn’t even believe Chuck was real. Understandable because Ward’s book is full of some real doozies. I recall Ward talking about a VC sniper who made kills at 900 yards with an M1 carbine. Never mind some of the absolute bullshit claims Ward made about himself. Chuck was proven real when Peter Senich confirmed not only was he real but was actually accurately described by Ward in the book. Probably the only think Ward was honest about in the book in my opinion.

If you don’t know, Senich was THE authority on US Sniping History. He wrote several books that I have used as sources for articles many times. As I already mention though, Senich passed away while in the middle of writing Chuck’s story some years ago. This is mentioned in The Sniper though not by name, I only know it was Senich because his project was mentioned in Precision Shooting and The Accurate Rifle several times as well as some short form articles about Mawhinney by Senich before he died.

Anyways. Last year this bio came out and luckily Chuck was able to see it before dying early this very year. After being “outed ” by Ward he was sought out by gun culture and writers and other people and Chuck got the legit recognition he deserves.

The book is written in the same style as Carlos Hathcock’s book, Marine Sniper, If you liked that style you will like this. Chuck was a lot more of a little hellion that Carlos was as a kid and those stories are very amusing.

“Greatest Marine marksman”? Ehhh… Chuck deserves the highest respect and admiration for his skill as a rifleman and a sniper. But if we want to get into being pedantic.. He had the most recorded confirmed kills. Carlos is a close 3rd place with Eric England having 98 confirmed kills but some of Carlos’ kills had near strategic level consequences. An NVA general for instance. I won’t even mention his local impact on the area he operated in. Last but not least, Carlos was the winner of the 1000 yard match at Camp Perry, the Wimbledon Cup match. Could Chuck have achieved that? Maybe if he had been on the shooting team and had the chance. More importantly, Chuck was a natural field shooter. Something that matters more. Not that Carlos wasn’t, Carlos was also a superb competition shooter. I don’t know a lot bout Eric England but he was much admired by Hathcock who knew him. We will revisit the subject of England shortly.

You should pick this book up if the subject interests you. Mawhinney was a very humble man who definitely was one of the finest this dying country has ever produced.