Chuck Mawhinney whose ability to crawl through the dense jungle and overgrown elephant grass of South Vietnam and then wait for hours with his scoped rifle to kill an enemy soldier made him the sharpest sniper in Marine Corps history . He died on February 12 in Baker City, a town in the northeastern corner of Oregon.
Chuck Mawhinney, whose ability to crawl through the dense jungle and overgrown elephant grass of South Vietnam and then wait for hours with his scoped rifle to kill an enemy soldier made him the sharpest sniper in Marine Corps history Is. He died on February 12 in Baker City, a town in the northeastern corner of Oregon. He was 74 years old.
According to the New York Times, his death was announced by Coles Funeral Home in Baker City. Apart from this no other information is available.
Mawhinney, who served in Vietnam from May 1968 to March 1970, had 103 confirmed kills and another 216 probable kills, an average of about four per week – more than the average company, which consisted of about 150 soldiers.
Among American military snipers, only Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL who served in Iraq and had 160 confirmed kills, and Adelbert Waldron, an Army sniper with 109 kills during the Vietnam War, had more kills than Mawhinney.
As a sniper, Mawhinney played many roles. He would stay awake the whole night with his rifle and night scope and keep an eye on the perimeter of any camp for infiltration. He used to go out on patrol with other marines, and was ready to face any firing if there was any.
Most of his kills occurred slowly, waiting for hours for a shot to be fired from his bolt-action M40. But on the night of February 14, 1969, some explosions occurred. Mawhinney observed a group of North Vietnamese soldiers crossing a shallow river near Da Nang, moving toward a Marine encampment. He started firing and in 30 seconds he killed 16 and the rest retreated.
Mawhinney grew up in rural eastern Oregon and learned shooting from his maternal grandfather. He was fond of deer hunting and would spend several days in the forest, camping there and stalking his prey until he found it. This was excellent training for his wartime future.
He didn’t like killing, he said, but he accepted it as an important part of keeping his fellow Marines safe.
“I did what I was trained to do,” he told The Los Angeles Times in 2000.
When one of his commanders posted a sniper leaderboard in his camp, ranking each man by his number of kills, Mawhinney protested. It’s distasteful, he said, and worse, it could encourage people to take deadly risks in the name of competition.
Charles Benjamin Mawhinney was born on February 23, 1949 in Lakeview, Oregon, the son of Charles and Beulah (Franz) Mawhinney. His father served in the Marines, fighting in the Pacific theater during World War II.
After graduating from high school in 1967, Chuck wanted to become a Navy pilot.
The Marines had not had dedicated snipers since World War II, but by 1967 the Corps had changed its mind.
Mawhinney was among the first to complete the new Scout Sniper School at Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps installation in Southern California. He graduated at the top of his class.
