13 Cent Killers: The 5th Marine Snipers in Vietnam | John Culbertson

13 Cent Killers: The 5th Marine Snipers in Vietnam | John Culbertson | John Misses the Bullseye

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13 Cent Killers: T...

	13 Cent Killers: The 5th Marine Snipers in Vietnam John Culbertson Presidio Press, 2003 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 27 reviews view larger image
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?It?s not easy to stay alive with a $1,000 bounty on your head.?

In 1967, a bullet cost thirteen cents, and no one gave Uncle Sam a bigger bang for his buck than the 5th Marine Regiment Sniper Platoon. So feared were these lethal marksmen that the Viet Cong offered huge rewards for killing them. Now noted Vietnam author John J. Culbertson, a former 5th Marine sniper himself, presents the riveting true stories of young Americans who fought with bolt rifles and bounties on their heads during the fiercest combat of the war, from 1967 through the desperate Tet battle for Hue in early ?68.

In spotter/shooter pairs, sniper teams accompanied battle-hardened Marine rifle companies like the 2/5 on patrols and combat missions. Whether fighting their way out of a Viet Cong ?kill zone? or battling superior numbers of NVA crack troops, the sniper teams were at the cutting edge in the art of jungle warfare, showing the patience, stealth, combat marksmanship, and raw courage that made the unit the most decorated regimental sniper platoon in the Vietnam War. Harrowing and unforgettable, these accounts pay tribute to the heroes who made the greatest sacrifice of all?and leave no doubt that among 5th Marine snipers uncommon valor was truly a common virtue.

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Perpetuates silly stereotypes and firearms myths

I am not an authority on Vietnam, but I am an avid hunter and competitive rifle shooter. Many of the details in this text are wildly inaccurate and more fitting for a hollywood b-movie than a book that claims to be historical. Just one example is the reference to Vietnamese soldiers being lifted off their feet and thrown backwards through the air by .308 or .30-06 rounds. This claim and many others like it are laughable to anyone who knows anything about firearms. Mr. Culbertson needs to stop watching re-runs of "The A-team" and research his facts, or else drop the pretense that he is writing history.

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John Misses the Bullseye

This book falls far short of it's target. While Culbertson was an in-country player and is writing as part of this elite group, his style is very melodramatic and jingolistic. I've had to roll my eyes John's many attempts to paint the 5th Marine Snipers as yah yah heroistic types and the bad guys as the incarnate of evil.

He gives some good info on rifles and ammo but continues to repeat this info throughout the book and I guess he needs to fill white space with this unnecessary additional information.

The author comes across as a narrow-minded, stuck in the mud, stereo-typing jarhead. He describes the Vietnamese as sneaky blah blah blah dirty Communists who were more likely trying to rid their country of the Americans as they had with the French, Japanese and Chinese. I find it distasteful to describe the 5th Marine Snipers as killers/murders who fought for the exitement of the hunt. If a human life and the sacrifice these people gave for their country is worth only 13 Cents, then the value of this book is far less. There are better books about those who fought but this is not one of them.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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