“THE SNIPER – The Untold Story of the Marine Corps’ Greatest Marksman of All Time”, by JimLindsay, Foreword by Chuck Mawhinney. St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Publishing Group:March 2023, 231 pages, 6” x 8 ½”, hardcover, $28.99, eBook $14.99. Visit, www.stmartins.com.What an incredible half-memoir, half biographical sketch of a soldier combining to add up toa classic narrative nonfiction tribute! Yes, classic, no doubt about it! For the first time ever, thefull story of the deadliest sniper in the history of the USMC, the field story of “Chuck”Mawhinney, is told via a writer and friend who befriended Chuck, then realized he had one-hell-of a story to tell. Young Mawhinney, serving in Vietnam at 18 (16 months of active duty),managed 103 confirmed kills, 216 probable kills, rivaling, if not surpassing, the best snipers,male or female, the Soviets were boasting about on the Eastern Front. “During his tours”,writes Lindsay, “in one of the most dangerous war zones of Vietnam, his character andcharisma helped him deal with life and death in a hellhole with other young men a long wayfrom home.”But all that is the merely the beginning of this deeply human story. After Vietnam, Chuckreturned to small-town life, married, and raised a family, content only a few friends and familyknew of his achievements. Then in 1991, he was startled and dismayed when outed by a fellowMarine sniper, Joseph Ward, who spoke of Mawhinney’s number of kills in his own book, “DearMom”. Newspapers picked up the story and Chuck’s life changed forever. The notorietytroubled him at first, but then he accepted the fame and used the opportunity to trainservicemen and lawmen in the art of accurate long-distance shooting. Here, “The Sniper” tellsthe full story of Chuck Mawhinney, who to this day downplays his uncanny killing skills andheroic exploits in battle when his country tried desperately to save a democratically orientedally in South Vietnam. Somberly, to his final days, Chuck can’t help but recall, consciously orpreconsciously, the toll of lives he took, even while momentarily asking the most terrible of alllife’s questions, “Your life, or mine?”.“IWO, 26 CHARLIE”, A Novel by P.T. Deutermann, author of the W.Y. Boyd Literary Award-winning “Pacific Glory”. St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Publishing Group: November 2023, 304pages, 6 ¼” x 9 ¾”, softcover, $29. Visit, www.stmartins.com.We all realize and understand that the Battle for Iwo Jima that sadly cost the lives ofthousands upon thousands of US Marines and Navy men was one the three pivotal, mostcrucial, fights of the Pacific War. The image of our boys raising the American flag atop Mt.Surabachi is unequivocally the iconic, most sacred, image of all World War II. Now, award-winning author, P.T. Deutermann, the author of “The Hooligans”, “The Nugget”, “Sentinels ofFire”, “The Commodore”, “Trial By Fire”, etc., provides us with a story so totally absorbing,thrilling, and powerful, we, too, have just landed there sweating out whether we’re going tolive, minute by minute, as shells and machine gun fire bombard and pelt us as we dash up thebeach, then try to claw and crawl into the black sand as bullets kill our closest buddies.P.T., the author, follows Lee Bishop, a young liaison officer who during the ferocious battle to
control the beaches, and therefore the entire island, is pulled from his station aboard the USS
Nevada to serve as an onshore spotter, calling in coordinates for the Nevada to target. Littledoes he know he will be subject to “hell one earth”, a time during which 26,000 USMC andArmy men are killed in a fight to the bitter end. No question about it, buff, “IWO, 26 CHARLIE” is
a dramatic, utterly authentic novel by an award-winning master of a great genre.
