The Cross: One Shot, One Kill

I am Thap tu gia--the Cross.

Con Thien Village, Vietnam, 1964

My heart rate is slowing. My breathing is shallow but even. My finger is gentle on the cool metal trigger. There is a trickle of sweat above my brow, but my senses intensify to my surroundings. My body fills with a familiar sensation, like the arrival of a lost companion to comfort me. Now I feel complete.

As with each of my kills, I will leave a small wooden cross with a single strip of leather fastening the two sections. I leave it as a warning, a message that Marine snipers own the jungle and they, the VC, are renters who are facing eviction.

This same message will appear with each of those selected in my new mission.

I'm nearly nineteen years old, a kid and a Marine lacking longevity in my new profession. With time, my talent will cultivate, flourish and I will become flawless like my brothers before me. At the end of four years, I will have eliminated over 130 enemies and my soul will secure my secrets forever.

I am a Marine sniper. A silent killer of men. I am "Swift, Silent, and Deadly."

El Monte, California, 1970

My new war is eight thousand miles from Vietnam. This war rages in the confines of the greatest nation in the world. The war is against Americans who violate the American way with robbery, rape, and murder. Those who refuse to join their ranks fade into extinction, killed by one of their own.

They are ruthless and kill for no reason or logic. The only difference is that my new enemy wears khaki pants and a checkered-colored Pendleton shirt over sleeveless wife-beater T-shirts. Most have some form of tattooing to identify which "set" or gang they belong to. There are others who commit crimes of rape and murder, who are untouchable by the police. These are the animals that retain lawyers who earn hundreds of dollars to find a loophole in the law, freeing the guilty and damning the victim. If the police touch them, they are sued and reprimanded and face losing a job they love.

The Cross was known and feared in Vietnam. The enemy feared the night and day, knowing the Cross could be near and the sound of a single shot could take the life of someone near them. Now these animals will learn and understand the Cross has come home with a mission to the end.