MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii -- Time and again he's had to deal with the question. Usually, he says, it's a question that a well-meaning civilian asks, maybe a high school buddy he bumped into on leave at the local watering hole back home in Cary, N.C., a cousin at a family barbeque, or the checkout cashier at the local Walmart. If they know he's a Marine, they might ask. If they know he is an Iraq veteran, they'll probably ask. If they know he's a scout sniper, they'll definitely ask.
And, of course, there are the children. The children will always ask. That doesn't bother him so much though. He probably would have asked, too, when he was a kid.
Though the presentation of the question may vary, the question itself does not. It is always the same: "Have you ever killed anyone?"
Nearly seven years ago, a recruiter in Raleigh, N.C., probably had little inclination that he was about to make the cold call of a lifetime when he dialed the home of Enloe High School senior Chad Hoakison. As soon as Hoakison hung up the phone, he got in his car and drove to the recruiting station where he enlisted as a rifleman in the Marine Corps.
"It was probably the easiest recruiting job in the history of the Marine Corps," laughed Hoakison as he affectionately cleaned his M40-A3 sniper rifle in between missions outside of Asadabad, Afghanistan, with an obsession bordering on what some may interpret as love. (He does, after all, unashamedly refer to his rifle as "Sweet Mariah.") "I think I made that recruiter's day. But the truth was, even though I'd never talked to a recruiter before, I had always thought about joining the Marine Corps. I can remember going down to Jacksonville, North Carolina, when I was a kid and seeing the Marines run in 'boots and utes' formations. It always stuck with me. They seemed so tough, and I can remember thinking they looked like they could do anything. I knew I wanted to be like that some day."
Now Hoakison is like that - and then some. After completing his first enlistment as a rifleman and member of the Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team in Yorktown, Va., Hoakison was up for another challenge when the time for his second enlistment came around four years later. It was then that he decided to become a scout sniper.
"Just being a Marine in and of itself is elite," said Hoakison. "But I wanted to be among the elite of the elite. I wanted another challenge, so I signed up to be a sniper."
As Hoakison said he was to later find out, signing up to be a sniper is one thing, while actually making it through sniper school is an entirely different matter.
"Sniper school was brutal," commented Hoakison. "Just calling it tough doesn't do it justice. It is one of the most challenging courses the Marine Corps offers, both mentally and physically. A lot of Marines don't make it through. You have got to really want it, and you've got to have the desire to keep going when every fiber of your sanity is telling you to stop. When your brain is telling you that it's just not worth it and your body is on the threshold of collapse, the only thing I can think of that separates the guys who make it from the ones who don't is willpower."
As Hoakison was to find out; however, graduating from sniper school was merely the first hurdle in a series of challenging schools.
"Graduating sniper school is like graduating boot camp - except you become a basically trained sniper instead of a basically trained Marine," explained Hoakison. "As any Marine knows, the real test comes later - in advanced schools and in actual combat."
Hoakison has had his taste of both, having subsequently graduated from the Urban Sniper Course, the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Course and the Advanced Sniper Course, in addition to having served a combat tour as a sniper in Iraq with 1/3.
"I'm proud to be able to say I served on both battlefields of the War on Terror - Iraq and Afghanistan," said Hoakison. "Iraq gets all the media attention, but it wasn't any harder or easier there than it is in Afghanistan - just different. In Iraq, it was hot and there was a lot of urban fighting. Here we are fighting in the mountains, and it's cold. It's the same principle - kill or be killed."
Still, despite the dangers inherent in being stationed in a combat zone, Hoakison is quick to point out that the average citizen, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, appears to be thankful for the presence of U.S. and coalition forces.
"We are not fighting against the people, we are fighting for the people, and the overwhelming majority of them know this and are openly happy when they see us," commented Hoakison. "They'll invite us in for tea, and we can often gather intelligence from talking with the locals about where the ACM (Anti-Coalition Militia) and other insurgents are hiding. They want the bad guys out of their country as much as we do."
According to the scout snipers who serve with Hoakison, no Marine is more committed to completing that mission than Hoakison himself.
"He's a true believer," said Cpl. Seth Algrim, a mortarman, 1/3, by trade who now serves as Hoakison's observer. "He believes in what we're doing, he believes the people of Iraq and Afghanistan deserve to be free, he believes were going to win this war, he believes in his fellow Marines and fellow snipers, and most importantly, as far as I'm concerned, he believes he's going to make every single shot he takes."
According to Algrim, that belief is based more on fact than on faith.
"He truly is an amazing shot," said the Garden City, Kan., native. "Just the other day during target practice he put three rounds through the exact same spot at 100 meters. Three shots - one hole. He can flat out get it done. My confidence in him is unshakeable."
Both his peers and superiors apparently share that confidence in Hoakison's ability equally.
"One of the hardest parts of being a scout sniper is living up to the hype," said Sgt. Dale Nissen, scout sniper, 1/3, from Omaha, Neb. "Sergeant Hoakison lives up to the hype - and then some."
"He's just an outstanding Marine and an outstanding sniper, no two ways about it," added Staff Sgt. Andrew Giermann, scout sniper platoon sergeant, 1/3, from Bloomington, Ill. "He's all about the Marine Corps and he's all about being a scout sniper. He does his job right, all the time, every time."
And that is good news as far as the infantry Marines in 1/3's line companies are concerned.
"The snipers are like a guardian over-watch for the grunts," said Gunnery Sgt. Paul Davis, company gunnery sergeant for Charlie Company, 1/3. "With the high ground here they can maneuver quickly within their teams and provide real good accurate long-range cover for us. They take care of business," admitted the Laurens, S.C. native.
According to 1st Lt. James Campbell, scout sniper platoon commander, 1/3, and officer-in-charge of Camp Blessing, Hoakison is one of the best scout snipers he has ever seen.
"Sergeant Hoakison is one of the most tactically and technically proficient Marines that I've met, regardless of rank or job title," said Campbell, a native of Newburgh, Ind. "He's got great attention to detail, great initiative, and a deep sense of mission accomplishment. He's a tremendous shot, but even more than that, he's a true warrior. He's one of those Marines that need very little guidance, and he'll go out and execute a flawless mission."
According to Hoakison, however, his most flawless mission occurred not in the streets of Fallujah or in the mountains of Afghanistan, but rather back home in the tranquility of North Carolina.
"That's where I won my girl's heart," said Hoakison, referring to his fiancée, Leigh Gilbert, who, like Hoakison, also hails from Cary. "We're going to have a fall wedding when all this is said and done. Her support, my family's support, and the support of my sniper team - Corporal's Eric Sanchez (Haskell, Texas) and Seth Algrim and Lance Corporal John Malovrh (Medford, Wisc.) - have meant more to me than I can ever say. I'm grateful to all of them."