Snipers Sniping & Countering them

[researcher]

I'd be very interested in hearing from anyone who knew Waldron. I've been trying to find out more about this somewhat mysterious individual.

Waldron was from Syracuse, N.Y. On January 25, 1953 he joined the navy, which he left on July 27, 1965.

He enlisted in the Army on May 7, 1968, and was discharged March 16, 1970. For the last 9 months of his enlistment he was a Sniper Instructor at the Sniper School at Ft. Benning, GA.

LTC. Robert K. Brown, editor/publisher of Soldier of Fortune, wrote an article on Waldron called "Silent Death in Vietnam," which includes some after-action reports describing Waldron's activities. I believe this was published in the mid 1980s. For actions within the 3-month period of January 1969-March 1969, Waldron was not only awarded two DSCs but a Bronze Star and a Silver Star.

[Steve Blair]

One reason he may have faded from sight is the record of the 9th ID in that region during that time. Now, let's be VERY clear that I'm not saying Waldron did this, but the 9th under Ewell (the division commander at the time who also wrote "Sharpening the Combat Edge") had something of a history of padding its body counts (very out of balance ratios of weapons to bodies tends to raise an eyebrow...and it's interesting that in "Sharpening the Combat Edge" Ewell talks about KIA 'exchange ratios' as a measure of combat effectiveness but remains fairly silent about weapons captured). They did a lot of night operations which seemed to boil down to shooting anything that moved after dark (again, this is something of a generalization, but it is commented on in many sources including Krepenevitch's book on Vietnam and "Self Destruction"). I think John Paul Vann had some sharp words about the 9th ID's combat operations.

If he was being used to pad body counts, I could see where that might contribute to his estrangement.

[Rifleman]

I just picked up a book called More of the Deadliest Men Who Ever Lived by Paul Kirchner. The book has 33 chapters, each one devoted to a different person - often a cop or soldier - who proved deadly.

One of the chapters was devoted to Bert Waldron. This is the most extensive information I've seen yet on Waldron and it appears to be the most objective. Kirchner interviewed a former wife of Waldron, plus several people who served with Waldron.

In a nutshell: Waldron was an enigmatic man of contrasts. He appears to have been a good combat soldier, yet he had some disciplinary problems stateside and his chain of command asked him to accept an honorable discharge after one enlistment because they didn't want to discipline such a decorated soldier.

Waldron often lied and his habit of lying made some who encountered him think that everything about him must be BS. The odd thing was that he often lied even though the truth was impressive enough. For example, Waldron was the recipient of two DSCs, one Silver Star and three bronze stars; yet, Waldron once told someone that he had four Silver Stars and was going to be awarded the Medal of Honor.

Kirchner wasn't able to come up with a hard yea or nay on Waldron's official 109 confirmed kills. Kirchner interviewed one officer who served with Waldron who said that he "suspected" that kills made by Waldron's security element were sometimes added to Waldron's total. Yet there is quite a bit of credible informantion in the form of 9th ID after action reports and interviews with soldiers who served with him that Waldron was indeed an effective sniper who made quite a few legitimate confirmed kills and some impressive individual shots. Or, as I said in a previous post: He was a superb rifleman correctly empoyed in a target rich environment. At least that much does appear to be true even if it's impossible to be certain about the 109 confirmed kills at this point.

Kirchner never mentions Waldron doing time, so evidently the rumor that I'd heard and mentioned in my previous post isn't true; however, Kirchner says that the FBI was indeed keeping an eye on Waldron during the time he worked for WerBell.

Anyway, the book is an interesting read and not just for the chapter on Bert Waldron.