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David Hackworth, straight-shooting military analyst
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by Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press
May 5, 2005
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Retired Army Col. David Hackworth, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who spoke out against the war and later became a journalist and advocate for military reform, has died, his wife said Thursday. He was 74.
Hackworth died Wednesday in Tijuana, Mexico, where he was receiving treatment for bladder cancer. He lived with his wife in Greenwich.It's always interesting what details get "left out." Either the reporter is unaware or Associated Press doesn't think it's noteworthy that, according to Hackworth's website, he was killed by "a form of cancer now appearing with increasing frequency among Vietnam veterans exposed to the defoliants called Agents Orange and Blue."
Quite possibly, then, Hackworth was himself yet another casualty of the war he fought brilliantly, then spoke against.=H&HH=
A Newsweek correspondent during the Gulf War, Hackworth worked in recent years as a syndicated columnist for King Features, often criticizing the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war.
"Most combat vets pick their fights carefully. They look at their scars, remember the madness and are always mindful of the fallout," Hackworth wrote in February. "That's not the case in Washington, where the White House and the Pentagon are run by civilians who have never sweated it out on a battlefield."
Hackworth ignited a national debate last year when he reported that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld used a machine to sign condolence letters sent to the families of fallen soldiers. Rumsfeld later promised to sign each letter by hand.
"Hack never lost his focus," said Roger Charles, president of Soldiers for the Truth, a California-based veterans group that Hackworth chaired. "That focus was on the
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Commentary:
My Friend
David Hackworth:
Col. David Hackworth was someone I frequently corresponded with, someone I
respected and admired immensely. Someone who went against the grain and
told them go to hell.
Hack was braver at fourteen than all the salty old
armchair generals combined.
And as busy as he was in his 70s, he would always take a
minute to answer my emails. He knew how I felt about the war in Iraq, he
knew how I felt about all wars, and believe me I let him know.
But even
though he himself was never in favor of the invasion of Iraq he always
wrote back reminding me not to take it out on the grunts. He told me to
make sure I let the big guys in Washington, the ones who put them there,
know how pissed I was.
He always told me that soldiers need the full
support of the people at home, but he just didn't see that happening in
the current situation.
I will miss you, Hack! RIP.
=Kathy Fisher=
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young kids that our country sends to bleed and die on our behalf. Everything he did in his retirement was to try to give them a better chance to win and to come home. That's one hell of a legacy."
Orphaned before he was a year old, Hackworth was raised in California by his grandmother and in foster homes. He became a merchant marine at the age of 14 and lied about his age to join the Army in 1946 when he was 15.
Hackworth gained a reputation for blunt talk when, as |
Commentary:
Like millions of Americans, we have long respected and admired Col. Hackworth's unique position in American politics. He went into the military, performed his assigned duties with distinc-tion, and then spoke bluntly and honestly from his depth of "inside knowledge."
As we've inserted into AP's obituary, Hackworth was quite possibly a casualty of the Vietnam War. And we'd like to add two more observations which have been overlooked in this and other obituaries of Hackworth.
First, and most obviously, he died receiving cancer therapy in Mexico. What this means, almost certainly, is that he was receiving treatments that would have been illegal in America. The notion that a dying American war hero had to leave his country to receive the medical treatment he wanted is, like every other aspect of drug prohibition, shameful to America. It ought to be disgusting to anyone anywhere who believes in freedom.
A lastly, we notice that in his work as a syndicated columnist, Hackworth met the deadline for his May 2 column -- three days before his death -- with a typically kick-ass rebuke to a high-ranking Marine. In what we assume will be his final column (written, a footnote tells us, with the help of his wife) Hackworth told Lt. Gen. John E. Sattler that his "flunkies are blowing smoke -- and lots of it -- up your cammie trousers."
Col. Hackworth was a trooper, and the very best kind of trooper, until the end.
We sincerely hope Hackworth's death, and especially his life, will inspire others to speak truth to power.
=H&HH=
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a teenage private in Italy, he told Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, "The chow stinks."
At 40 he became the youngest full colonel in Vietnam, where he served for nearly six years. He won some 80 medals in his career, including two Distinguished Service Crosses, 10 Silver Stars and eight Purple Hearts.
His unsparing criticism of tactics and doctrine continued throughout his 25-year career. It culminated in 1971 when he appeared on ABC's Issues and Answers show. He told a national television audience that the Army's Vietnam tactics were not unlike the food he had in Italy.
It was one of the first times a senior officer had publicly spoken out against the Vietnam War, and the Army unceremoniously retired the man who had been told a few months earlier that he was virtually assured promotion to brigadier general.
"I was brokenhearted because the Army was my family," he told The Associated Press in 1990. "I loved it."
He gave up his medals in protest and moved to Australia, where he made millions in a restaurant business and a duck farm.
His medals were reissued by Brig. Gen. John Howard in the 1980s and he returned to the United States around the time he published his best-selling autobiography, "About Face."
"Writing the book had driven the devil out of me," he said. "I was able to heal myself."
He decided to channel his energy into pushing for reforms and streamlining the military, saying "the American people are tired of being ripped off."
Hackworth's other books include The Vietnam Primer and Hazardous Duty. His latest was Steel My Soldiers' Hearts.
He came under fire because of his role in a 1996 Newsweek investigation of whether Adm. Michael Boorda wore medals for valor that he did not deserve. Boorda, the Navy's top admiral, committed suicide rather than face disgrace, and some in the Pentagon blamed Hackworth.
Then, CBS reported that Hackworth may have worn a "Ranger" tab he did not earn. An audit by the Army's chief of awards and decorations, found he was issued the Ranger tab improperly, but that he should have been issued other medals and was not. There was no indication Hackworth wore any medals beyond those issued him by the Army.
He is survived by his wife of eight years, Eilhys England, a stepdaughter and four children from two earlier marriages, the family said.
As originally published
Another Open Letter to LTG Sattler
by David H. Hackworth, syndicated columnist
May 2, 2005
By David H. Hackworth
Lt. Gen. John E. Sattler
Commanding General,
I Marine Expeditionary Force
RE: March’s “Hack’s Target” column concerning the mistreatment of Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) Marines who’d completed active-duty tours and then re-upped to get shot at in Iraq as replacements under your command (“Open Letter to a Marine General,” DefenseWatch, March 21, 2005).
Regarding your response to that column, thanks for the kind words about my service and your ooh-rah for my -- and Soldiers for the Truth’s -- “concern for our young men and women who wear the uniform.”
Of course, I know your own reputation as a straight shooter who shares our concern for the troops. But frankly, general, some of your flunkies are blowing smoke -- and lots of it -- up your cammie trousers.
You state that your staff took an “impartial, matter-of-fact look into the unit’s promotions” and found only “administrative discrepancies.”
You ask, “Did we find evidence of malice and unfair promotion practices directed at Marines who selflessly volunteered to return to active service when their country called?” Your answer: an unqualified “Absolutely not!”
You are therefore being sent the names/billets of two of the principal -- unprincipled -- staff noncommissioned officers who were derelict in their duty to make sure the IRR Devil Dogs were welcomed aboard as full-fledged members of the “Band of Brothers” instead of being treated like Cinderfellas.
And I’m sure you’d agree that any inquiry truly in search of the truth would at the very least include interviews with the alleged victims. Yet out of a half-dozen IRR troopers, not one was questioned. And they don’t think any of the others were, either.
So here’s hard evidence to support the premeditated malice that’s been going down on your watch: Within the past two weeks, one IRR Marine went to the S-3 office of 3rd LAR [Light Armored Reconnaissance] Battalion and easily located a copy of his company’s Physical Fitness Test administered before the battalion deployed to Iraq, including his name and score. A score that the company first sergeant claimed didn’t exist -- accounting for the “zero” carried in the official record. Malicious? Well, no Marine can be promoted without a current PFT score.
You make the point that your inquiry “found no plausible motive for anyone within I MEF [First Marine Expeditionary Force] to sabotage the promotions of IRR Marines. There is no connection between promotion allocations and cutting scores for reserve personnel.”
Yet a company first sergeant called a meeting in Iraq solely to share his intent that none of the Reserve Marines in his company would be promoted on his watch because such promotions would count against the quotas for “real Marines.” And even after an affected Gyrene researched the promotion policy and tried to tell the first sergeant there was absolutely no connection between regular and IRR promotions, his righteous words fell on deaf ears.
Lt. Gen. Dennis McCarthy, commander of Marine Reserve Forces, also read my column and had his staff review “the entire IRR promotion system.” According to Col. Bob Braithwaite, Gen. McCarthy’s chief of staff, this review uncovered that “some individuals, particularly those activated and deployed in support of GWOT [Global War On Terrorism], may not have been given proper consideration for promotion due to administrative oversight. The unintended consequences of a new policy intended to increase promotion opportunity for our IRR Marines unfortunately resulted in some administrative confusion that appears to have temporarily penalized some of those Marines. We are taking proactive measures now to rectify those issues and will take care of our Marines.”
I urge you to follow his example and order another, more formal inquiry, particularly since these fine young warriors say they’re committed to making sure that any Reserve Marines who follow them don’t get the same short end of the stick.
As one of these stouthearted truth-tellers put it: “My first four years of active duty were with two battalions whose leaders went out of their way to help their Marines get everything they deserved to get, while 3rd LAR went out of their way to screw with us.” Another says: “This is just the tip of the iceberg. It's one stinking abuse after another in this unit.”
Apparently, your palace guard is telling you only what it thinks you want to hear -- and meanwhile those bad-apple sergeants are still wearing the Eagle, Globe & Anchor. For sure, some “remedial instruction” in Marine leadership is needed. Hopefully you are just the Marine general to make it happen.
Semper fidelis,
Hack Eilhys England contributed to this column.
As originally published
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