[Nonstatist]

senior staff weenie wannabe-warriors back in the rear with all the gear – straphangers who are into cluttering up battlefields such as Iraq mainly for the braggin' rights.

I never know what this guy is talking about half the time.

[joesnuffy]

Iraq isn't for tourists

Posted: December 2, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2003 David H. Hackworth

George Bush hit the mark when he visited our troops
in Iraq on Turkey Day. He's the Main Man, and his
daring and dangerous trip told our warriors he cared
and was with them all the way.

Commanders – and especially the commander in chief
– inspire soldiers, and it's their duty to beat feet to
the front whenever they can. But not senior staff
weenie wannabe-warriors back in the rear with all
the gear – straphangers who are into cluttering up
battlefields such as Iraq mainly for the braggin' rights.

Such visits usually balloon into a bloody waste of
commander and staff time, as the folks running the
combat show are ripped away from their primary
purpose of leading their units to lay on fancy
briefings that inevitably involve rehearsals,
pre-inspections and visits to subordinate units. We're
talking literally hundreds if not thousands of soldiers
setting war-fighting aside to jump through irrelevant,
costly, got-to-get-things-shaped-up hoops.

Not to mention the misuse of critical assets needed to
hunt down guerrillas – helicopters and airplanes
assigned to move the VIPs around, as well as the
soldiers and combat gear seconded to secure the
stops along the scenic route.

Staffers in every fighting division in Iraq have
complained to me that there are just too many visiting
firemen sashaying around Iraq these days on
ego-driven trips that accomplish nothing except to put
our troops at additional risk and interfere with their
ability to perform critical combat jobs.

Take, for example, the November visit to Iraq of the
Army's top Pentagon lawyer, Maj. Gen. Thomas J.
Romig, accompanied by three personal staffers.
According to the Pentagon, the purpose of his trip
was "To assess the provision of legal services, look at
integration of RC (Reserve Component) soldiers in
our operations, talk with commanders, look at both
traditional and nontraditional legal issues, gather
lessons learned ... and check on the status of our
soldiers and our equipment."

Sounds cricket. But lawyers can always figure out the
right words to fit almost any agenda. Romig's case
for his trip to a guerrilla battlefield was that he had
"nearly 400 JAG (legal beagles) personnel – officer,
enlisted, warrant officer, both active and reserve
component – in Iraq."

With senior generals in both the Pentagon and Iraq
blessing the mission, the Army's top judge slipped on
his combat gear and flew off to play at war games to
the sounds of real guns.

But on Nov. 7, Romig's combat mission turned into a
nightmare when one of the two Black Hawk
helicopters transporting him and his posse was blown
out of the sky. Romig's assistants Chief Warrant
Officer Sharon T. Swartworth and Sgt. Maj. Cornell
W. Gilmore were killed along with the entire Black
Hawk crew – Capt. Benedict J. Smith, Chief Warrant
Officer Kyran E. Kennnedy and Sgts. Paul M. Neff
and Scott C. Rose.

The deaths of these fine soldiers demand answers to
the following questions:

Was this trip necessary, and who exactly
approved it at the Pentagon and in Iraq?

Why was the helicopter that got shot down
flying in a straight line at an altitude of about
250 feet over an area known to harbor
rocket-toting guerrillas?

Why did Romig require two Black Hawks for
his party of four when one can carry 10
combat-loaded grunts?

When a Pentagon staffer tried to equivocate and told
me it was "to spread the risk," I couldn't help laughing
out loud.

"Spread the risk, my butt," I told him. "And stop
trying to BS me. The second chopper had a warrant
officer and a sergeant on board, not two more
generals."

Then I told him what I'd already heard from my
sources – that "the general required two choppers
because he and his staff had so much baggage."

Well, my bet is Maj. Gen. Romig will be toting the
baggage from this disaster for the rest of his life.
After all, he and the generals who approved his
boondoggle – and who should know better – are
responsible for six soldiers dying.

Iraq isn't a Disneyland Middle East fun destination
for high-ranking tourists looking to play paint ball.

As George Bush reminded us on Thanksgiving by the
extremely cautious way in which he went about his
rightful duty, Iraq is presently one of the most
perilous places in the world.




Col. David H. Hackworth, author of his new best-selling
"Steel My Soldiers' Hearts," "Price of Honor" and "About
Face," has seen duty or reported as a sailor, soldier and
military correspondent in nearly a dozen wars and
conflicts – from the end of World War II to the recent
fights against international terrorism.

[Destructor]

Well now I've seen it all. "Hack" praising George Bush. Imagine that!

[Allan]

Bump

[bvw]

Good points ... The Commander at the field is good, others best be there for a reason, that reason being the same as why the fighters are there. IOW, if somone has a chance to go there and is not sure why -- don't.

[Chummy]

Commander-in-Chief Bush serving our troops, mixing with them, boosting their morale, this is an heroic act if not on an exact par with the sight of Washington on his white horse in the camps, then certainly very close.

[joesnuffy]

Pogue warriors...interjecting themselves into combat ops in order to get air medals and CIBs
with the minimum amount of danger to themselves and regardless of the danger they put others in upon whose straps they cling..

[BlueNgold]

Note that the President did not 'go to the front' or insist on helo rides to 'survey the action'. He went to deliver a message to the troops, Period. If these staff hacks want or need to visit fine, there is some room for that, but a JAG has no business outside the HQ. You can't lead from the front unless you're in the warrior business, apologies to all of the fine staff personnel - logistics and admin support are crucial, but facts are facts. The natural caveat is that if you are NOT a shooter you have NO BUSINESS at the front. The old saying goes that there are no athiests in fox holes ... neither are there any non-combatants, or at least there shouldn't be.

[elli1]

and that includes the princess & her poodle.

BTW, how much did that Grand Tour cost US taxpayers?

[xzins]

Been a while since Hack said anything nice about Bush, or about the war, or about....anything.

I think he was off his geritol for a while. Must've gotten a refill.

He's dead on, though, with his comment about a chopper at 250 feet flying straightline flight. That's a prescription for death. The closer to the deck, the safer you are. Nap of earth (especially in a chinook...not so bad in a blackhawk) will make you puke, but pukin's better than dead.

[Gritty]

George Bush hit the mark when he visited our troops in Iraq on Turkey Day

Egads, I hate that expression "Turkey Day"!

It's an insult to the very meaning of the holiday, which is certainly not to celebrate turkeys or even celebrate eating them. It also dilutes the real meaning, much like saying "Have a Happy Holiday" instead of saying "Merry Christmas!".

Hackworth is a turkey for saying it that way, as is everybody else who does it.

[Faraday]

IMO, Hackworth is a disgrace. From the autobiographical military history, In the Company of Heroes, by Michael J. Durant (CWO4, Ret.), Night Stalker pilot and POW in Mogadishu, p. 351:

I was stunned and infuriated when self-described military hero Colonel David Hackworth attacked me in the press.

He accused me not only of "ersatz" heroism but of having spilled my guts to the enemy while in captivity--without any substantiating information to back up his claim. I didn't mind people speaking their piece, but Hackworth had sent letters to the editors of my hometown newspapers in both Clarkville, Tennessee, and Berlin, New Hampshire.

I had no idea what had spurred this very personal attack, but I was infuriated. At the time, had I run into him, I would have choked him. I responded to his rantings with my own letter to the editor, wondering why a man who considered himself a fine example of military leadership would chastise a fellow soldier in public, and challenged him to debate the issue. Shortly afterward, I received a postcard from Hackworth, claiming that he "didn't have the time" to discuss it with me. I was furious. He clearly had the time to rip me apart in public, but not to face me man-to-man.

Yet when things like this happened, I could only assume that some men could only bolster their self-worth by diminishing the deeds of others. I did not consider myself a hero, just a soldier who had done his best under difficult circumstances. Most of the true heroes I had ever known were dead. The rest of us were just survivors with medals.

[redrock]

Col. Hackworth's view of President Bush's visit is right on the money...as is the rest of the article.

Hackworth ALWAYS tries to view the world from the vantage point of the common soldier...which has sometimes gotten him into 'trouble' with some.

He has earned the right to speak out...(unlike many).

redrock