Posted on 08/28/2004 2:59:06 PM PDT by NavySEAL F-16
Proceedings: Next comes the inevitable question. Over the past six years, what fallout have you felt from the suicide of Admiral Boorda?
Hackworth: Well, May the 16th will never go away in my mind, for all my life. That the story I was about to write may have caused someone to commit suicide was shattering. And then the flak I took as a result of that was shattering as well.
Proceedings: What sort of flak did you take?
Hackworth: I took a lot of flak at work. I was gagged. I was not to speak about it. But I refused to go along with that. To my boss I said, "Look, if [radio talk show host Don] Imus or anyone else calls me, I'm going to tell them my point of view, rather than your institutional point of view." That got me in serious trouble.
Proceedings: At Newsweek?
Hackworth: At Newsweek. Then I took an enormous lot of flak in about 1,000 e-mails in 24 hours. Luckily, my son was here, and he and I processed and answered every one of them, which actually brought us closer together. It was probably the hardest time of my life, mostly in not knowing the truth. When I look back on it, through the perspective of distance, I ask myself how the system could produce someone of that high rank, who is that unstable.
The irony was this: on the 15th, I had surgery. The appointment with Admiral Boorda was set for the 16th. My doc told me on the 15th, "No way are you going to fly tomorrow." So I called [investigative journalist] Roger Charles and told him I wasn't going to be able to make it. The bureau chief of Newsweek [Evan Thomas] was going with him, so I thought I'd brief Roger on what I was planning to do. The last question was going to come as I pulled a photo of Admiral Boorda from my briefcase. I think it was the April edition of Defense Weekly, which showed him with the Combat V. I wanted to get Roger geared up to ask, "What's the story with the 'V' here?"
Proceedings: It was pinned to his Navy Achievement Medal, wasn't it?
Hackworth: Yes, it was. I thought Boorda would say, "That's a stock photo, silly. It was taken four years ago. I took the V off a year ago." We knew he'd taken the V off for a year. Roger had done the Freedom of Information Act stuff, and we had his files. So then it would have been no story. And I expected him to say, "Get out of my office, I'm running a navy here." Right?
As it turned out, Evan Thomas was the one who went. And instead of taking Roger, he took John Barry, the magazine's defense guy, probably because Roger wasn't a Newsweek guy. So Evan Thomas and John Barry were waiting in the office for Boorda, and I could fly in the next day. Boorda had agreed to the interview because he was told I was coming. I'm sure he thought, "Well, Hack's a salty guy and I'm a salty guy. We'll tell some war stories and that'll be the end of it." But then, suddenly, maybe in his paranoia or depression or whatever, he realizes he's got two big-time journalists marching into his office, and he won't be able to war-story his way out of it. I don't know.
Because I was trying to find out the truth, I later spoke to his sister, who told me he had been receiving out-of-Navy medical assistance for three years for depression.
Even so, to me this didn't make sense, when all he had to do was say that the photo—the only evidence we had—was a stock thing. The great irony of this whole story was, when I saw the photograph, I called my boss—the editor, Maynard Parker—and said, "Maynard, I want to try to get this photo. I've checked with the photographer, and he'll give me a copy and tell me when he took it."
He said, "Great."
"But," I told him, "he wants $500."
And Maynard said, "I'm not paying that for a photo!" But for $500 we would have known the story behind the photo beforehand, and we wouldn't have asked for the interview.
Proceedings: Admiral Boorda was getting pounded from many other directions, too.
Hackworth: Pounded by the Navy.
Proceedings: He was the enlisted man's admiral. He was the first non-Naval Academy officer to be CNO.
Hackworth: I admired that aspect of him
Hackworth blames Boorda. Interesting in the perspective that Boorda was proven correct in his belief that he was entitled to wear his Combat V.
Hackworth at his self-serving best.This interview also covers Hackworth's "Ranger" designation, and why he felt entitled to wear it, even though he wasn't a Ranger.
Hypocrite Hack rides again.
Hanitty will be there on Monday to lick Hackworth's faux medals of courage.
Hack needs to go sit down.
Hackworth, new orders. Meds. Now.
Is Hackworth the guy who wrote, "Soldier"?
Hackworth is a hypocrite, he won't say a word about Kerry's medals, or about his testimoney before congress while the POWs were being tortured.
STFU and go sit in the corner!
I loaned Hackworth's autobiography to a Korea war era tanker friend of mine, thinking he might find Hack's Korea story interesting, and he almost threw it at me when he returned it after finishing only the first chapter. Chapter 1 has Hackworth jumping up on top of a moving tank during a firefight, Hackworth pounding on the hatch, the commander opening the hatch in response to Hack's knocking, and then Hackworth and the tank commander conversing under machine gun fire. My Sherman/Patton tank commander buddy says all of the foregoing was materially impossible, implausible, and/or stupid. Hack apparently has some explaining of his own to do, if anyone wanted to waste the time to call him out.
Gawd how I detest that guy...(but am grateful for his service--I detest Aaron Burr also, but am grateful for his service as well).
Hackworth's autobiography is entitled "About Face." I thought it was an interesting look at a life spent in the US Army, but to a knowlegable insider it appears to be a less than completely true and accurate story. To my everlasting disgrace I never served in the military and didn't see the obvious B.S.
Burr had least had the decency to die.
"Hackworth is a hypocrite, he won't say a word about Kerry's medals, or about his testimoney before congress while the POWs were being tortured."
I used to enjoy Hacks comment's before I started to dislike them.--> http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39994
It's always about Hack... isn't it Hack?... One of the most decorated living Americans...if not the most decorated living combat veteran
A self promoter.....sigh...
imo
I think Hack had to stop using that in the last couple of years. It's been made very plain to Hack that the Army does not keep track of "who has the most medals".
THE ARMY DOESN'T KNOW, but I keep forgetting this is about Hack, not the truth.
That would work.
Hackworth is worthless pond scum who brags his own stinking ass up as America's most decorated soldier. (he & Kerry have a lot in common with all this self braggadocio and glorification. Hackworth and his gang of Kerry's drove Boorda, an honorable man to commit suicide.
Now we presently have a much worse example in Kerry who puts a V for valor onto his silver star. What does the Hack do, he attacks the SBVfT for daring expose Kerry, Hackworth's phony hero .
Why doesn't Hackworth do the honorable thing himself, oh, I forgot, he has no honor.
Hackworth has gone AWOL for the election cycle.
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