"wasn't Col. Hackworth one of the most, if not the most, decorated soldier in Vietname and the journalist who noticed that Boorda was wearing an incorrect decoration"
Hackworth was involved in the Borda story. I don't know if he actually broke it - but he was writing a story for Newsweek when Borda killed himself. I think Hackworth asked Borda for an interivew. Borda had been wearing a V-device on the Navy version of the ARCOM. He had clearly earned the award - but the device was in question. Did not seem like a really big deal. Ultimately, a Navy board decided that Borda was, in fact, authorized to wear the device. Too late for the admiral, however. Then somebody questioned the fact that Hackworth listed a Ranger tab as an award on his web site. Hackworth never went to the Q-course. Hackworth said that he thought earned the tab by being assigned to a "Ranger" unit in Korea. Hackworth had to pull the reference from his web site.
Hackworth was very award-conscious and listed all of his awards on a web site. He did earn a lot of awards and multiple purple hearts. He spent alot of time in "About Face" writing about his awards. All that being said, he served his country in WWII (as an underage merchant mariner), Korea and Vietnam and you've got to tip your hat to that.
Incorrect. Despite the Zumwalt, Clinton, Dalton, Boorda family spin to the contrary, Boorda was not and is still not entitled to wear the Combat V on either the Navy Achievement Medal or Navy Commendation Medal. So says the Board for Correction of Naval Records.