To the end, colonel a man of the troops (DAVID H. HACKWORTH)

Boston.com ^ | May 30, 2005 | Bryan Bender

[Boston Blackie]

Tomorrow, the US military will lay to rest Colonel David H. Hackworth -- among its most decorated heroes of all time -- at Arlington National Cemetery.

The top brass is not expected to attend.

Hackworth's most enduring foe was not the communists he fought. He earned a a chestful of medals, including two Distinguished Service Medals, 10 Silver Stars, eight Bronze Stars, and eight Purple Hearts. His adversary became the US military bureaucracy, which he railed against for 30 years on grounds that it failed to put the troops first. He also opposed military action in Bosnia, Kosovo, and especially Iraq.

[Notwithstanding]

Is it your experience that a field grade officer normally gets a much more prestigious award for the same thing done by lower ranks? That's my experience - having processed hundreds of active duty Army award packets - and its generally acknowledged by those with active duty Army time under their belt.

Which is why I posed the question about whether Hackworth ever refused any of his medals. If he did not do so, then by the same criteria he applied to the actions of top brass he would have been a hypocrite.

In my original popst I actually posed a question, being very careful not to make a statement.

You have not answered it - you have just made blustering comments about a fellow O6.

[Notwithstanding]

And you should read #16 before making baseless assumptions about what I criticize. If anything, my posts support senior officers who suffered incessant and often baseless qvetching from Hackworth.

[Free Baptist]

We appreciate Hackworth's record...We are grateful Colonel, for your service to our nation. One problem, however, is that Hackworth (even in private communications with us in 1999) believed that our daughters should be just as subject to a military draft (if one is ever re-initiated) as our sons. My daughters are taught to use firearms, and they are patriotic enough to be willing to shoot at the enemy through the kitchen window, if an enemy is in the streets. But I would not allow my daughters to be drafted into the military. Hackworth was wrong in his position there, and I told him so. I still liked the man, and he was very polite and respectful in his replies to me. I don't think he considered that many "Christian" people are actually Bible-believers and Bible-literalists, and that includes how we honor and protect, and provide for our women in our homes.

[Notwithstanding]

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:sE2RyKJ1HVIJ:slate.msn.com/id/2381/sidebar/51012/+boorda+hackworth&hl=en

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:u_GR8QsTcxcJ:www.cnn.com/US/9705/16/hackworth/+boorda+hackworth&hl=en

[picti]

He was frequenctly wrong, often right, but never backed off from his advocacy for those at the bleeding tip of the spear. Unlike many he wore his medals in honor of those who earned them; the frontline warfighters. His disdain of ticket punchers and armchair 'warriors' was well placed -- read Stephen Ambrose's Citizen Soldiers for examples of it even in WWII. He will be missed.

[picti]

Would not a refusal to accept a decoration in the name of your command be also hypocritical.

[Notwithstanding]

This article by Slate sums up the hypocrisy of Hackworth.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2381/#sb51012

Hackworth's military career ended when court-martial charges were preferred against him - and it took the intervention of the Secretary of the Army to drop the charges (which people can logically speculate was done to avoid bad PR, not because the charges were not legitimate).

He was a first class hypocrite.

[Notwithstanding]

I was holding Hackworth to Hackworth's own standards for others (which are ridiculous standards in that the only one he thought lo\ived up to them was himself).

Apparently that was lost on you.

I think he nitpicked others unmercilessly to promote himself - like most 'journalists'.

Your question implies that I think anyone should be held to that standard - but I don't. I reserve that standard for the one who set it: Hackworth himself.

[JohnD9207]

After 20 years in the Army....I choose to Honor this Man because of this:


Military Awards



ENTITLEMENTS OF COL. DAVID H. HACKWORTH
(U.S. ARMY, RETIRED)

AWARDS & DECORATIONS
COLONEL DAVID H. HACKWORTH
(U.S. ARMY, RETIRED)




Individual Decorations & Service Medals:

Distinguished Service Cross (with one Oak Leaf Cluster)
Silver Star (with nine Oak Leaf Clusters)
Legion of Merit (with three Oak Leaf Clusters)
Distinguished Flying Cross
Bronze Star Medal (with "V" Device & seven Oak Leaf Clusters)(Seven of the awards for heroism)
Purple Heart (with seven Oak Leaf Clusters)
Air Medal (with "V" Device & Numeral 34)(One for heroism and 33 for aerial achievement)
Army Commendation Medal (w/ "V" Device & 3 Oak Leaf Clusters)
Good Conduct Medal
World War II Victory Medal
Army of Occupation Medal (with Germany and Japan Clasps)
National Defense Service Medal (with one Bronze Service Star)
Korean Service Medal (with Service Stars for eight campaigns)
Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
Vietnam Service Medal (2 Silver Service Stars = 10 campaigns)
Armed Forces Reserve Medal
Unit Awards:

Presidential Unit Citation
Valorous Unit Award (with one Oak Leaf Cluster)
Meritorious Unit Commendation
Badges & Tabs:

Combat Infantryman Badge (w/ one Star; representing 2 awards)
Master Parachutist Badge
Army General Staff Identification Badge
Foreign Awards:

United Nations Service Medal (Korea)
Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal with Device (1960)
Vietnam Cross of Gallantry (with two Gold Stars)
Vietnam Cross of Gallantry (with two Silver Stars)
Vietnam Armed Forces Honor Medal (1st Class)
Vietnam Staff Service Medal (1st Class)
Vietnam Army Distinguished Service Order, 2d Class
Vietnam Parachutist Badge (Master Level)
Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation
Republic of Vietnam Presidential Unit Citation
Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation (with three Palm oak leaf clusters)
Republic of Vietnam Civil Actions Honor Medal, First Class Unit Citation (with one Palm oak leaf cluster)
World War II Merchant Marine Awards:

Pacific War Zone Bar
Victory Medal

Note: As per a Department of the Army audit conducted by COL Pam Mitchell, Chief Personnel ServiceSupport Division on May 6 1999.

May He rest in peace.

[A.A. Cunningham]

And he sure went to a lot of trouble to investigate Mike Boorda's right to wear certain medals. After all that Boorda had accomplished I don't imagine that he was wearing a medal that he did not earn deliberately, besides with all of that fruit salad on his chest, one would have had to have been looking to destroy him.

I suggest you actually learn about a topic before you start ignorantly flapping your gums on it. Boordas' improper wearing of the Combat V on both the Navy Achievement Medal and Navy Commendation Medal was exposed, along with several other flag officers at the Pentagon engaging in medal inflation, by LtCol Roger Charles USMC Ret., not Hackworth. 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, the final arbiter on the matter. The question you should be asking is why Clinton allowed a person who was being treated for depression to continue serving as CNO. Indeed, Hackworth has a lot of things to answer for during his particular judgment but Boordas' suicide isn't one of them.

[Notwithstanding]

Until he got called on it, he claimed to be qualified to wear a Ranger tab. A colonel in the Army knows whether he is Ranger qualified. When he got caught, he blamed his ORB file, but an officer closely manages his own ORB, and anyone as salty and so precise as to grant himslef the title of "most decorated living veteran" (as Hackworth was and did) would have known whether his Ranger tab was legit. At least according to the standard Hackworth held everybody else to.

[Notwithstanding]

He and his supporters portrayed the probe as retaliation against a whistleblower, but investigators uncovered widespread rule-breaking, including operating a gambling house and a brothel for his troops.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20050506&Category=NEWS13&ArtNo=505060365&SectionCat=&Template=printart

"He defended both, arguing that it kept his soldiers disease-free, and the profits helped buy supplies for his men and local schoolchildren.

"However, investigators concluded that the colonel enlisted his men in a black-market currency scheme that netted him tens of thousands of dollars. He would admit only that the men smuggled $100,000 of his poker winnings out of the country.

"The Secretary of the Army allowed the colonel to retire to Australia, where he made millions in a restaurant business and duck farm.

[JohnD9207]

I understand...I stand by my previous statement.

Ever been to the ROK (Republic of Korea)? AFEES runs a a series of steam baths and massage business that were known as, 'Steam and Creams' by the troops. Perhaps Hack should have gotten a commission for the idea?

Yes the Ranger Tab was wrong...however I find Hack's explanation plausible. Regardless, his record stands for itself, and he was one hell of a Commander regardless of his post career political opinion. He Damn well earned the right to his opinion.

[Notwithstanding]

He may have been a great leader etc., but his true colors

- the self-appointed truth detector an d self-annointed "most decorated vet" who later admitted to wearing an unearned Ranger Tab (he did not know that you go to school to earn that? he only fessed up when called onit?) and other award,

- the admitted illegal brothel operator and combat adulterer,

- the commander who admittedly gambled with his troops illegally with "winnings" of $100,000,

- the alleged black-market currency operator

- the wannabe Top Brass who took every chance to hold the Top Brass to an obnoxiously arrogant standard that he pretended to meet himself (but did not)

indicate that some people will follow absolute scoundrels!

[O6ret]

Slate? Are you kidding? CNN? Newsweek? All Klinton and far left apology machines! Now I understand your bias. Why don't you show me one article that Slate has published that supports our President (the one that you serve), our role in the Middle East (the one that you purport to defend) or any US policy foreign or domestic?

Slate indeed.

[Notwithstanding]

Hilarious - I figured that you could do better than to simply attack the messenger and pretend:

- that Hackworth did not admit in his own book to serious criminal activity wile in commnding troops (running a brothel, abultery, winning $100,00 by gambling with his troops, smoking drugs with his troops while in combat) or

- that Hackworth as an O6 had no idea that he was not entitled to wear a Ranger tab, etc.

- that he did not hold others to a standard he never himself met

As a purported retired O6, you should be able to do a lot better than that.

[NCLaw441]

I appreciate your service, please don't think otherwise. That being said, I, just as you, was expressing my thoughts. I honor your service, just as I honor, on this day, David Hackworth's service.

[Coldwater Creek]

I never said that Boorda was entitled to wear the medal. I do know that once he realized that he was not supposed to have it on his chest, he immediately took it off.

I do not discount Hackworths heroism and valor, but I did not like his arrogance and criticism of the military during war.

BTW RUDSENESS is not becoming to anyone.

[USMCVet]

You are one strange individual: you have bent several column-inches into odd screeds against a guy who, as far as we know, never did you any harm.

Further, as even the Slate hatchet job points out - " Let there be no doubt: David Hackworth is a war hero. In 1944, when he was a 14-year-old orphan, Hackworth faked his way into the U.S. Merchant Marine. At 16, he was a U.S. Army private, fighting Yugoslav partisans on the Italian border. At 20, he won a battlefield commission in Korea, then commanded a savage and brilliant Army Raiders unit that wreaked havoc on the North Koreans and Chinese. When he left the Army in 1971, he was the youngest full colonel in Vietnam, winner of eight Purple Hearts, nine Silver Stars, eight Bronze Stars, four Army Commendation Medals, four Legions of Merit, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, and a chestful of other medals. Today Hackworth calls himself--often--"America's most decorated living soldier"".

Through his articles he did what he could to keep the public's attention on the welfare of our troops and the effectiveness of our forces. Very often he was the only voice out there and whatever flaws he may have actually had, God love him for the good he did.

Which brings me back to the question about your vitriol against a guy that not only served but got eight Purple Hearts doing it.

Just how many Purple Hearts have you and Slate earned so far, Big Guy? No offense, but I really don't care about "Ranger Tabs" - you get those for going through a nice rigorous school in the States! Whatever crazed view you have about Hack, he was there in combat and that is what counts to me...

[Coldwater Creek]

Thank you for you and your family's sacrifice!!!!!!!!