The only source for the claim "Most Decorated War Hero" is Hackworth himself.
First, all who have known real heros, know heros do not go around making ridiculous claims like this.
The U.S. Army disputes such a claim and when asked the Army spokesman explained it would be impossible to make such a designation because you can't compare the Medal of Honor to other medals, so the Army would dispute any man claiming he is the "Most Decorated War Hero"especially one who never received the Medal of Honor.
Since your buddy wants to make the claim, why don't you ask him to post a copy of the DD-214. Of course he doesn't have to. But then again he didn't have to invent a new decoration for himself, the Most Decorated War Hero Medal.
The Army does not recognize, and has never recognized, the title. According to an Army memo, "It has been a long-standing and unwritten policy of the Army that no single soldier or veteran is ever named officially as the most decorated person in a conflict or in a particular period of time." The Army did not even keep a central medal database until the mid-1970s. It has never searched through its millions of individual records to find top medal winners.
But let us suppose that Hackworth is the soldier who has earned the most medals, which is possible. Would that make him "America's most decorated living soldier"?
Again, no. The Army rejects the concept of "most decorated soldier" for fear that someone would do exactly what Hackworth is doing. Medals are not equal. The Medal of Honor, which Hackworth never won, is by far the most important award. "Statistical comparison, if possible, could allow a recipient of many awards to surpass a soldier with the Medal of Honor," says the Army memo, and this, the Army makes clear, is not acceptable. There are more than 200 living Medal of Honor winners. All of them, in the eyes of most military men, trump Hackworth. Hackworth's claim is puffery.
Yup,and it's a lie. Hackworth KNOWS it's a lie,and he even knows the name of the retired officer who IS "America's Most Decorated War Hero". Yet he still refuses to correct anybody who introduces him this way.