| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"maff" |
| Date: |
11 May 2005 04:30:17 AM |
| Object: |
OT: David Hackworth |
Col David Hackworth
http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/story.jsp?story=637415
Hero of the Vietnam War who became an outspoken critic of the Pentagon
11 May 2005
David Haskell Hackworth, soldier and writer: born Venice, California 11
November 1931; married first Patricia Leonard (one son, two daughters;
marriage dissolved), second Peter Margaret Cox (one son; marriage
dissolved), third Eilhys England (one stepdaughter); died Tijuana,
Mexico 4 May 2005.
A maverick was originally defined as a calf separated from its mother,
and later became shorthand for an idiosyncratic dissenter. Both
definitions could be applied to David Hackworth, who, apart from being
an orphan before he was a year old, was also the most highly decorated
- and outspoken - combat veteran of the Vietnam War.
Unlike Audie Murphy, his Second World War equivalent who later appeared
in patriotic films and squandered his life, Hackworth spent his
retirement as a highly effective critic of the more bone-headed
policies of the Pentagon and standing up for the welfare of the
ordinary soldier. Although nearly court-martialled for a television
interview he gave while a serving officer, he did not lack admirers at
any rank of the military. General Creighton Abrams, the overall US
commander in Vietnam, conceded that Hackworth was "the best battalion
commander I ever saw in the United States Army".
David Hackworth
http://news.google.com/news?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+%22David+Hackworth%22&sa=N&tab=gn
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+%22David+Hackworth%22&sa=N&tab=nw
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+%22David+Hackworth%22&sa=N&tab=wd&cat=gwd%2FTop
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_epq=David%20Hackworth&safe=images&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&as_scoring=d&lr=&num=100&hl=en
.
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| User: "stoney" |
|
| Title: Re: OT: David Hackworth |
16 May 2005 10:39:45 AM |
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On 11 May 2005 02:30:17 -0700, "maff" <maff91@yahoo.com> wrote:
Col David Hackworth
http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/story.jsp?story=637415
Hero of the Vietnam War who became an outspoken critic of the Pentagon
11 May 2005
David Haskell Hackworth, soldier and writer: born Venice, California 11
November 1931; married first Patricia Leonard (one son, two daughters;
marriage dissolved), second Peter Margaret Cox (one son; marriage
dissolved), third Eilhys England (one stepdaughter); died Tijuana,
Mexico 4 May 2005.
A maverick was originally defined as a calf separated from its mother,
and later became shorthand for an idiosyncratic dissenter. Both
definitions could be applied to David Hackworth, who, apart from being
an orphan before he was a year old, was also the most highly decorated
- and outspoken - combat veteran of the Vietnam War.
Unlike Audie Murphy, his Second World War equivalent who later appeared
in patriotic films and squandered his life, Hackworth spent his
retirement as a highly effective critic of the more bone-headed
policies of the Pentagon and standing up for the welfare of the
ordinary soldier. Although nearly court-martialled for a television
interview he gave while a serving officer, he did not lack admirers at
any rank of the military. General Creighton Abrams, the overall US
commander in Vietnam, conceded that Hackworth was "the best battalion
commander I ever saw in the United States Army".
David Hackworth
http://news.google.com/news?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+%22David+Hackworth%22&sa=N&tab=gn
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+%22David+Hackworth%22&sa=N&tab=nw
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+%22David+Hackworth%22&sa=N&tab=wd&cat=gwd%2FTop
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_epq=David%20Hackworth&safe=images&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&as_scoring=d&lr=&num=100&hl=en
http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,1479323,00.html
Obituary
David Hackworth
Unorthodox Vietnam commander immortalised in Apocalypse Now
Michael Carlson
Monday May 9, 2005
The Guardian
In June 1971, Colonel David Hackworth, probably America's most
decorated soldier in Vietnam, appeared on ABC television and told his
countrymen that the war could not be won, that US military leaders had
failed to understand or train their men for the nature of the country
or the conflict, that Saigon would fall to the communists within five
years and that one of every five American casualties had been the
victim of so-called friendly fire.
Obituary
David Hackworth
Unorthodox Vietnam commander immortalised in Apocalypse Now
Michael Carlson
Monday May 9, 2005
The Guardian
In June 1971, Colonel David Hackworth, probably America's most
decorated soldier in Vietnam, appeared on ABC television and told his
countrymen that the war could not be won, that US military leaders had
failed to understand or train their men for the nature of the country
or the conflict, that Saigon would fall to the communists within five
years and that one of every five American casualties had been the
victim of so-called friendly fire.
This criticism put Hackworth, who has died of cancer aged 73, under
concerted attack from his superiors, an assault made easier to sustain
by the fast and loose approach to regulations he had employed as
commander of a Blackhawk air cavalry brigade in Vietnam. His troops
wore US civil war hats, and Hackworth, as commander of the unit, later
became the model for Colonel Kilgore, the abrasive, cigar-chomping
officer played by Robert Duvall in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now.
Hackworth had set up his unit's own bordello in Vietnam, and the US
army used that and other violations to threaten him with
court-martial. However, General Creighton Abrams, the overall
commander in Vietnam, called him "the best battalion commander I ever
saw", and, in 1971, he was allowed to resign with an honourable
discharge. He threw away his medals in protest, and moved to
Australia.
In the 1980s, Hackworth returned to the US after his medals were
reissued, and his book about Vietnam, About Face, became a
best-seller. From 1990 to 1996, he was a contributing editor on
defence at Newsweek magazine, where, in 1996, he wrote a column
revealing that Admiral Michael Boorda, a former chief of US naval
operations, wore combat medals he had not earned.
When the admiral committed suicide, Hackworth again incurred the
military's wrath. He was accused of lying when he claimed to be the
army's "most-decorated soldier" - the US keeps no statistics on such
matters - and of wearing an unearned Ranger tab. An army investigation
found that Hackworth had been issued the tag in error, but had never
been given a number of medals he had earned. His decorations included
two distinguished service crosses, the second highest US award for
valour, 10 silver stars, eight bronze stars and eight purple hearts.
After leaving Newsweek, Hackworth wrote a syndicated newspaper column,
Defending America, with his third wife, Eilhys England. Covering both
Iraq wars and peacekeeping actions in Somalia, the Balkans and Haiti,
he became a fierce critic of the US establishment. His website,
Soldiers For Truth, lambasted the Pentagon's "perfumed princes", whom
he claimed constantly betrayed the ordinary solider. He was
particularly incensed that Donald Rumsfeld used a machine to sign
condolence letters sent to the families of dead soldiers in Iraq.
Hackworth's army connections began young. Orphaned at five months, and
raised by his grandmother in Santa Monica, California, he shined shoes
at a local army base, becoming a mascot to the soldiers, who gave him
his own uniform. At 14, he lied about his age and joined the US
merchant marine; a year later, he paid a sailor to impersonate his
father and get him into the army, where he served in postwar Italy,
policing the border dispute over Trieste.
He won his first silver Star in Korea at the age of 20, when his
battlefield commission made him the army's youngest captain.
Commanding the Wolfhound Raiders, he led one attack despite being shot
in the head, modelling himself on General James Gavin, America's
youngest second world war general (played by Ryan O'Neal in the 1977
film, A Bridge Too Far).
Hackworth volunteered for service with the US special forces in
Vietnam, and, as the army's youngest full colonel, returned in 1965,
commanding a paratroop unit. With General SLA "Slam" Marshall, he
wrote the Vietnam Primer, a guide to counter-guerrilla tactics. He
used his theories about the enemy, whom he referred to as "the G", to
transform a hapless 4/39 infantry unit into what became known as the
Hardcore Battalion, driving his men so hard they allegedly put a cash
bounty on him.
But he also won their loyalty, by such acts as leading the rescue of a
trapped company while riding on the strut of a helicopter. It was one
of three times on which Hackworth was nominated for the congressional
medal of honour, America's highest award.
After leaving the army, he was successful in property and restaurants
in Brisbane, and became active in the Australian peace movement. He
returned to Greenwich, Connecticut, in the 1980s.
Hackworth's many books included a novel, Price Of Honor, a volume of
war dispatches, Hazardous Duty, and a memoir of the hardcore
battalion, Steel My Soldier's Hearts. Serving soldiers fed his website
with information about the army's leadership shortcomings. Last
February, he wrote, "Most combat vets pick their fights carefully.
They look at their scars, remember the madness and are always mindful
of the fallout ... the White House and the Pentagon are run by
civilians who have never sweated it out on a battlefield."
Hackworth died in Tijuana, Mexico, while pursuing alternative
treatments for bladder cancer, a common cause of death among soldiers
exposed to the dioxins Agent Orange and Agent Blue, used to defoliate
Vietnam.
He is survived by Eihlys and his stepdaughter, two daughters and a son
from his first marriage, and a son from his second marriage.
· David Haskell Hackworth, soldier, born November 11 1931; died May 4
2005
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
Religion is the original war crime.
-Michelle Malkin (Feb 26, 2005)
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