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Thread ID: 18465 | Posts: 8 | Started: 2005-05-31
2005-05-31 12:34 | User Profile
The Boston Globe To the end, colonel a man of the troops Top brass not expected at funeral of war hero
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | May 30, 2005
WASHINGTON -- His courage under fire was the stuff of Hollywood, such as once ordering his helicopter pilot to land in the middle of a firefight so he could rescue his wounded men.
As an orphan shining shoes at a military base in Santa Monica, Calif., he lied about his age to join up in the waning days of World War II. That started a career that led him to Korea, where he survived a gunshot to the head, and a whopping four tours of duty in Vietnam, where his daring and swagger became the inspiration for Robert Duvall's Colonel Kilgore character in the movie ''Apocalypse Now."
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.
But while the military leadership may be absent from the funeral, hundreds -- and probably thousands -- are expected to attend. The numbers would be larger, except that many who consider him a hero aren't in Washington. Hackworth became a touchstone for soldiers in the Middle East who questioned the Pentagon but didn't feel comfortable raising complaints with superiors.
''He had an incredible communication line to the barracks and the trenches," said Roger Charles, president of Soldiers for the Truth, Hackworth's organization, which has a website that averages about 1 million hits a day. ''He answered all the e-mails."
To the very end, however, the military brass treated him with disdain for his biting criticism of insufficient training, equipment, and pay. There were deeper grievances as well, including his role in 1996 in exposing the fact that the chief of naval operations, Admiral Jeremy M. ''Mike" Boorda, wore combat ribbons that he did not earn. Boorda committed suicide an hour before a planned interview with Hackworth.
''He could never be forgiven for what he did to Mike Boorda," said a retired admiral who requested that he not be identified. He said Hackworth did not reveal the true nature of his investigation into Boorda's ribbons, leaving the Navy chief ''blindsided." Hackworth's allegations eventually were substantiated, and his defenders point out that wearing undeserved combat ribbons is a serious offense.
Remembered as father figure to the troops
But while Hackworth was an unyielding critic to generals, admirals, and defense secretaries, he was a father figure to thousands of grunts. Some held memorial services for him in between hunting for Iraqi insurgents, his family said.
Hackworth called paying today's troops $7.50 a day for combat pay -- which, when adjusted for inflation, is three times less than in World War II -- a scandal. He continually hounded leaders from the president on down for strategic blunders in Iraq. He reminded them that those mistakes were always paid for by young soldiers.
Many of Hackworth's ''kids," as he called them, have expressed their gratitude since his death May 4, at 74, from bladder cancer that he suspected was caused by jungle defoliants in Vietnam.
One soldier who said he got back from Iraq ''five minutes ago," expressed his feelings in a note to Hackworth's family May 13. ''Man, there is a lot of emotion in me for a man I barely knew. We corresponded some, of course, I read all the books and articles. I will miss the true warrior that inspired me through trying times."
An active-duty Army major recalled how Hackworth, on a recent fact-finding trip to Iraq, insisted on lending him his state-of-the-art body armor.
''A lot of these guys were touched by Hackworth," said Nick Profitt, a former Army sergeant and Newsweek journalist who met Hackworth in the jungles of Vietnam, where he penned a manual on guerrilla warfare, still widely read. ''He appealed to the combat-leader type and was a monumental pain . . . to those in the Pentagon he considered phonies."
Hackworth was a thorn in the Pentagon's side ever since his highly public departure from the military in 1971, when he appeared, in full dress uniform, on the Dick Cavett show to declare that the Vietnam War was being lost. He was quickly drummed out of the Army and, as he recalled in his 1989 memoir, ''About Face," received death threats and left the United States.
He threw out his medals in protest, including the eight Purple Hearts he received for combat wounds. (They were replaced in the 1980s.) He spent nearly 20 years in Australia, where he emerged as a leader of the country's antinuclear movement.
But his dogged defense of the troops was his enduring mission. His last column, penned two days before he died, called for reforming the military to reward combat leaders instead of ''ticket punchers" -- his term for officers who spent their careers planning policy in the Pentagon.
Last year he set off a media storm when he reported that an automatic pen was affixing Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's signature to condolence letters to families of dead soldiers; the defense chief was forced to personally sign each of them.
None were spared when it came to dishing criticism
Democrat or Republican, few were spared from his wrath. He attacked the Clinton administration for opening combat-related positions for women and leaving the armed forces ''held together with duct tape, bailing wire and gallons of sweat." He lambasted Congress, accusing it of lacing the defense budget with unneeded weapons to line the pockets of arms makers.
He even took a three-star general to task in 2002 for prohibiting American soldiers in Germany from drinking beer. ''Can you imagine George Patton cutting off the grog just before D-Day?" he wrote.
In recent months he took to likening the Iraq war to a quagmire. ''As with Vietnam, the Iraqi tar pit was oh-so-easy to sink into, but appears to be just as tough to exit," he wrote in February. He blamed those in the White House and Pentagon who ''have never sweated it out on a battlefield."
His own military careeer was legendary, if untraditional.
Ward Just, a Washington Post reporter who met him in 1966, wrote that Hackworth met him at the airstrip wearing camouflage pants, a T-shirt, flip-flops, and a Rolex watch. He was an infantryman out of central casting, built with forearms resembling coiled springs. He would stand over a map in his command post on the front lines, taking swigs from a bottle of beer.
Those who served under him said that even after he became the youngest colonel in Vietnam he never lost his personal touch for the most junior of soldiers, huddling with them in the foxhole, boosting their morale with words of encouragement, a smile or a dirty joke; he always said his most prized possession was not his medals for valor, but his combat infantryman's badge.
Later, when Hackworth became a Pentagon critic, an Army investigation raised allegations that he smoked marijuana with his troops and ran a brothel to serve his unit; some called for Hackworth's court-martial, but charges were never brought.
Others thought him crazy for the risks he would take for his troops. John Falcon, one of Hackworth's helicopter pilots in Vietnam, witnessed one of his many legendary exploits, on March 25, 1969, when a group of men were pinned down in a firefight with a much larger force.
Hackworth called in airstrikes, artillery, naval gunfire, smoke screens, but nothing worked, Falcon remembers.
''During the battle I would occasionally look back and see a collage of emotions on Hackworth's face -- anger, frustration, grief, determination," according to a eulogy Falcon plans to deliver tomorrow. Finally, he suggested ''the most daring rescue conceivable."
Ran through hail of bullets to drag his men to safety
Hackworth ordered his helicopter to land directly where the wounded were lying. With bullets flying, the colonel leaped off the aircraft and ran through a wall of fire multiple times to reach his men, dragging each aboard the helicopter. As the aircraft left the scene, overloaded, he stood on the skids, clinging to a bulkhead.
Hackworth has been recommended for the nation's highest medal, the Medal of Honor, for that day, but it has been held up by what the Pentagon called administrative snags, according to his family and those in his organization. They say he's being punished for expressing his views.
''Hack was in a unique position to be an advocate for the troops," said Randy Holhut, a former sergeant and infantry squad leader in the Massachusetts National Guard.
It angered Hackworth ''to see guys being sent to the front without body armor, without enough ammo, without the proper vehicles and security," Holhut said.
His burial is expected to be one of the largest at Arlington in recent years, including dignitaries such as former senator and Medal of Honor recipient J. Robert Kerrey, a Vietnam War veteran.
''I am terrified we are going to have people crashing the reception," his widow and writing partner, Eilhys England, said Friday.
After some haggling with the Army, and to the tune of ''Yankee Doodle Dandy," Hackworth will be buried ''on the high ground" at Arlington, according to England, where any infantryman would be most comfortable.
But not before he left final orders. In what he called ''the big drop file," Hackworth instructed his wife how to keep Soldiers for the Truth, in which he invested much of his own money, alive. He believed ''there is no other place for those at the tip of the spear to come in from the cold," England said. ''His work must continue."
Bryan Bender can be reached at [email]bender@globe.com[/email].
é Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
[url]http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/05/30/to_the_end_colonel_a_man_of_the_troops?mode=PF[/url]
2005-05-31 13:46 | User Profile
Sertorius, thanks for posting the piece about Hackworth. What a great guy!
2005-05-31 14:06 | User Profile
S,
You're welcome. He was a hell of a soldier and no matter how much the Bush gang tries to ignore this funeral they will still look like asses.
2005-05-31 14:56 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Hackworth's most enduring foe was not the communists he fought. He earned a a chestful of medals, including two [COLOR=Red]Distinguished Service Medals[/COLOR], 10 Silver Stars, eight Bronze Stars, and eight Purple Hearts[/QUOTE]Hackworth received two Distinguished Service Crosses (DSC's) for valor. These medals rank just below the Medal of Honor. The Distinguished Service Medal is for service outside combat.
2005-05-31 16:48 | User Profile
Again, FOX News (or anyone else) isn't covering the funeral & memorial, so it must not be important.
Meanwhile, up-to-the-minute reporting on the Michael Jackson trial continues apace!
His burial is expected to be one of the largest at Arlington in recent years, including dignitaries such as former senator and Medal of Honor recipient J. Robert Kerrey, a Vietnam War veteran.
I wonder if Limbag will use this as a chance to lambaste Hackworth for being associated with "liberals" like Bob Kerrey? I think he'll just ignore Hackworth's send-off, as I don't believe even Limbag would be that much of a pig, but I've learned never to overestimate these creatures' sense of dignity and respect and I've not been disappointed yet. Hearing Limbag insult a MOH-winner like Kerrey made my stomach turn, even though I don't agree with Kerrey's politics at all.
2005-05-31 17:15 | User Profile
MST,
Limbaugh hasn't said anything. Instead, in the spirit of "if we don't talk about it, it isn't important!", he is jabbering about Cheney, Deepthroat, and of course, that old time favorite of "Conservatives and Republicans", Hillary and "Liberals and Democrats!"
E.I.B.= DEAD BRAIN CELLS.
2005-06-01 14:04 | User Profile
05.31.2005
From The Editor
A Final Farewell By Ed Offley
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY ââ¬â It is my privilege to inform you that Hack is back on permanent duty.
Col. David Haskell Hackworth USA (Ret.) has joined several hundred thousand of his fellow soldiers guarding the hallowed ground of Arlington after a Memorial Service at nearby Fort Myer this morning. More than 600 former comrades, fellow soldiers and friends gathered in the soaring Fort Myer Memorial Chapel to shed tears of sorrow over his passing, to hear some of his favorite songs and psalms, and to laugh and betimes listen in awed silence as fellow veterans and journalism colleagues recounted his bravery, his audacity, his integrity and his perennial smile.
Fort Myer Chaplain Maj. Douglas Fenton began the service by noting that the gravestones at Arlington the day after Memorial Day 2005 remained decorated with American flags, part of the annual tradition here. "Every flag on every headstone pays tribute to his courage," Fenton told Hack's widow, Eilhys, sitting in the front row with a number of family members.
But it was three former Vietnam comrades of Hack's ââ¬â retired Lt. Gen. Hank "The Gunfighter" Emerson, retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, and retired Maj. John D. Falcon ââ¬â who recalled Hack's passion for the common soldier and his ironclad integrity that defined his life both as a soldier and as a military journalist.
Emerson, who commanded a battalion of the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam alongside a battalion led by then-Lt. Col. Hackworth, said with the direct bluntness of a combat veteran: "It's always nice to know a unit on your flank is commanded by someone of that caliber." Emerson drew warm laughter from the congregation in recalling the aftermath of the Battle of Dak To, when Hack marched his entire battalion back to base camp (the other units had returned by helicopter) and ââ¬â somehow ââ¬â managed to scrounge up an Army band to lead the procession back through the gate.
"He was the Army's foremost battlefield commander," said Emerson, who himself had gone on to command the entire XVIII Airborne Corps before retiring from the Army.
Hal Moore, who achieved international recognition as the battlefield commander at the Ia Drang Valley in 1965 (later a best-selling book and motion picture, We Were Soldiers), said the news of Hack's passing had "streaked across the world like shrapnel," resonating the most among young soldiers serving in a wartime Army today.
"Few commanders have the ability to understand what those soldiers see and feel," said Moore, alluding to Hack's early days as an Army grunt himself before he won a battlefield commission in Korea.
But it was John Falcon's reminiscences as an Army helicopter pilot serving with Hack during his command of the 4/39th Infantry Battalion nearly 40 years ago that electrified the large band of mourners. When a small group of his soldiers were pinned down by a much larger Viet Cong force in March 1969, Hack flew to the scene and tried everything to free them from the enemy's grip, Falcon explained ââ¬â close air support, field artillery, naval gunfire and smoke screens. "Nothing worked," he added.
Falcon said he clearly recalled glancing at Hack as they braved a hail of ground fire while attempting those efforts. "I saw his emotions: anger, frustration, grief and determination." Finally, Hack ordered Falcon to mount "the most dangerous rescue" by landing their helicopter in the middle of the inferno. The helicopter was still five feet from the ground when Hack leaped out and sprinted into a torrent of enemy tracers, quickly returning with a wounded soldier. He repeated this over and over until the chopper was full of the wounded ââ¬â so full that when it lifted off, Hack was forced to stand outside on one of its landing skids, grasping the door frame while a soldier inside held on to his belt.
Noting that the Army is still considering awarding Hack the Medal of Honor for that night's rescue of his troops, Falcon said, "He certainly earned it. He certainly deserves it."
The words of praise continued, from fellow journalists such as Gordon Liddy, Catherine Crier and Neil Cavuto, and others including the doctor who helped Hack fight his last battle with cancer, and Phil Matthews, a friend an advisor to Soldiers for the Truth. Finally, Eilhys stepped up to the microphone and briefly spoke of her long love affair with Hack and of her determination to carry on his work for the troops through SFTT.
Then it was time for Hack's last march. A band and two platoons of the Old Guard began the slow journey through the gate into Arlington, followed by the caisson carrying his cremains in a flag-draped casket, the riderless horse, and a half-mile-long procession of those who followed him, fought with him and served with him. On a rolling patch of grass highlighted by the straight rows of headstones of his comrades gone before, Hack reached his final destination.
The triple crack of the firing party, and the sweet sad notes of the bugler brought Hack's saga to an end at long last.
To the everlasting glory of the infantry, shines the name, shines the name ....
Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at [email]dweditor@yahoo.com[/email]. Send Feedback responses to [email]dwfeedback@yahoo.com[/email].
[url]http://www.sftt.org/main.cfm?actionId=globalShowStaticContent&screenKey=cmpDefense&htmlCategoryID=29&htmlId=2783[/url] Photos: [IMG]http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/ap/20050531/capt.vamc10105311747.hackworth_funeral_vamc101.jpg?x=380&y=241&sig=9nDwdDveT7gnzyr.WRuhhQ--[/IMG]
[IMG]http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/ap/20050531/capt.vamc10305311850.hackworth_funeral_vamc103.jpg?x=380&y=275&sig=MCEqBVluNBJEQ_jZJLaCAQ--[/IMG]
2005-06-01 14:33 | User Profile
The top brass is not expected to attend.
Hack would have wanted it that way.