Col. David. H. Hackworth,
1930-2005
Legendary U.S. Army Guerrilla Fighter,
Champion
of
the Ordinary Soldier
Washington, D.C., May 5, 2005
– Col. David H. Hackworth,
the United States Army’s legendary, highly decorated guerrilla fighter
and
lifelong champion of the doughboy and dogface, ground-pounder and
grunt, died
Wednesday in Mexico. He was 74 years old. The cause of death was a form
of
cancer now appearing with increasing frequency among Vietnam veterans
exposed
to the defoliants called Agents Orange and Blue.
Col. Hackworth spent more than
half a century on
the country’s hottest battlefields, first as a soldier, then as a
writer, war
correspondent and sharp-eyed critic of the Military-Industrial Complex
and
ticket-punching generals he dismissed as “Perfumed Princes.”
He preferred the combat style
of World War II and
Korean War heroes like James Gavin and Matthew Ridgeway and, during
Vietnam, of
Hank “The Gunfighter” Emerson and Hal Moore. General Moore, the
co-author of We Were Soldiers Once and Young,
called him “the Patton of Vietnam,” and Gen. Creighton Abrams, the last
American commander in that disastrous war, described him as “the best
battalion
commander I ever saw in the United States Army.”
Col. Hackworth’s battlefield
exploits put him on
the line of American military heroes squarely next to Sgt. Alvin York
and Audie
Murphy. The novelist Ward Just, who knew him for forty years, described
him as
“the genuine article, a soldier’s soldier, a connoisseur of combat.” At
14, as
World War II was sputtering out, he lied about his age to join the
Merchant
Marine, and at 15 he enlisted in the U.S. Army. Over the next 26 years
he spent
fully seven in combat. He was put in for the Medal of Honor three
times; the
last application is currently under review at the Pentagon. He was
twice
awarded the Army’s second highest honor for valor, the Distinguished
Service
Cross, along with 10 Silver Stars and eight Bronze Stars. When asked
about his
many awards, he always said he was proudest of his eight Purple Hearts
and his
Combat Infantryman’s Badge.
A reputation won on the
battlefield made it
impossible to dismiss him when he went on the attack later as a critic
of careerism
and incompetence in the military high command. In 1971, he appeared in
the
field on ABC’s “Issue and Answers” to say Vietnam “is a bad war ... it
can’t be
won. We need to get out.” He also predicted that Saigon would fall to
the North
Vietnamese within four years, a prediction that turned out to be far
more
accurate than anything the Joint Chiefs of Staff were telling President
Nixon
or that the President was telling the American people.
With almost five years
in-country, Col. Hackworth
was the only senior officer to sound off about the Vietnam War. After
the
interview, he retired from the Army and moved to Australia.
“He was perhaps the finest
soldier of his
generation,” observed the novelist and war correspondent Nicholas
Proffit, who
described Col. Hackworth’s combat autobiography, About Face, a national best-seller,
as
“a passionate cry from the heart of a man who never stopped loving the
Army,
even when it stopped loving him back.”
Having risen from private by
way of a battlefield
commission in Korea, where he became the Army’s youngest captain, to
Vietnam,
where he served as its youngest bird colonel, he never stood on rank.
From the beginning his life
was a soldier’s story.
He was born on Armistice Day, now Veteran’s Day, in 1930. His parents
both died
before he was a year old and the Army ultimately stood in for the
family he
never had. His grandmother, who rescued him from an orphanage, raised
him on
tales of the American Revolution and the Old West and the ethos of the
Great
Depression. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, he got his first
military
training shining shoes at a base in Santa Monica, where the soldiers,
adopting
him as mascot, had a tailor cut him a pint-sized uniform. “At age 10 I
knew my
destiny,” he said. “Nothing would be better than to be a soldier.”
He always credited his success
in battle to the
training he received from the tough school of non-coms who won World
War II,
hard-bitten, hard-drinking, hard-fighting sergeants who drilled into
him the
basics of an infantryman’s life: sweat in training cut down on blood
shed in
battle; there was nothing wrong with being out all night so long as you
were present
for roll call at 5 a.m., on your feet and in shape to run five miles
before
breakfast in combat boots.
In Korea, where he won his
first Silver Star and
Purple Heart before he was old enough to vote, he started his combat
career in
what he later called a “kill a commie for mommie” frame of mind. He was
among
the first volunteers for Korea and later for Vietnam, where he
perfected his
skill. “He understood the atmosphere of violence,” Ward Just observed.
“That
meant he knew how to keep his head, to think in danger’s midst. In
battle the
worst thing is paralysis. He mastered his own fear and learned how to
kill. He
led by example, and his men followed.”
Just met him in the ruins of a
base camp in the
Central Highlands in 1966, where he was a major commanding a battalion
of the
101st Airborne. “He was compact, with forearms the size of
hams. His
uniform was filthy and his use of obscenity was truly inventive.” What
struck
the journalist most forcefully was “his enthusiasm, his magnetism, his
exuberance, his invincible cheerfulness.”
To young officers in Vietnam
and long afterwards,
he presented an unforgettable profile in courage. “”Everyone called him
Hack,”
recalled Dennis Foley, a military historian and novelist who first saw
him in
action with the 1st Battalion of the 327th
Infantry in
1965. “He was referred to by his radio call sign of ‘Steel Six.’ He was
tough,
demanding and boyish all at the same time, stocky with a slightly
leathered
complexion. His light hair and deep tan made it hard for us to tell how
old he
was. He wore jungle fatigue trousers, shower shoes, a green T-shirt and
a Rolex
watch. In the corner of his mouth was a large and foul smelling cigar.
As we
entered the tent, he was bent over a field table looking at a map
overlay and
drinking a bottle of San Miguel beer.”
With Gen. S.L.A. “Slam”
Marshall, he surveyed the
war’s early mayhem and compiled the Army’s experience into The Vietnam Primer, a bible on a
style
of unconventional counter-guerrilla tactics he called “out gee-ing the
G.” His
finest moment came when he applied these tactics, taking the hopeless
4/39
Infantry Battalion in the Mekong Delta, turning it into the legendary
Hardcore
Battalion. The men of the demoralized outfit saw him at first as a
crazy
“lifer” out to get them killed. For a time they even put a price on his
head
and waited for the first grunt to frag him.
Within 10 weeks, the fiery
young combat leader had
so transformed the 4/39 that it was routing main force enemy units. He
led from
the front, at one point getting out on the strut of a helicopter,
landing on
top of an enemy position and hauling to safety the point elements of a
company
pinned down and facing certain death. Thirty years later, the grateful
enlisted
men and young officers of the 4/39, now grown old, are still urging the
Pentagon to award him the Medal of Honor for this action. So far, the
Army has
refused.
On leaving the Army, Col.
Hackworth retired to a
farm on the Australian Gold Coast near Brisbane. He became a business
entrepreneur, making a small fortune in real estate, then expanding a
highly
popular restaurant called Scaramouche. As a leading spokesman for
Australia’s
anti-nuclear movement he was presented the United Nations Medal for
Peace.
As About Face was becoming a
best seller, he
returned to the United States to marry Eilhys England, his one great
love, who
became his business and writing partner. He became a powerful voice for
military reform. From 1990 to 1996, as Newsweek magazine’s Contributing
editor
for defense, he covered the first Gulf War as well as peacekeeping
battles in
Somalia, the Balkans, Korea and Haiti. He captured this experience in Hazardous Duty, a volume of war
dispatches.
Among his many awards as a
journalist was the
George Washington Honor Medal for excellence in communications. He also
wrote a
novel, Price of Honor, about the snares of Vietnam, Somalia and the
Military-Industrial Complex. His last book, Steel My Soldiers’ Hearts, was a
tribute
to the men of the Hardcore Battalion.
He was a regular guest on
national radio and TV
shows and a regular contributor to magazines including People, Parade,
Men’s
Journal, Self, Playboy, Maxim and Modern Maturity. His column,
“Defending
America,” has appeared weekly in newspapers across the country and on
the
website of Soldiers For
The Truth,
a rallying point for military reform. He and Ms. England have been the
driving
force behind the organization, which defends the interests of ordinary
soldiers
while upholding Hack’s conviction that “nuke-the-pukes” solutions no
longer
work in an age of terror that demands “a streamlined, hard-hitting
force for the
twenty-first century.”
“Hack never lost his focus,”
said Roger Charles,
president of Soldiers for the Truth. “That focus was on the young kids
that our
country sends to bleed and die on our behalf. Everything he did in his
retirement was to try to give them a better chance to win and to come
home.
That’s one hell of a legacy.”
Over the final years of Col.
Hackworth’s life, his
wife Eilhys fought beside him during his gallant battle against bladder
cancer,
which now appears with sinister regularity among Vietnam veterans
exposed to
Agent Blue. At one point he considered dropping their syndicated
column, only
to make an abrupt about face, saying, “Writing with you is the only
thing that
keeps me alive.” The last words he said to his doctor were, “If I die,
tell
Eilhys I was grateful for every moment she bought me, every extra
moment I got
to spend with her. Tell her my greatest achievement is the love the two
of us
shared.”
Col. Hackworth is survived by
Ms. England, one
step-daughter and two step-grandchildren, and four children and four
grandchildren from two earlier marriages. At a date to be announced, he
will be
buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.
Soldiers For The Truth is now
working on legal
action to compel the Pentagon to recognize Agent Blue alongside the
better
known Agent Orange as a killer and to help veterans exposed to it
during the
Vietnam War. Memorial contributions can be sent to Soldiers For The
Truth
either by internet or by mail to, P.O. Box
54365, Irvine,
California, 92619-4365.
On the Passing of Hack, Eilhys
wanted to share this
tribute written by one of Hack’s dear friends...
An
American Hero’s Soul Left Its No Longer Useful Body Today
By Kevin Gor
I say this because as Chief
Bronson (a friend and fellow warrior) pointed out to me, Col. Hackworth
just
isn’t someone you ever think could die and of course he hasn’t. His
exploits,
deeds, good works and lessons learned will be with us always. He will
live in
our hearts and minds. His spirit will live in everyone who believes in
this
country and the men and women who are willing to risk all to defend it
and each
other. It is said, “Everything on the earth has a purpose, every
disease an
herb to cure it, and every person a mission.” From the time he was 14
years
old, David Hackworth knew what his mission was, to protect this country
and
those who put themselves in harm’s way to defend it. For over 60 years
he never
wavered from his mission. When thinking of Col. Hackworth, it is quite
natural
for thoughts and comparisons with other great military leaders and
warriors to
come to mind. As I think of him now, it is a description of Crazy Horse
by
Black Elk that I think of the most, “He was brave and good and wise. He
never
wanted anything but to save his people and he fought only when they
came to
kill us and our country. They could not kill him in battle.”
I was fortunate enough to know
Hack as both a warrior and a person. His garlic shrimp was something
I’m going
to miss. When we weren’t talking about the business of the country, we
talked
about his favorite topic, his wife Eilhys, or just E to all of us.
She’s kind
of a cross between a Den Mother, Drill Sergeant, CEO, Inspiration,
Spiritual
Advisor, Object of Desire and Super Care Giver all wrapped into one.
People use
words like, “soul-mate”, “best friend”, “love of my life” all the time,
but for
the two of them, they weren’t words but truths and he loved to talk
about her.
The story about the guerilla operation he conducted to win her over is
a true
battlefield classic for covert operations. He heavily depended on her
for
everything and enjoyed poking fun at himself for being so dependent. I
remember
a couple of years ago when she was in a car accident and injured her
back. He
called and told me (as he watched her painfully limp into the house,
barely
able to walk) all he could think to himself was, “Who’s going to take
care of
me?” But he also depended on her because he could and she never let him
down.
Between the two of them, they were going to “out G the C!” They were
going to
out guerilla the cancer and find a way to beat it and damn if E didn’t
find a
way!
Unfortunately, Hack’s body, after all it had been through, just couldn’t keep up and shut down. As has always been the case, E was with him at the time and he left in peace knowing she was there. Going forward, things will be more difficult than I can imagine for E and hard on all of those whose lives he touched. For them, I close with an old warrior’s wish hoping it provides some comfort and guidance because I know it is what Hack would want: “When I am dead, cry for me a little. Think of me sometimes, but not too much. It is not good for you to dwell too long. Think of me now and again as I was in life, at some moment which is pleasant to recall, but not for long. Leave me in peace as I shall leave you, too, in peace.”
Memorial Service
A Memorial
Service for Colonel David H. Hackworth, Infantry, United States Army
(Retired),
will commence on Tuesday, 31 May, at 11:00am EDT at the Main (new)
Chapel, Ft.
Myer, Arlington, Virginia.
This service will last somewhat less than one hour, since services for
another
individual are scheduled to start at 12:00 noon in this same chapel.
Following Hack’s Memorial Service, those who wish to may follow in
trace the
caisson with Hack’s remains to the burial site. (Services at the grave
site
will be on the order of 20-30 minutes.)
Arlington National Cemetery Website
Please check back here in
the coming
weeks for more details.