Colonel David Hackworth 1930-2005

It is rare for a man to be a hero more than once in his life. Colonel David Hackworth, who died last week from cancer, was a hero far more frequently than that. As a military officer, he was the kind the troops loved because he tried to make sure they all came out of an engagement in one piece. He didn't have time for the blood and guts types who fight their wars in Brooks Brothers pinstripes instead of government-issued threads. And that made him very unpopular with the Pentagon.

In 1946, Colonel Hackworth faked his ID to join the army at the age of 15, having been raised by a grandmother after his parents died when he was 5 months old. He was a veteran of Korea and Vietnam, and was America's most decorated living soldier. In 25 years of service, he received 78 combat awards. He was a full bird Colonel while in Vietnam, the youngest in the army. He was a hero by any standard.

But in 1971, he exhibited bravery of a far different sort. On ABC's "Issues and Answers," he told the viewers (with the rank of colonel in combat), "This [Vietnam] is a bad war . . . it can't be won. We need to get out." he also predicted in that interview, accurately as it proved, that the North Vietnamese flag would fly over Saigon within four years. Needless to say, the Nixon White House was annoyed in the extreme. Before he could be disciplined, he resigned, gave away all his medals, and moved to Australia. His new home was good to him, a land where he made millions in real estate and where he ran a restaurant.

In 1980, Brigadier General John Howard reissued his medals, and Colonel Hackworth returned to the US. He wrote and appeared on countless TV programs, taught basic warfare to CNN and MSNBC's viewers, and always advocated the needs of the grunts. This must have been a trait from his earliest days; when he was just a private in Italy, he told General Dwight D. Eisenhower (who still had sand on his uniform from D-Day), "The chow stinks."

His past caught up with him in the form of bladder cancer, which eventually took his life. It is almost a metaphysical certainty the disease came from exposure to Agent Blue, which was used in Vietnam to kill the rice crop. Unlike Agent Orange, it is not recognized as a problem by today's military-medical establishment. Even as he was dying, he kept his eye out for those in combat. Roger Charles, president of Soldiers for the Truth, said, "Hackworth never lost his focus. 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 come home."

He was most assuredly a pain in the backside on occasion, and his friends probably could cite as many flaws a his enemies. And there are many who think his 1971 interview gave "aid and comfort" to the enemy. In the end, though, the best insight into his character was in the awards he valued most. Colonel Hackworth prized two above all the others: his Combat Infantryman Badge and one given for his anti-nuclear work in Australia, the United Nations Medal for Peace.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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