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  • David Hackworth Dies

    HARTFORD, Conn. -- Retired Army Col. David Hackworth, a decorated Vietnam veteran who spoke out against the war and later became a journalist and an advocate for military reform, has died, his wife said Thursday. He was 74.



    Hackworth was always camped out at the edge of reality, but he was a damn good soldier.

  • #2
    Present Arms.

    God Bless, Colonel.

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    • #3
      Heavens war planning commitee just got a bit more devisive...

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      • #4
        One of my best friends (retired Army brigadier general) knew him in Vietnam. He didn't have a high opinion of him ("shameless self-promoter"), but acknowledged that his troops DID love him.

        I felt he was an egomaniac that believed he was never wrong, and just really loved the role of contrarian and iconoclast a bit too much. He liked to paint a picture of himself that always glorified his exploits, and he made sure that IN HINDSIGHT, he had been right all along, but the idiots just wouldn't listen to him. And if they wouldn't listen to him, they were automatically idiots.

        But there is no doubt that he was a natural combat leader that knew how to balance his mission with his unit's welfare. He loved soldiers and the Army, and had the integrity to throw away a career to tell the Army what it needed to hear, but was unwilling to believe about itself. THAT is something I can respect.

        A complex and valuable man with some large flaws, he was a human allegory of America itself.

        RIP, Colonel. Call the roll.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Bluesman
          I felt he was an egomaniac that believed he was never wrong, and just really loved the role of contrarian and iconoclast a bit too much. He liked to paint a picture of himself that always glorified his exploits, and he made sure that IN HINDSIGHT, he had been right all along, but the idiots just wouldn't listen to him. And if they wouldn't listen to him, they were automatically idiots.
          That also describes a lot of people on this board :)

          I do not know the man, but from what I have heard about him, his death is a loss for america. We need more people like him who are couragous enough to stand up to the system and point out what needs to be corrected. A room full of "yes men" is a recipe for disaster. Yes he had his faults, but so do we all. We can only hope that in our lifetime we can do more good with our strenths than the bad things that come from our faults. In that respect, this man was a winner. His life made a difference.
          Removing a single turd from the cesspool doesn't make any difference.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by bonehead
            That also describes a lot of people on this board :)

            I do not know the man, but from what I have heard about him, his death is a loss for america. We need more people like him who are couragous enough to stand up to the system and point out what needs to be corrected. A room full of "yes men" is a recipe for disaster. Yes he had his faults, but so do we all. We can only hope that in our lifetime we can do more good with our strenths than the bad things that come from our faults. In that respect, this man was a winner. His life made a difference.
            Right on.

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            • #7
              Godspeed Sir...
              No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
              I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
              even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
              He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

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              • #8
                My one abiding memory of Hackworth was watching him on TV, on the eve of Desert Storm, proclaiming that we were going to take 10,000 casualties the first month of the war. The fact that he was able to salvage his career as a media talking head after that debacle certainly attests to his talent for self-promotion.
                The more I think about it, ol' Billy was right.
                Let's kill all the lawyers, kill 'em tonight.
                - The Eagles

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Major Dad
                  My one abiding memory of Hackworth was watching him on TV, on the eve of Desert Storm, proclaiming that we were going to take 10,000 casualties the first month of the war. The fact that he was able to salvage his career as a media talking head after that debacle certainly attests to his talent for self-promotion.

                  To be fair, so did many of the high ranking officers of US and NATO at that time. They were facing a battle-hardened army who had been through some of the worst experience a war could offer and came out in what everybody in the world thought at that time.

                  Like the majority of everybody else, he misread the signs of the Iraqi army and thought there will be severe casaulties. It was only after the Desert Storm and the fall of the Soviet Union were we able to learn the real truth.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Major Dad
                    My one abiding memory of Hackworth was watching him on TV, on the eve of Desert Storm, proclaiming that we were going to take 10,000 casualties the first month of the war. The fact that he was able to salvage his career as a media talking head after that debacle certainly attests to his talent for self-promotion.
                    Yeah, that was a real stinker. ;)

                    He quite obviously had not moved on with his beloved Army. The old hands from the Vietnam era that had not adjusted to the magnificent machine that was built since then simply had no conception of what it was able to do.

                    I remember the interview of a British brigadier before Operation: DESERT STORM, and he simply could not believe that this was the same Army he had been seconded to waaaay back during - and actually IN - Vietnam. But of course, it WAS NOT the same Army. It had been utterly changed, and all to the good.

                    Well, Hackworth left the Army about the same time that this Brit did, and I think both were equally astonished at the complete metamorphosis that had occurred.

                    He had become what he used to loathe in his 'military maverick' idiom: a dinosaur, frozen in the rock-hard ice of deeply-ingrained beliefs and prejudices of somebody that is always right.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Blademaster
                      To be fair, so did many of the high ranking officers of US and NATO at that time. They were facing a battle-hardened army who had been through some of the worst experience a war could offer and came out in what everybody in the world thought at that time.
                      That is exactly the point. The media, and Hackworth, were droning on and on about the 'battle hardened' Iraqis who fought the Iranians, who had already been under a weapons embargo for years, for 8 years (!!) AND THE BEST THEY COULD MANAGE WAS A DRAW?! WHAT THE **** IS UP WITH THAT?

                      Hackworth should have known better.
                      Last edited by Major Dad; 06 May 05,, 05:45.
                      The more I think about it, ol' Billy was right.
                      Let's kill all the lawyers, kill 'em tonight.
                      - The Eagles

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Three volleys.

                        Bluesman,

                        Peers never forget the rat race!


                        "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

                        I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

                        HAKUNA MATATA

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Major Dad
                          Hackworth should have known better.
                          Should he had?

                          The one thing I learned since I left the service is that I am no longer privy to alot of little details that point me to a proper eval of the enemy. In the case of the Kuwait War, there were alot of details not given to the public. Iraqi incompetence was deliberately withheld from the media, less they start fixing their own mistakes.

                          The Canadian Forces Medical Service anticipated over 2000 casualties if the 4CMBG was committed and that was based upon the only war they could reference, the Iran-Iraq War.

                          We were always train to expect the enemy to perform to his best. However, that proved to be the exception and not the rule. If the Iraqis had done their best across the board as shown by Medina Ridge, Kuwait Airport, 73 Easting, etc, then it would have been a much tougher fight.

                          We still win but it would not have been an easy as cakewalk. The collary would also be that Iraq would not have an army left to put down the rebellions.

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                          • #14
                            Me salutes.

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Officer of Engineers
                              Should he had?
                              Hell, yes.

                              Look, the Iranians had been under a near-total weapons embargo, by us AND the Russians (AKA the Great and Lesser Satans) since 1979. Their regular army was pretty much a huge mob of light infantry. All their experienced officers were purged after the revolution. The only people with any real firepower were the Revolutionary Guards units, and they weren't even part of the regular military chain of command. Not to mention the fact that they (the RGs) were more about religious fanaticism than military profesionalism.

                              In short, the Iraqis should, by any reasonable standard, have crushed the Iranians like a grape. That they utterly failed to do so should certainly NOT have been lost on anyone with Hackworths training and experience.

                              By the way, I don't know about the NATO types, but I don't remember anyone in the US military (Air Force, anyway) who really took the Iraqis very seriously. Our reaction was overwhemling one of 'I can't believe they're really going to do this.'
                              The more I think about it, ol' Billy was right.
                              Let's kill all the lawyers, kill 'em tonight.
                              - The Eagles

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