Colonel David Hackworth,1930-2005.A legend in the army,one of the most decorated soldiers ever,and intensely loyal to his men.Known affectionately to generations of soldiers simply as "Hack",he embodies everything a soldier should be.He first saw action,at 14,when he stowed away on a merchant marine ship bound for the pacific theater.He went ashore on one of the islands,and accompanied soldiers on a few patrols.When they found out his real age,they sent him home,telling him to come back when he was all growed up.He did,joining the army,more or less legally,a few years later.He saw action again,against communist guerrillas along the Italian/Yugoslav border,and then was transfered to Hawaai.Deployed to Korea,he saw even MORE action.He started the war out as a staff sergeant(he made that rank by age 19),and ended up assuming command of his unit in the heat of battle,recieving his first silver star(the 1st of 10 he'd eventually earn),along with a battlefield commisssion,to 2nd LT.

He was personally promoted to 1st LT by his division commander,along with recieving his SECOND silver star-while his battalion commander was trying to court-martial him(he had gone on a mission to recover a disabled vehicle-unable to recover it,he destroyed it-along with lots of enemy soldiers.the general liked it.the colonel was pissed)
At 21,he was the youngest captain in the army,commanding a rifle company in the front lines.Eventually,the powers that be decided he'd seen enough combat,and ordered him stateside.A totally incompetent,but well connected captain took over his company.Before he could even leave regimental HQ,word came back that the unit was under heavy attack,and was'nt faring well under the joker who'd taken over for him.Hopping in a jeep,he raced back,and asserted control over the unit,saving it from being wiped out.THEN they sent him home.He commanded several companies,and always earned the loyalty of his men-especially the NCOs.As a former NCO himself,he KNEW those guys were vital to his success.He became legendary for supporting his NCOs-if they were in the right.One old crusty WW2 vet had roughed up a snot nosed young guardsman,who had cocked off to him.The guardsman said he was reporting the old vet to the MPs for assault.Well,Hack took care of it.He knew the guardsman had it coming-and did'nt want to see an experienced sergeant lose his career over it.So Hack "punished" the sergeant.Whipping out his typewriter,he drafted a "punishment",under article 15,of the uniform code of military justice.An article 15 is the rough equivelant of a misdemeanor,and once invoked,no further punishment can be imposed.The sergeant recieved a single days restriction to his quarters......and could not be tried again for the incident.Hack's commander was FURIOUS-but the sergeant was covered,and the legend grew some more.Hack also told the guardsman,if it ever came up again,he would PERSONALLY kick his ass.Loyalty like that is remembered.A few years later,while assuming command of another unit,he had inadvertantly signed for all the weapons in the arms room-with one being missing.It was'nt really missing,but it was on the books as being in the inventory.A missing weapon will end a career with a quickness.The word went out,on the NCO jungle telegraph-"Hack is in trouble!"Within a few days,armorers and supply sergeants,had scrounged enough parts to build a whole rifle.Ok,the serial numbers did'nt match.Nothing a chisel won't fix...gee,can't quite make out those last few numbers.....then they needed the proper supply paperwork.Another old sergeant,an expert forger,created a whole set of it-complete with wear marks,and coffee stains.An audit of Hack's armsroom showed no shortages.The sergeants were'nt ABOUT to let their officer go down,over an honest mistake.

Then Viet Nam came along,and Hack was back in action.As a major,he LITERALLY wrote the book on tactics for the war,a training manual entitled "the viet nam primer".He commanded troops in Viet Nam,served at the pentagon awhile,and commanded a training battalion at Fort Lewis.As a LT Colonel and battalion commander,he personally helped conduct training.He knew he had to prepare those kids for war the best he could.His units motto was "stay alert,stay alive"His NCOs did'nt get offended by him taking part either-he had been there as an NCO,and they saw him as one of them-sort of.Normally we'll get pissed when officers interfere with OUR slice of the army.We take care of the nuts and bolts,day to day details of running the army-and most of us are pretty good at it.Our attitude is,"stay in yer office and drink coffee,and do officer shit sir-we got this covered"Hack never got that from his sergeants.Its almost unheard of for a battalion commander to personally show a new soldier how to perform a task.West Point teaches that an officer should be able to perform the tasks of a private,a sergeant,and an officer.Hack firmly believed that,although he had never attended West Point.

returning to viet nam,he took over literally the worst infantry battalion in theater.It was horrendous,with little morale,and zero combat effectiveness.THe guys figured that Hack was probably just another careerist getting his ticket punched with command time in the war.When they saw him PERSONALLY lead his helicopter into an extremely hot LZ and pull wounded soldiers out of danger-with only minutes of daylight flying time left-their opinion changed.Drastically."Hey,THIS guy is one of US!"...

He then made full colonel.The youngest colonel in the army,and was being groomed for higher command.Odds are,he would have eventually been the army chief of staff,or maybe even the chairman of the joint chiefs.But Hack cared more about his men,than a bunch of brass hats at the pentagon.He knew the war was not going well-and said as much at a press conference.He said,in 1971,the war was unwinnable,and we needed to pull out.He also said the North Vietnamese flag would fly over saigon in 4 years.It did.Right after the press conference,he dropped his retirement papers,and flew home.

The army was pissed.Their rising young star had done the unthinkable.He'd pointed out,correctly,that the emperor had no clothes.After several days of sneaking around and hiding out,his retirement was settled.He then embarked upon a writing career,writing columns critical of STUPID things the military,and the civilian leadership did.He formed an organization called "soldiers for the truth",which his widow,and LOTS of friends still run.

I met the good colonel at a book signing event,at the PX at Fort Lewis,in 2002.It was quite the honor.I have a signed copy of his book,"Steel my Soldiers' Hearts"

The army could use more men like Hack.He was pure warrior,and will be missed

During desert storm,I got to hone my skills as a thief-a useful skill in any military unit.We had a shortage of tents,and Bob,our platoon daddy,was griping about it.We told him,don't worry-most of us are combat arms guys-thieves and rogues by job description....we'll,uh,FIND a tent.....

So,several of us proceeded to go out on a "mission"-and found a GP medium tent-within a few minutes,it was in our truck,and enroute to OUR camp.It had "82nd Airborne" stenciled on it-nothing some krylon won't fix

we "aquired" a honda generator-a broken one,but Mike,our resident gearhead,got it going-MOST of the time.WE "found" several vehicles-our best find-a big yellow school bus-from the states-that SOMEHOW ended up in the Saudi arabian desert."Uh,Mike,kin ya hotwire this thing..?"When the skipper asked where it came from,it was like,"uh,you don't REALLY want to know,do you sir?"

Food was always a popular item for us to "scrounge"Our mess sergeant did the best he could,but he only had so much to work with.So,we'd conduct night ops,and raid other units' mess trailers-at 3AM.We'd come back loaded down like pack mules.One night we scored both a full case of eggs-72 dozen-AND a case of mars bars.We gorged....

I even carried a weapon we "found".We scored a couple dozen Ruger .38 revolvers,and a bunch of us traded those for our M-16s.Glad we did'nt get caught on THAT one!

We actually did get caught-ONCE-taking some 3 hole shitters from another unit.Their sergeant-major bagged us.Shit......

On our way out of Dammam,the port,the Saudi navy "donated" 5 truckloads of lumber to us.Bet they were pissed too..

I continued honing my thievin' skills over the years.We never stole any personal property-only military equipment and supplies.Gotta have SOME ethics

Every soldier has a number of mental files,where you store the guys you've known.One is entitled "animals I have Known"-another one is "knuckleheads I'd like to boil in oil"Earl fit into the former.

He came to my unit at Knox a few weeks after I did,a young buck sergeant recently returned from Iraq.We hit it off right away,especially when we saw we both wore the "broken TV" patch,of the famed 3rd Infantry Division.We were section sergeants together,and then I got thrust into the role of the platoon sergeant.Thats when Earl REALLY became indispensable to me.In a cavalry platoon,there are normally 11 NCOs-well,besides Earl and myself,there was only one other NCO-"the mad scotsman".Earl was the more experienced of the two,and he became my right hand man.I could'nt have functioned without him,and we both knew it.I'm close to twice his age,and gave him lots of grief about being a "youngster",but he knew how much I counted on him.

In the spring of '05,when I started having medical issues,he had to step up and keep telling me to to take my dumb ass home,and get some sleep.Of course,being stubborn,I'd argue with him.He'd tell me flat out-"sarge,you're fucked up-go home-I got it covered"One time,he even had to go rat me out to the first sergeant,who insisted I go home.Earl was the ultimate in an NCO being loyal to his comrades in arms

He was married to Kelly Jo,a "KFC",or kentucky fat chick.One night,at a party in his neighborhood,some drunken boor made the BAD mistake of calling Kelly Jo a "fat bitch"Understandably,Earl knocked the crap out of him,and the MPs hauled him in.I got a call from one of the guys,telling me he was at the MP station,and I had to go get him out of jail.We SOMEHOW managed to keep everything hush hush,and the commander was never the wiser.

He was a very comical guy-sorta like Jim Carey,with a thick Kentucky accent.He always kept the whole platoon just ROLLING,with his keen sense of humor.Occasionally,he'd run home,and get some 'shine-THEN it really got interesting......

He was just an all around great guy.Hope I run into him again.

I like reading humorous military anecdotes,and ran across this one eons ago,and still get a good chuckle out of it.

In was the summer of '46,and President Harry truman was walking through a corridor of the pentagon,accompanied by senior military leaders.As they walked,a young marine corporal was coming the other way.As he approached,he whipped a snappy salute at Truman.He went on his way,and Truman told one of the Generals to get the young marine,as he wanted to talk with him.

Truman:"Why did you salute me,son?"

Marine:"SIR!you are the commander in chief!It's required,sir!"

Truman: "Son,I've been in office over a year-and you're the FIRST sonofabitch who has saluted me!"

Truman,to the General: "promote this man-and make it snappy!"

The kid was promoted-to sergeant-major-on the spot.He sure had a tale to tell his grandkids

2 August,1990.I was a SP4 in an artillery unit in the 1st Cavalry Division,at Fort Hood.Suddenly,around lunchtime,the news came over the radio about the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.We did'nt recieve official notification for a few days that we were going,but it was pretty much a foregone conclusion,with us being the largest tank division in the world,and training extensively in the desert,out ar Fort Irwin,CA.

Well,on 27 September 1990,I departed,along with 500 others,on the first flight out of Robert Gray Army airfield.I had been transferred to another unit,as the support battalions were massively understrength,and they had moved lots of us combat arms guys there to fill in.I was assigned as a truck driver in a platoon that hauled bulk fuel.

We arrived in Dammam,Saudi Arabia,where we spent two weeks,awaiting the shipment by boat of all our vehicles.Talk about HOT!Not too many events of consequence while we were there,except for the North Korean guest worker caught by the Saudi marines sneaking away with plans of the airfield defenses(he got beheaded),and an attack by a small suicide boat,which the Saudi Navy shot to pieces.

After getting all our vehicles unloaded(and they ALL had flat tires.if you've never changed all the tires on an 18 wheeler,trust me,it SUCKS).We rolled north,and established our first camp,Camp Pulaski,named after Count Cashimir Pulaski,who had aided the continental army during the revolution.And then BOREDOM set in.We had little to do except run the occasional supply mission and play poker.

There were 16 of us my squad-pretty good guys for the most part.There was John,a kid from Austin,Texas,Ray,from Los Angeles,Bubba from somewhere in Texas,Randy from Oregon,and a bunch of other good dudes.We all hit it off well,and shared everything we had.When we first arrived there,we did'nt have much-the Egyptian truck drivers who delivered supplies to the camps were great-they REALLY were a sharing bunch of guys.They'd get a live goat off the truck,slaughter it,cook it,brew up coffee for us,and pass out smokes.The Egyptians were the ONLY arabs most of us had any use for.The rest of them can kiss my ass.In fact,later on during the deployment,we almost got into a firefight with some Syrians-only the quick action of an english speaking Saudi officer who got things defuzed kept us from shooting all of them.

We kept rolling north,changing camps 5 times,until our arrival in the tri-border region,near the village of Hafr-Al-Batin,and near a massive Saudi Military complex,known as King Khalid Military City,or KKMC.It was from that region that the major ground operations of the war were launched.

When it came time to send in ground troops,we had set up a refueling point,to get all of the division's vehicles topped off and sent north.All of the NCOs had stayed farther back,except for a couple E-5s-I found myself acting as the assistant platoon sergeant.We refueled the entire divion in 18 hours,and I even met the commanding General during the refueling ops.Later on,he selected several junior soldiers from each unit to decorate,and I was one of them.He gave me an ARCOM-army commendation medal(not a real high award,but as it came from the CG,remains a prized possesion of mine)

The battle began,and was over in short order.The battle of Wadi-Al-Batin,was the 2nd largest tank battle ever fought,with only Kursk,in 1943,being larger.I'm glad I was part of it.

And then the war was over,and I headed home.Upon arrival at Fort Hood,an old crusty sarge,working as a cab driver,told me I had gotten the BEST medal of all-my ass home in one piece.Yup,gota agree with him on that