by DemFromCT
Col. David Hackworth was reported by CBS Radio to have passed away yesterday in Mexico while undergoing treatment for bladder cancer.
Colonel David H. Hackworth is America's most decorated living soldier, with more than one hundred awards, including two Distinguished Service Crosses, ten Silver Stars, eight Bronze Stars for valor, and eight Purple Hearts, which he considers the most meaningful because, he says, "they can't be faked."
More than any other military commentator, he has the trust and confidence of the millions of soldiers--from foreign armies as well as our own--who cheered every word of his widely acclaimed autobiography.
More about Hack can be found here and at his websites Soldiers For The Truth and Hackworth.com, neither of which has any infoabout his passing as of this writing. An excellent Salon article from Aug, 2003 can be found here. This is a guy who wrote the book on 'supporting the troops'. who was more interested in armor and ammo for the privates than golf courses for the officers. He had little patience for the brass at the Pentagon, and whatever part of the political spectrum you came from, this guy was a hero, the genuine kind, not the made-for-TV phony version. He was "one of the first senior officers to speak out publicly against the Vietnam War. He was nearly court-martialed before he retired from the military in 1971 and gave up his medals in protest." [from the Star Tribune].
I didn't always agree with him, but there was no questioning where Hack was coming from. I certainly agreed with this from Salon:
The retired colonel calls Donald Rumsfeld an "asshole" whose bad planning mired U.S. troops in an ugly guerrilla conflict in Iraq. His sources? Defiant soldiers sending dispatches from the front.
Condolences to his family and may he rest in peace.
I made my long comments at dKos. But bless you brother for bringing this to my attention so quickly. Hack was a personal hero. And I have damn few left walking around.
Posted by: BigDog04 | May 05, 2005 at 15:12
BigDog04, yo tambien.
Posted by: DemFromCT | May 05, 2005 at 16:39