A Tribute to Col. David Hackworth
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/5/8/193016.shtml
Archives:
http://www.military.com/Resources/ResourceFileView/?file=Hackworth_Index.htm
http://www.hackworth.com/archive.html
http://wnd.com/news/archives.asp?AUTHOR_ID=9
http://www.military.com/Resources/ResourceFileView/?file=Hackworth_Index.htm
A Final Farewell
(excerpt)
It is my privilege to inform you that Hack is back on permanent duty.
Col. David Haskell Hackworth USA (Ret.) has joined several hundred thousand of his fellow soldiers guarding the hallowed ground of Arlington after a Memorial Service at nearby Fort Myer this morning [May 31, 2005]. More than 600 former comrades, fellow soldiers and friends gathered in the soaring Fort Myer Memorial Chapel to shed tears of sorrow over his passing, to hear some of his favorite songs and psalms, and to laugh and betimes listen in awed silence as fellow veterans and journalism colleagues recounted his bravery, his audacity, his integrity and his perennial smile…
http://www.sftt.org/main.cfm?actionId=globalShowStaticContent&screenKey=cmpDefense&htmlCategoryID=29&htmlId=2783
To The End, Colonel A Man of the Troops
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/05/30/to_the_end_colonel_a_man_of_the_troops/
'Col. David Hackworth: A man who truly supported our troops'
(excerpt)
Good training is the foundation of good leadership. The rest can be found in the principles of another man who deeply influenced Hackworth, Col. Glover Johns. Hackworth loved to quote Johns' basic philosophy of soldiering:
- Strive to do small things well.
- Be a doer and a self-starter - aggressiveness and initiative are two most admired qualities in a leader - but you must also put your feet up and think.
- Strive through self-improvement through constant self-evaluation.
- Never be satisfied. Ask of any project, "How can it be done better?"
- Don't overinspect and oversupervise. Allow your leaders to make mistakes in training, so they can profit from the errors and not make them in combat.
- Keep the troops informed; telling them "what, how, and why" builds their confidence.
- The harder the training, the more troops will brag.
- Enthusiasm, fairness, and moral and physical courage - four of the most important aspects of leadership.
- Showmanship - a vital technique of leadership.
- The ability to speak and write well - two essential tools of leadership.
- There is a salient difference between profanity and obscenity; while a leader employs profanity (tempered with discretion), he never uses obscenities.
- Have consideration for others.
- Yelling detracts from your dignity; take men aside to counsel them.
- Understand and use judgment; know when to stop fighting for something you believe is right. Discuss and argue your point of view until a decision is made, and then support the decision wholeheartedly.
- Stay ahead of your boss.
http://www.hackworth.com/
Except of course he was rather creepy in his attack on Admiral Borda, when he himself had faked some medals....
Why don't we let Col. Hackworth, even though he's now deceased, speak for himself and tell us what happened and how it occurred? He explains the medals incident in this article:
http://www.cnn.com/US/9705/16/hackworth/
Ah. I see.
He was a good looking man. Unlike Admiral Borda.
Such great self confidence. Unlike Admiral Borda.
I tend to be uneasy with people who attack weaker individuals...
I had a postcard from him, after I wrote him after the death. I forget now what he wrote, I remember, though, that he printed, and printing is said to be used to conceal...
Re: "a good-looking man." Actually, Karen, if you stick around these forums long enough to get to know most of us here, as we hope you do, I predict that you will see a common denominator among most of us here. We look for substance and quality, not superficial traits like "good looks." In fact, I'd wager to guess that 99% of us in here are usually instantly suspicious of people with "good looks" since many wealthy, good-looking people too often end up as hollow, souless, worldly individuals.
Since you're a newbie here, you'd have no way of knowing this, Karen, but many of us at this forum have sort of an unspoken rule: It is Memorial Day weekend--the Monday holiday as I write now, and it was Memorial Day weekend 2006 also when you made several posts here. During Memorial Day most of us World Affairs Brief readers, I'll bet, would probably wait at least 24 hours before slamming any vet or mentioning past controversies since we lay past differences aside as we pause to honor and respect ALL our American vets on this special day. That would be the good-looking ones, the ones who weren't blessed with beauty, those with great confidence, the weak-willed, the intelligent ones, those who weren't so smart, the physically weak over the physically strong. ALL types who served our great country are important and their efforts contributed to the whole in their own unique way.
Memorial Day, in my opinion, has one main purpose--a day that we reflect and honor ALL vets who sacrificed much for our country.
David Hackworth, by the way, along with many other Vietnam-era vets his age, give or take 10-15 years either way, most likely, as I read even he himself believed, ended up with the cancer that killed him because of exposure to Agent Orange and other deadly chemicals he encountered during the Vietnam years.
Prayers and my deepest respect to all our other vets, who like Hackworth, suffered terrible deaths or may be ill or dying right now all because they risked their lives while serving their country--a country whose lying leaders led them into phony, unnecessary overseas wars in the first place.