ABOUT FACE By David Haskell Hackworth

DOB: Nov 11, 1930    DOD: Mar 04, 2005

David had a miserable start to life. He was born into an intact family and lived there about five months before his parents died. His paternal grandmother assumed the parental role for David as well as his brother and sister.
The ‘Great Depression,’ was hard on this spontaneously adapted family. Life was consumed by a need to eat well and by earning spare change by shining shoes of Soldiers and Marines in their home town of Ocean Park, California (today is known as Malibu, California).

David’s early informal education was supplemented by stories from his Grandmother, of the Old West in Colorado and war stories from shoe shine clients who had seen parts of the world that must have seemed magical to this young boy. His uncle added to the romance and mystique of life in uniform with stories of being gassed during WWI, in Europe.

At an early age, David was hooked on the risks and adventure of life in the world. By age 14 he was ready to experience his own escapades.
Not having parents was hurtful and helpful at the same time. The hurt came with no guidance to prevent him from leaving school in the seventh grade and trouble with Police Authorities.

The helpfulness came when he found himself on the ‘lam’, as it was known then. In order to join the Merchant Marine Service he was forced to adapt and improvise by hiring a transient to pose as his father in order to sign permission for entry. This happened in late 1945 as WWII was closing down.

By 1946 he had returned to California with an infected cut on his foot. He recovered from the infection to join the US Army using his Merchant Marine papers to lie about his age and gaining entrance.

This entire experience taught him that he had to rely on his street and common sense to adapt and prevail thru the maze of establishment bull crap. This would be useful throughout his lifetime.

His enlistment in the US Army was for three years. After training, he served in Trieste, Italy where he earned a General Educational Development High School Equivalency. Combining this book work with the military discipline that was inflicted by combat hardened WWII Veterans, ‘Hack’ as he became known, was completing an education that few men could afford, let alone withstand.
Quietly and effectively, with the brash arrogance of a well-traveled street punk, he rose to the rank of Sergeant before arriving in Korea for the start of a brand new war.

There he distinguished himself by being awarded 3 Silver Stars and 3 Purple Hearts and being promoted with a battlefield commission to 2nd Lieutenant.

After being promoted to 1st Lieutenant he was offered the command of a new unit with special, very dangerous duties. His superiors saw the potential of his ‘take a chance’ personality. The unit was named the “27th Wolfhound Raiders.”
After his third purple heart, he volunteered for a second tour of duty in Korea. He was promoted to Captain. The Armistice of July 27, 1953 Hack left the Army to further his formal education. After 2 years of college, he was burned out and bored with the routine and mundane challenges of civilian life.

He rejoined the Army in 1956 as a Captain.

‘About Face’ went on to detail almost every assignment that was given to ‘Hack’. Each duty station turned into a learning and growing experience with a dose of adventure. He was thriving within his new family.

I don’t think he recognized the Army as a family, but in fact, it was. As long as you view the command Structure as a father (‘Authority Figure’) and the benefits as the ‘Mother Figure,’ the Army was in truth his new family.
Like the willful son of some families, he took advantage of the benefits and learned to manipulate the authority, very effectively.

After Korea, he married and had children. Domestication was not his ‘cup of tea.” His family first and foremost was the Army and a wife and children was a distraction. During his life, he married three times. He had four children and one Step-daughter.

Col. Hackworth’s focus would not be fragmented.

From 1956 thru to 1965, Hack paid his Army dues by learning and growing, all the while teaching his subordinates how to stay alive in a “Real Estate Concentric War.” The ‘Fire drills,” of the early ’60s in Germany were an exciting diversion from Occupation duties.

Little did he know that Vietnam would alter most of the rules he had learned. These changes would profoundly alter his attitudes and views of the world and politics.

During the “Cold War,” the Army had changed to become a ‘Ticket Punching” merry-go-round. Another words, the Officer Corp adapted by taking care of each other. Getting and giving the right assignment that would be considered rife for promotion. This was not the kind of reward game ‘Hack’ was accustomed to playing. He preferred reward and punishment of actions with the adrenal overload that follows.

After being refused duty in Vietnam a number of times, he was assigned in 1965 as a Major. The 101st Airborne Division was his bailiwick, so to speak. He would thrive once again.

Reproducing the environment of the ‘Wolfhounds’ of Korea, ‘Hack’ would select a very special group of men for a platoon size unit. This unit was trained by ‘Hack’ to fight Guerrilla Style, just as the enemy had been doing. He called this group of unusually talented men the “Tiger Force.”

The unit would win a “Presidential Unit Citation” before ‘Hack’ left. Once he was promoted and transferred out of the unit, the “Tigers” went “native” and morphed into something very different. They began to do some very nasty things. These things would be called “War Crimes,” then and now. This was not what ‘Hack’ had created.

After the first tour in Vietnam, he would serve at the Pentagon only to be promoted to Lt. Colonel. Taking advantage of his formal education, he was assigned to write a book and various articles about the Army and Vietnam.
This experience began to sour his taste for Vietnam. He was asked to defend the war in Vietnam. This task became more and more difficult as time went on.
In 1969 he was back in combat. Assigned to train and fine-tune a ‘hardcore’ battalion of Redondos in the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam. An area called both III and IV Corp.

Part of the training mission was to teach South Vietnam Troop to set traps for the enemy. One was unique. The idea was to pick a trail that the enemy frequented and set “Claymore Mines” to go off once tripped by enemy movement. It worked perfectly for a short while. When enemy dead fell off and requests for more Claymores came in he became suspicious. He asked and was told that the idea worked quite well. The troops were eating Boar meat much more frequently.
This experience was one of the minor disappointments of his experience in Vietnam.

He began to notice that the ‘5 o’clock follies,’ a label that was used to describe the daily press conference that was held by the Army at MACV, also known as Disneyland East, were not describing the war as it was actually being prosecuted. These Press Conferences were actually not even a shadow of any reality of combat transpiring daily.

‘Hack’ became aware that bars, whorehouses, and laundrymats were owned or controlled by the South Vietnam Army’s senior officers. Even worse, he found out that twenty percent of Vietnam’s economy was being skimmed from the US and being dispersed to European Banks.

‘Hack’s’ breaking point came in two separate stages. The first of which was the My Lai incident of March 16, 1968. He didn’t believe it until the trials in 1971. This went straight to his core. The second was his experience with the incursion of the US and South Vietnam Army’s into Cambodia via the Parrot’s Beak in 1971. He found out that a minimum of dead VC and North Vietnamese Regular Army were recovered. The Pentagon calculated that it cost $153,000.00 US to kill each enemy soldier. This drove ‘Hack’ over the edge.

His advisory duties to the South Vietnam Army and the Cambodians had ‘Hack’ feeling like “he was pissing into the wind.” The frustrations became overwhelming once the Calley / Medina trial verdicts were in, and President Nixon ordered that Lt. William L. Calley be transferred from prison to house arrest, at Ft. Benning, pending appeal.

Calley served three and a half years at Ft. Benning when the court ruled that “pre-trial publicity prejudiced his trial” and released him at that point.

This drove Col. Hackworth to the emotional breaking point. By January 1971 he could see the writing on the ‘Army’s wall’ and he made the fateful decision to do a public interview on the subject of America’s involvement in Vietnam. The interview was conducted in Vietnam on a program called “Issues & Answers.” The broadcast of the program effectively ended his 25-year career with the Army.

‘Hack’ had spent a total of 4 years in Vietnam and was the most decorated soldier the Army had serving or had served. Many compared him to Colonel Billy Mitchel and Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. Some say ‘Hack’ was depicted in the movie "Apocalypse Now" as Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, played by Robert Duvall.

‘Hack’ had no use or respect for medals or ribbons that he called “Been There Awards.” His value was in the action, adventure and valor of combat. This is very apparent when you see the list of his awards to include 10 Silver Stars, 8 Bronze Stars with Valor and 4 Army Commendations with Valor. In addition, he was given 8 Purple Hearts (that included twice to the head).

Colonel David Haskell Hackworth retired on September 28, 1971, after 25 years of honorable service. The resignation began a short period of ‘Cloak & Dagger behavior’ to avoid the Army brass that was making a gallant effort to destroy ‘Hack’s’ military career.

He was aware that his public interview of ‘bad mouthing’ the Army, Politicians, and Vietnam would create a ‘blowback.’ Perhaps he didn’t consider that he was denigrating an organization that was considered expert at killing in a war environment. Needless to say, ‘Hack’ kept his head down and didn’t advise anyone of his whereabouts for several months after he had retired.

During this period he was divorced from his second wife. He found a stable girlfriend he reconstructed his life with a move to Australia. It took 18 years of separation from the Institution of the Army but he finally recognized the difference between “the Industry of War and Service to his Country.” Nostalgia had kicked into his psyche. He called each little war we’ve been involved in “A Street without Joy,” and any CIA involvements in war, “Nazi Policies.”

After various occupations, he returned to his roots and began writing of War, Combat, Country, Valor and inept Politicians.

“About Face,” was a good read or listen (audiobook) for a good long time. Being over 800 pages long it’s not a book you bring to the beach. The details of each duty station were themselves by thrilling. Each assignment in its own special way, given time period, would have the Hackworth mark of adventure and challenge. A book or movie could be made of each assignment or experience.

The book contained too many acronyms and he used the word “Stud” so often. I began to wonder if he knew any other word to describe his counterparts. All the acronyms were explained within the index of the book.

‘Hack’s’ most profound observations were directed toward the “Military Industrial Complex.” He observed that the Industry would perform better if they hired less former ‘Star Officers’ and were held responsible for their weapon failures. I would call this “an Industrial relationship with commercial Incest characteristics.”

He also called the Military’s qualification requirements of higher education, “Sheepskin Hysteria.”

Combat experience could not be learned in any classroom.
After reading I can tell you that it was a very good book.

Take your time. It won’t be read in a weekend or a month.