THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 1, 1996 TAG: 9609030214
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY DAVID POYER
LENGTH: 82 lines
HAZARDOUS DUTY
COL. DAVID H. HACKWORTH
William Morrow. 350 pp. $27.
Most readers in this area who recognize the name ``Hackworth'' will associate it with the name ``Boorda.'' It was David Hackworth who surfaced allegations that the CNO had been wearing medals for valor that he hadn't earned. Adm. Jeremy Boorda's subsequent suicide catapulted Hackworth back into a limelight he's known before.
But there's more to that story. And there's more to the story of David H. Hackworth, Colonel, U.S. Army, Retired author of Hazardous Duty.
``Hack'' is a much-decorated veteran of combat in Italy, Yugoslavia, Korea and Vietnam (eight Purple Hearts, 70 decorations for valor) who threw his career away in an interview in 1971, in which he fiercely criticized the Army leadership on national television.
After retirement he spent 20 years in self-imposed exile in Australia, till his memoir About Face was published.
He has spent the seven years since ``chasing grunts on the training fields and in battle, this time with a pen and notebook instead of an ammo belt and an M-16. As a civilian, I have waded into the middle of every major American military operation overseas: Desert Storm, Somalia, Haiti, Korea and now Bosnia.''
``Waded'' may be the right word. It's unfair to characterize a man from his writings. But the reader gets a disquieting sense, perusing his accounts of his exploits as a combat reporter, of Hackworth as a combination of Richard Harding Davis, Hunter S. Thompson and Ernest Hemingway. Iraquis surrender to Hack and Kuwaiti Green Berets. Hack and a photographer pretend to be Army Intelligence, roaming the front lines in Desert Storm. Hack organizes his own militia in Haiti.
Self-dramatization aside, the combat reporting scenes are fascinating. Still, they are vivid sideshows for Hackworth's vendettas against what he calls the ``Perfumed Princes,'' the smooth, gutless generals who neglect the troops in favor of their own careers; against defense profiteers who push high-tech systems that don't work; against pork-barrel Congressmen who spend, spend, spend on gold-plated, useless weapons.
The most disturbing parts of his critique center on the treatment of the grunts, Army and Marine groundpounders in Somalia, Haiti, Korea and Bosnia. He reports on front-line troops sent overseas with Kevlar vests beyond their expiration date, old rifles and bad boots.
Hack says we're wasting billions getting ready for the wrong kinds of war, and sacrificing combat readiness for political correctness.
Here are a few of his recommendations: Revise the military evaluation system. Fire all public relations officers. Make sure generals and admirals are ``emotionally stable.'' ``Nail shut'' the revolving door between flag-rank military officers and defense contractors. Unify the services. Cut the carrier fleet to five. Merge the Army and Marine Corps. Eliminate the Air Force. Put the National Guard under federal control. Pull all Army forces back to the United States and defend America on American soil. Restore the draft.
No question, some of his answers are simplistic. Eliminating detailed fitness reports in favor of a yes/no checkoff block is ridiculous, as is saying ``for the first 30 days of operation, the president and the representatives and senators who have signed off on it should go as the first wave to the field of battle. They should dig the trenches, patrol the roads and clear the mines.''
Some are contradictory. How do you encourage ``gunfighters'' and ``set up a stable''? (Hack's hero, Georgie Patton, was no example of ``emotional stability.'')
Some are just wrong: America's armed forces don't exist simply to ``defend America''; they are legions supporting a precarious worldwide order, without which neither American interests nor any sort of civilization would survive for long.
Hackworth's swinging sword lays low many sacred cows. Some badly need slaying; others are just collateral damage. But Hackworth intends to keep on Hacking. ``So be warned, all you Perfumed Princes and Propaganda Poets, all you slick political porkers and weapons makers with your hands in the till. I intend to keep sniffing around like an old coyote, chewing on the Military Industrial Congressional Complex and calling 'em as I see 'em.''
But is anybody listening? MEMO: David Poyer is a Hampton Roads naval officer and novelist. His
18th book, ``Down to a Sunless Sea,'' will appear in November. by CNB