Airborne Heroes

[MAC11B3V]

It is important to remember those that have fought and gone on before us in our community. I read quite a bit of military history, and have been compelled to share some highlights from some of these great men and women. Anyone is free to post an article or Bio on someone they would like to see remembered in this thread, I only ask that they served at some point in their career as a paratrooper (for the sake of relevance). Please try to include highlights of their career, and accomplishments. Thanks

[MAC11B3V]

Major Richard "Dick" J. Meadows (June 16, 1931 – July 29, 1995) was a U.S. Army Special Forces officer who saw combat in U.S. wars from Korea to the Iran hostage rescue mission in 1980. He was a pivotal player in the creation of the modern U.S. Army Special Forces.

Meadows enlisted in the Army at age 15. He first saw combat in Korea and was, by age 20, the youngest Master Sergeant in the Army at that time. In 1953, he entered the U.S. Army Special Forces and remained active in them or the Rangers until his retirement in 1977. His participation in the Iran Hostage Rescue mission came after his official retirement.

In 1960, Meadows was one of the first U.S. Army officers to participate in an exchange program with the British Special Air Service special forces unit. Meadows completed SAS training, was an acting troop leader for 12 months, and participated in a field combat operation with his unit. It is widely believed that Meadows' SAS experience helped form the basis for future US Army special forces selection, training, and organizational structures.

While assigned to the 8th Special Forces Group in Panama, MSgt. Meadows volunteered for a tour in Vietnam. At the end of his first tour, serving in the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam - Studies and Observations Group, Meadows received a direct commission as a captain on April 14, 1967.

On Nov 21, 1970 Capt. Meadows was the team leader for the initial assault team in the Son Tay prison camp raid (see Operation Ivory Coast). This 14-man team (plus pilots), code-named Blueboy, intentionally crash-landed an HH-3 helicopter right in the middle of the prison camp to achieve maximum surprise. One team member was injured in the landing (broken ankle). The remaining team members executed their mission without further casualties. However, much to Meadows' disappointment, the prison camp had moved all its captives weeks earlier.
In the mid-1970s, Meadows was a key figure in the founding of the US Delta Force special operations and hostage rescue force.

He retired from the Army in 1977 as the Training Officer/Deputy Commander, Jungle Phase, U.S. Army Ranger School, Camp Rudder, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. However, his career in Special Operations was far from over. As a civilian he was an advisor in the formation of SFOD-Delta, and his most daring exploit probably came while working as a consultant to the Iran hostage crisis. In 1980, Major Meadows returned to service as a special consultant and performed a covert reconnaissance of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran prior to and during Operation Eagle Claw, better known as the Iran Hostage Rescue mission. That mission ended in a major accident at a ground refueling point in the Iran desert, and was aborted. Documents found at the crash site compromised both the mission and Meadows' cover in Iran. Working undercover as a foreign businessman in Iran to scout the American embassy where the hostages were being held, and arrange transportation for the rescue force within Tehran, he was stranded when the mission was aborted. Alone, and with little more than his wits and courage to draw on, he was forced to make a harrowing escape from Iran.

Continuing in later years to selflessly serve his country, he spent much of the remainder of his life working against the illegal drug trade. At a ceremony posthumously awarding him the Presidential Citizen's Medal for Distinguished Service, it was said of him that he "quite literally established standards by which we measure all special operators -- now and in the future."

In 1995, Meadows was diagnosed with and subsequently died of leukemia. It is contended by many in the Special Forces community that, had the contents of Meadows' military record been disclosed, he would have been awarded the Medal of Honor. However, the majority of Meadows' covert roles in Vietnam working with the CIA's Special Activities Division, remain undisclosed.

Dick Meadows was a professional who dedicated his life to a service of God, country and home; devoted himself to his duty, his comrades and his family; and established a standard of professional excellence by which all who follow in his footsteps shall be measured.

His many awards and decorations include the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star (w/oak leaf cluster), Legion of Merit, Bronze Star (with V device for valor), Air Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Commendation Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal (w/two oak leaf clusters). He was also the recipient of the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Master Parachutist Badge, Glider Badge, Ranger and Special Forces Tabs, the HALO Instructor badge, the SCUBA badge, and many foreign awards. He has also recieved the Defense Superior Service Medal, the CIA Seal (posthumous), the Presidential Citizens Medal (posthumous), the USSOCOM Medal (posthumous), the USSOCOM Outstanding Civilian Service Medal (posthumous), and the USSOCOM Bull Simons Award. In 1997, the U.S. Army Special Operations Command dedicated a statue of his likeness.

*Promoted to Master Sergeant at age 20, Korean War
*First Battlefield Commission (Captain) in the Vietnam War
*RT Ohio One-Zero
*MSG Meadows was the first US Army qualified HALO Jumpmaster/Instructor, along with (then) LT Chuck Fry
*Lead assault team leader on the Son Tay raid
*Member of the Ranger Hall of Fame

The-Quiet-Professional-Major-Richard-J-Meadows-of-the-US-Army-Special-Forces.jpg111205_1B_MEADOWS.jpg

[Hendo]

Colonel (Ret) Robert W. Black .......


Soldier, world traveler, historian, and author, COL Robert W. Black distinguished himself throughout his military career rising through the ranks of recruit to colonel and serving in ground combat during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. COL Black saw combat actions in eight campaigns. Twice awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge, he holds the Silver Star, three Bronze Stars (two for valor), the Legion of Merit, the Air Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, two Meritorious Service Medals, two Army Commendation Medals, the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry, and the Vietnam Cross of Honor. COL Black is the foremost historian of the American Ranger. His research and writings have proven Ranger accomplishments from the 1600's to the 20th century. He is the author of eight Ranger histories including "The Battalion," "The Ranger Force," "Rangers in Korea," and "Rangers in World War II." These and other publications informed the public of Ranger contributions to our national development and security. Best selling author David Brinkley called Black "The dean of Ranger historians."
Thirty years after the Korean War, COL Black, a member of the 8th Airborne Ranger Company in the Korean War, led the successful effort by Rangers associations to retrieve Ranger lineage and battle honors that were given to Special Forces. He secured offical recognition of the 8th Army Ranger Company and the award of the Ranger Tab to the men who served in that unit in Korea. His research resulted in Rangers and their units receiving decorations and awards earned, but not received. He developed programs that resulted in Ranger monuments, the Ranger Regimental Bowl and grave markers. He was the founder of the Ranger Research Collection at the United States Military History Institute which includes the largest collection of Ranger photographs in existence.
COL Black was the Founding President of the Association of the Ranger Infantry Companies (Airborne) of the Korean War. His civilian career has included hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles on his world travels and eight published histories of the exploits of the American Ranger.

I read his book on my first trip to the 'Stan and couldn't put it down. He's even still around doing the do.



If you're wondering about the look on his face in this picture, it might have a little to do with this one.........



They don't call them dammits for nothing .

[Lower_Jumper]

Plenty of Rangers from The 75th Ranger Regiment have earned stones on the Ranger Memorial. Combat Infantryman's Badges, Bronze and Silver Stars, even combat jumps. Our Rangers have involved themselves in firefights, close quarter combat, hand to hand and outright, personal gun battles. Our Rangers have done it all. They are 18 year old kids and 40 year old men. They are the brave people who protect us with their lives. God bless them all.

[Purple]

A few I knew and looked up to:

Bob Howard http://rlhtribute.com/

Fred Zabitosky http://homeofheroes.com/moh/citation...osky_fred.html

Doug Miller http://homeofheroes.com/moh/citation..._a_miller.html

Roy Benevidez http://homeofheroes.com/moh/citation...videz_roy.html

Lee Mize http://homeofheroes.com/photos/7_korea/mize.html

William 'Red' King http://articles.latimes.com/1988-08-..._1_paratrooper

Dick Warren 187 RCT (w/2 combat jumps), 77th SFGA, 1st SFGA, 7th SFGA, 5th SFGA, B-57 (Project Gamma), MACVSOG, and Combined Studies.

Ernie Tabata http://www.1stsfgp.org/BullSimonsAward.htm

Joe Alderman http://www.projectdelta.net/bios/alderman.htm

And so it goes...

Richard

[vnvetret]

All the MEN who ran recon in SOG surely qualify for inclusion. I typed it in caps purposely. Proud to have known them.

[mac117]

Don't forget COL James N. Rowe.....and Danny Pitzer.

[Santo Tomas]

MAJ Dick Winters

[IEDmagnet]

No one had mentioned SSG Salvatore Giunta....

[Grouchy Hippo]

Anyone who was on Hill 875

[MAC11B3V]

Robert Lewis Howard (July 11, 1939 – December 23, 2009) was a highly decorated United States Army soldier and Medal of Honor recipient of the Vietnam War. He was wounded 14 times over 54 months of combat, was awarded 8 Purple Hearts, 4 Bronze Stars, and was nominated for the Medal of Honor three separate times. He was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery on February 22, 2010.

Biography

As a staff sergeant of the highly-classified Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG), Howard was recommended for the Medal of Honor on three separate occasions for three individual actions during thirteen months spanning 1967–1968. The first two nominations were downgraded to a Silver Star and the Distinguished Service Cross due to the covert nature of the operations in which Howard participated. As a Sergeant First Class of the same organization, he risked his life during a rescue mission in Cambodia on December 30, 1968, while second in command of a platoon-sized Hornet force that was searching for missing American soldier Robert Scherdin, and was finally awarded the Medal of Honor. He learned of the award over a two-way radio while under enemy fire, immediately after being wounded, resulting in one of his eight Purple Hearts.
Howard was wounded 14 times during one 54-month period during the Vietnam War. He received two Masters degrees during his government career which spanned almost 50 years. Howard retired as a full Colonel in 1992. His Army career spanned 1956 to 1992.
According to NBC News, Howard may have been the most highly-decorated American soldier since World War II. His residence was in Texas and he spent much of his free time working with veterans at the time of his death. He also took periodic trips to Iraq to visit active duty troops.
Howard died of pancreatic cancer at a hospice in Waco, Texas on December 23, 2009. He was survived by four children and four grandchildren. His funeral was in Arlington National Cemetery on 22 February 2010.

Medal of Honor citation

The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pride in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR to
FIRST LIEUTENANT
ROBERT L. HOWARD
UNITED STATES ARMY
for service as set forth in the following CITATION:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. 1st Lt. Howard (then SFC), distinguished himself while serving as platoon sergeant of an American-Vietnamese platoon which was on a mission to rescue a missing American soldier in enemy controlled territory in the Republic of Vietnam. The platoon had left its helicopter landing zone and was moving out on its mission when it was attacked by an estimated 2-company force. During the initial engagement, 1st Lt. Howard was wounded and his weapon destroyed by a grenade explosion. 1st Lt. Howard saw his platoon leader had been wounded seriously and was exposed to fire. Although unable to walk, and weaponless, 1st Lt. Howard unhesitatingly crawled through a hail of fire to retrieve his wounded leader. As 1st Lt. Howard was administering first aid and removing the officer's equipment, an enemy bullet struck 1 of the ammunition pouches on the lieutenant's belt, detonating several magazines of ammunition. 1st Lt. Howard momentarily sought cover and then realizing that he must rejoin the platoon, which had been disorganized by the enemy attack, he again began dragging the seriously wounded officer toward the platoon area. Through his outstanding example of indomitable courage and bravery, 1st Lt. Howard was able to rally the platoon into an organized defense force. With complete disregard for his safety, 1st Lt. Howard crawled from position to position, administering first aid to the wounded, giving encouragement to the defenders and directing their fire on the encircling enemy. For 3¹⁄₂ hours 1st Lt. Howard's small force and supporting aircraft successfully repulsed enemy attacks and finally were in sufficient control to permit the landing of rescue helicopters. 1st Lt. Howard personally supervised the loading of his men and did not leave the bullet-swept landing zone until all were aboard safely. 1st Lt. Howard's gallantry in action, his complete devotion to the welfare of his men at the risk of his life were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

Awards and decorations

Medal of Honor
Distinguished Service Cross
Silver Star
Bronze Star for Valor, 3d Oak Leaf Cluster
Purple Heart, 8th Award, 7th Oak Leaf Cluster
Defense Superior Service Medal
Legion of Merit, 3d Oak Leaf Cluster
Bronze Star for Meritorious Achievement
Air Medal for Valor, 2d Oak Leaf Cluster
Army Commendation Medal for Valor, 3d Oak Leaf Cluster
Air Medal for Aerial Flights
Army Meritorious Service Medal, 2d Oak Leaf Cluster
Army Commendation Medal for Meritorious Achievement, 2d Oak Leaf Cluster
Joint Service Commendation Medal
Joint Service Achievement Medal
Army Achievement Medal
Good Conduct Medal 4th Award
National Defense Service Medal
Armed Forces Reserve Medal
PNCO Ribbon W/2 device
Army Overseas Ribbon
Army Service Ribbon
Expeditionary Medal, 2d Oak Leaf Cluster
Vietnam Service Medal
Vietnam Campaign Medal with 60 device
Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Gold Star
Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Silver Star
Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Bronze Star
Vietnam Honor Medal 2d Award
Vietnamese Wound Medal
Vietnamese Civil Action Medal 2d Award
Army Presidential Unit Citation, 1st Oak Leaf Cluster
Navy Valorous Unit Citation
Army Meritorious Unit Citation
Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm, 1st Oak Leaf Cluster
Republic of Korea Samil Medal


Badges, qualifications and tabs

Special Forces Tab

Ranger Tab

Combat Infantryman Badge

Expert Infantryman Badge

Aircrew Badge

Master Parachutist Badge

Air Assault Badge

Pathfinder Badge

Expert Marksmanship Badge

French Parachutist Badge

Vietnamese Ranger Badge

Vietnamese Master Parachute Badge

Thai Master Parachute Wings

Korean Master Parachute Badge

Thai Balloonist Badge

*Biography derived from Wikipedia. Please notify poster or admins if corrections need to be made.

[MAC11B3V]

Anyone who was on Hill 875

Hill 875

At 09:43 on 19 November, the three companies (330 men) of 2/503 moved into jumpoff positions from which to assault Hill 875. Charlie and Delta companies moved up the slope followed by two platoons of Alpha Company in the classic "two up one back" formation utilized since World War I. The Weapons Platoon of Alpha remained behind at the bottom of the hill to cut out a landing zone. Instead of a frontal assault with massed troops, the unit would have been better served by advancing small teams to develop possible North Vietnamese positions and then calling in air and artillery support.

U.S. 105 mm artillery battery in action in the Central Highlands.

At 10:30, as the Americans moved to within 300 meters of the crest, PAVN machine gunners opened fire on the advancing paratroopers. Then B-40 rockets and 57mm recoilless rifle fire were unleashed upon them. The paratroopers attempted to continue the advance, but the North Vietnamese, well concealed in interconnected bunkers and trenches, opened fire with small arms and grenades. The American advance was halted and the men went to ground, finding whatever cover they could. At 14:30 PAVN troops hidden at the bottom of the hill launched a massed assault on Alpha Company. Unknown to the Americans, they had walked into a carefully prepared ambush by the 2nd Battalion of the 174th PAVN Regiment.
The men of Alpha Company retreated up the slope, lest they be cut off from their comrades and annihilated. They were closely followed by the North Vietnamese. All that prevented the company-strength North Vietnamese onslaught from overrunning the entire battalion was the heroic efforts of American paratroopers who stood their ground and died to buy time for their comrades. Soon, U.S. air strikes and artillery fire were being called in, but they had little effect on the battle because of the dense foliage on the hillside. Resupply became a necessity because of high ammunition expenditures and lack of water, but it was also an impossibility. Six UH-1 helicopters were shot down or badly damaged that afternoon trying to get to 2/503.
At 18:58 one of the worst friendly fire incidents of the Vietnam War occurred when a Marine Corps fighter-bomber dropped two 500-pound bombs into 2/503's perimeter. One of the bombs exploded, a tree burst above the center of the position, where the combined command groups, the wounded, and the medics were all located. It killed 42 men outright and wounded 45 more, including the overall on-scene commander, Captain Harold Kaufman. 1Lt. Bartholomew O'Leary, Delta Company Commander, was seriously wounded. (Alpha company's commander had been killed in the retreat up the slope).

U.S. troops in combat on Hill 875.

The next morning, the three companies of 4/503 were chosen to set out and relieve the men on Hill 875. Because of intense PAVN sniper and mortar fire (and the terrain) it took until nightfall for the relief force to reach the beleaguered battalion. On the afternoon of 21 November, both battalions moved out to take the crest. During fierce, close-quarters fighting, some of the paratroopers made it into the PAVN trenchline but were ordered to pull back as darkness fell. At approximately 23:00, the 4th Division's 1/12th Infantry was ordered to withdraw from an offensive operations in the southern Central Highlands and redeploy to Đắk Tô. In an almost flawless night-time air redeployment, the entire battalion redeployed and took up positions around the main fire support base at Đắk Tô in less than 12 hours.
The following day was spent in launching airstrikes and a heavy artillery bombardment against the hilltop, totally denuding it of cover. On 23 November, the 2nd and 4th Battalions of the 503rd were ordered to renew their assault while the 1st Battalion of the 12th Infantry assaulted 875 from the south. This time the Americans gained the crest, but the North Vietnamese had already abandoned their positions, leaving only a few dozen charred bodies and weapons.
The battle of Hill 875 had cost 2/503 87 killed, 130 wounded, and three missing. 4/503 suffered 28 killed 123 wounded, and four missing. Combined with noncombatant losses, this represented one-fifth of the 173rd Airborne Brigade's total strength. For its combined actions during operations around Đắk Tô, the 173rd Airborne Brigade was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.

[CR6]

I imagine a few of us here have attended manifest call on DeGlopper Field:

DEGLOPPER, CHARLES N.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Co. C, 325th Glider Infantry, 82d Airborne Division. Place and date: Merderet River at la Fiere, France, 9 June 1944. Entered service at: Grand Island, N.Y. Birth: Grand Island, N.Y. G.O. No.: 22, 28 February 1946.

Medal of Honor Citation:
He was a member of Company C, 325th Glider Infantry, on 9 June 1944 advancing with the forward platoon to secure a bridgehead across the Merderet River at La Fiere, France. At dawn the platoon had penetrated an outer line of machineguns and riflemen, but in so doing had become cut off from the rest of the company. Vastly superior forces began a decimation of the stricken unit and put in motion a flanking maneuver which would have completely exposed the American platoon in a shallow roadside ditch where it had taken cover. Detecting this danger, Pfc. DeGlopper volunteered to support his comrades by fire from his automatic rifle while they attempted a withdrawal through a break in a hedgerow 40 yards to the rear. Scorning a concentration of enemy automatic weapons and rifle fire, he walked from the ditch onto the road in full view of the Germans, and sprayed the hostile positions with assault fire. He was wounded, but he continued firing. Struck again, he started to fall; and yet his grim determination and valiant fighting spirit could not be broken. Kneeling in the roadway, weakened by his grievous wounds, he leveled his heavy weapon against the enemy and fired burst after burst until killed outright. He was successful in drawing the enemy action away from his fellow soldiers, who continued the fight from a more advantageous position and established the first bridgehead over the Merderet. In the area where he made his intrepid stand his comrades later found the ground strewn with dead Germans and many machineguns and automatic weapons which he had knocked out of action. Pfc. DeGlopper's gallant sacrifice and unflinching heroism while facing unsurmountable odds were in great measure responsible for a highly important tactical victory in the Normandy Campaign.

[Hendo]

I know he was a controversy magnet but've read a couple of his books and thought they were spot on.

Col. David. H. Hackworth, 1930-2005
Legendary U.S. Army Guerrilla Fighter
Champion of the Ordinary Soldier

(COL, ret) David Hackworth circa 1971


Washington, D.C., May 5, 2005 – Col. David H. Hackworth, the United States Army's legendary, highly decorated guerrilla fighter and lifelong champion of the doughboy and dogface, ground-pounder and grunt, died Wednesday in Mexico. He was 74 years old. The cause of death was a form of cancer now appearing with increasing frequency among Vietnam veterans exposed to the defoliants called Agents Orange and Blue.

Col. Hackworth spent more than half a century on the country’s hottest battlefields, first as a soldier, then as a writer, war correspondent and sharp-eyed critic of the Military-Industrial Complex and ticket-punching generals he dismissed as “Perfumed Princes.”
He preferred the combat style of World War II and Korean War heroes like James Gavin and Matthew Ridgeway and, during Vietnam, of Hank “The Gunfighter” Emerson and Hal Moore. General Moore, the co-author of We Were Soldiers Once and Young, called him “the Patton of Vietnam,” and Gen. Creighton Abrams, the last American commander in that disastrous war, described him as “the best battalion commander I ever saw in the United States Army.”

Col. Hackworth’s battlefield exploits put him on the line of American military heroes squarely next to Sgt. Alvin York and Audie Murphy. The novelist Ward Just, who knew him for forty years, described him as “the genuine article, a soldier’s soldier, a connoisseur of combat.” At 14, as World War II was sputtering out, he lied about his age to join the Merchant Marine, and at 15 he enlisted in the U.S. Army. Over the next 26 years he spent fully seven in combat. He was put in for the Medal of Honor three times; the last application is currently under review at the Pentagon. He was twice awarded the Army’s second highest honor for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross, along with 10 Silver Stars and eight Bronze Stars. When asked about his many awards, he always said he was proudest of his eight Purple Hearts and his Combat Infantryman’s Badge.

A reputation won on the battlefield made it impossible to dismiss him when he went on the attack later as a critic of careerism and incompetence in the military high command. In 1971, he appeared in the field on ABC’s “Issue and Answers” to say Vietnam “is a bad war ... it can’t be won. We need to get out.” He also predicted that Saigon would fall to the North Vietnamese within four years, a prediction that turned out to be far more accurate than anything the Joint Chiefs of Staff were telling President Nixon or that the President was telling the American people.
With almost five years in-country, Col. Hackworth was the only senior officer to sound off about the Vietnam War. After the interview, he retired from the Army and moved to Australia.

“He was perhaps the finest soldier of his generation,” observed the novelist and war correspondent Nicholas Proffit, who described Col. Hackworth’s combat autobiography, About Face, a national best-seller, as “a passionate cry from the heart of a man who never stopped loving the Army, even when it stopped loving him back.”
Having risen from private by way of a battlefield commission in Korea, where he became the Army’s youngest captain, to Vietnam, where he served as its youngest bird colonel, he never stood on rank.
From the beginning his life was a soldier’s story. He was born on Armistice Day, now Veteran’s Day, in 1930. His parents both died before he was a year old and the Army ultimately stood in for the family he never had. His grandmother, who rescued him from an orphanage, raised him on tales of the American Revolution and the Old West and the ethos of the Great Depression. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, he got his first military training shining shoes at a base in Santa Monica, where the soldiers, adopting him as mascot, had a tailor cut him a pint-sized uniform. “At age 10 I knew my destiny,” he said. “Nothing would be better than to be a soldier.”

He always credited his success in battle to the training he received from the tough school of non-coms who won World War II, hard-bitten, hard-drinking, hard-fighting sergeants who drilled into him the basics of an infantryman’s life: sweat in training cut down on blood shed in battle; there was nothing wrong with being out all night so long as you were present for roll call at 5 a.m., on your feet and in shape to run five miles before breakfast in combat boots.
In Korea, where he won his first Silver Star and Purple Heart before he was old enough to vote, he started his combat career in what he later called a “kill a commie for mommie” frame of mind. He was among the first volunteers for Korea and later for Vietnam, where he perfected his skill. “He understood the atmosphere of violence,” Ward Just observed. “That meant he knew how to keep his head, to think in danger’s midst. In battle the worst thing is paralysis. He mastered his own fear and learned how to kill. He led by example, and his men followed.”

Just met him in the ruins of a base camp in the Central Highlands in 1966, where he was a major commanding a battalion of the 101st Airborne. “He was compact, with forearms the size of hams. His uniform was filthy and his use of obscenity was truly inventive.” What struck the journalist most forcefully was “his enthusiasm, his magnetism, his exuberance, his invincible cheerfulness.”
To young officers in Vietnam and long afterwards, he presented an unforgettable profile in courage. “"Everyone called him Hack,” recalled Dennis Foley, a military historian and novelist who first saw him in action with the 1st Battalion of the 327th Infantry in 1965. “He was referred to by his radio call sign of ‘Steel Six.’ He was tough, demanding and boyish all at the same time, stocky with a slightly leathered complexion. His light hair and deep tan made it hard for us to tell how old he was. He wore jungle fatigue trousers, shower shoes, a green T-shirt and a Rolex watch. In the corner of his mouth was a large and foul smelling cigar. As we entered the tent, he was bent over a field table looking at a map overlay and drinking a bottle of San Miguel beer.”

With Gen. S.L.A. “Slam” Marshall, he surveyed the war’s early mayhem and compiled the Army’s experience into The Vietnam Primer, a bible on a style of unconventional counter-guerrilla tactics he called “out gee-ing the G.” His finest moment came when he applied these tactics, taking the hopeless 4/39 Infantry Battalion in the Mekong Delta, turning it into the legendary Hardcore Battalion. The men of the demoralized outfit saw him at first as a crazy “lifer” out to get them killed. For a time they even put a price on his head and waited for the first grunt to frag him.

Within 10 weeks, the fiery young combat leader had so transformed the 4/39 that it was routing main force enemy units. He led from the front, at one point getting out on the strut of a helicopter, landing on top of an enemy position and hauling to safety the point elements of a company pinned down and facing certain death. Thirty years later, the grateful enlisted men and young officers of the 4/39, now grown old, are still urging the Pentagon to award him the Medal of Honor for this action. So far, the Army has refused.
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.

These are the traits of good leaders in any field. Sadly, the people who live up to them are few and far between. But when you find a person who has these qualities, you will follow them gladly and with pride.

Few things got Hackworth madder than seeing grunts get the short end of the stick. That is why he devoted his energies in the last two decades of his life to making sure soldiers got what they needed and the phonies who sent them off on dubious missions were called out and held accountable.

The man was a stud amongst studs.Not that it's truly a measure of this or any man but in the vertitable sea of medals in his shadow box you can see a set of Master Wings. If you ever get a chance to read any of his stuff take a minute and you won't be sorry.

[MAC11B3V]

- 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.

Re-stated for effect. Nice add Hendo, rep inb-hey wait you're already maxed out bish!