A hero of mine died the other day.
Colonel David H. Hackworth passed away on Wednesday, May 11, 2005 in Tijuana, where he was receiving treatment for cancer. He was 74 years old.
Colonel Hackworth lied to enlist in the merchant marine at age 14 and served in the South Pacific. The next year he lied in order to enlist in the Army at 15 and won a battlefield commission at 20 to become the Korean War's youngest captain. He was America's youngest full colonel in Vietnam, and won a total of 91 medals, including two Distinguished Service Crosses, 10 Silver Stars, 8 Bronze Stars and 8 Purple Hearts.
Robert Duvall’s amazing character in "Apocalypse Now" was based on Hack, an amazing guy who always tended to side with the enlisted men over the officers and who thought the civilians running the wars had no idea what they were doing. Strong stuff coming from a guy who was nominated for the Medal of Honor three times, and just one reason Nixon despised him.
Later Hack became, among other things, a Newsweek contributing editor, which is how he and I came into contact.
In 1996 we decided to do a comic book about landmines. As the victim of violence, Batman was the logical choice for the story’s lead character. Dennis O’Neil volunteered to write the script (and donated his fee to an anti-landmine charity), we got some fantastic artists, and then lined up a few folks to write pieces for the book. United States Senator Patrick Leahy wrote the introduction and two prominent anti-landmine activists, Jody Williams and Jerry White, wrote pieces for the back of the book.
I felt we needed one more piece and recalled that Hack had recently written a piece about landmines for Newsweek. Our publisher was also a big fan of the colonel’s and enthusiastically gave me the thumbs-up.
I have no idea how I got Hack’s number but somehow I did. I called and spoke with one of his assistants. I explained who I was and what I was looking for and within about ten minutes I received a call from the most-decorated living American soldier, who laughed when I tried to call him "Colonel," insisting I call him "Hack."
He asked for specifics—word count, what kind of audience this was for, what the others were writing so there wasn’t too much overlap, that sort of stuff—and then asked about deadlines. Well, as usual, the deadline was pretty tight, and he had his regular Newsweek gig and a new book about to come out that he had to promote. But he said he could hit the deadline.
He didn’t. Instead, his piece came over the fax several days early. And it was absolutely perfect. It opened hard and gripped you from the first. He tossed in facts to support his argument and bolstered them with first-hand memories of what it’s like to get splattered with the brains of a young man whose head had just been vaporized by a landmine.
Actually, it wasn’t *quite* perfect—there was this one tiny little transition that wasn’t as clear as I’d have liked it to be. It was good, it was just fine, but this project was a labor of love for all involved and I obsessed over the wording of this one sentence. But what to do? Who the hell was I to question the most-decorated living American soldier, a contributing editor to Newsweek, a best-selling author, a triple-nominee for the Medal of Honor?
I was, I guess, slightly more arrogant (or obsessed) than trepidatious, because I finally called him and asked him about that one sentence. Hack just laughed. "Oh, hey, listen," he said. "You do whatever you need to do to make that piece work. I trust you."
Hack later came to the office for a press conference with Senator Leahy to promote the comic book. As I recall, he only had an hour to spare, as his book was now out and he had his own project to promote, yet he still found time to lend a hand for a cause he believed in. Moreover, he was as friendly and engaging a guy as you could ever meet.
As anyone who’s ever met me knows, I’ve never been a macho guy. Didn’t like sports growing up, and never had any interest in military history, much less actually joining the military. In fact, I still don’t like macho guys. But if the world had more guys like Colonel David Hackworth it would be a far, far better place.
Requiescat in pace, Hack. And thanks. It was a pleasure and an honor to know you.
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