Col. David Hackworth, military analyst, formerly of Whitefish, dies

Retired Army Col. David Hackworth, a famously outspoken and decorated veteran who lived in Whitefish in the 1990s, died Wednesday in Tijuana, Mexico. He was 74.

Hackworth died while undergoing treatment for bladder cancer.

Hackworth was a feisty and colorful critic of wars in Vietnam and Iraq and an advocate for military reform, who voiced his opinions as a contributing editor for Newsweek, as a published author, and an on-the-battle-front reporter for Newsweek and CNN.

Long before journalists were imbedded with the military, Hackworth was there.

The way his long military career began set the tone for his passionate dedication to it. At age 15, orphaned, he solicited a stranger to pose as his father to sign him up for the Army and falsely attest that he was of age.

He served in Germany during the Cold War, in Korea and then in Vietnam for four tours of duty.

He was once said to be the most decorated living American soldier and while that might be in dispute, "If he was not the most decorated soldier, he was one of the most decorated soldiers," said his friend Tim Grattan of Whitefish.

Among his medals are eight or nine Purple Hearts, Grattan said.

Hackworth was nearly court-martialed before he retired from the military in 1971. He gave up his medals in protest and moved to Australia. His medals were reissued in the 1980s and he returned to the United States.

Grattan served with Hackworth in Germany from 1960 to 1963 and they became lifelong friends.

Their unit was the one that was alerted when construction began on the Berlin Wall, Grattan said. Hackworth was in

command and Grattan was a lieutenant during that extremely tense time, when they were "facing Russians across Checkpoint Charlie" from just feet away.

"He was probably the best combat leader and leader of infantry troops, maybe … ever," Grattan said.

In Germany, "I thought he was nuts," Grattan said. Hackworth put his soldiers through training as if they were in combat conditions.

"His mantra was, the more sweat on the training field, the less blood on the battlefield," Grattan said.

Hackworth and Grattan wouldn't serve again together, but their friendship endured and led Hackworth to move to Whitefish near his friend in 1991.

By then, Hackworth was a critic of the military he loved.

He opened an office in downtown Whitefish dubbed "World Headquarters" by Hackworth and his friends.

Heidi Duncan was his personal and editorial assistant, typing out the hand-written missives he composed in pencil on legal pads, then tweaking his words.

"He did a lot of radio and TV stuff," Duncan said. She remembers him "walking around the office in pajamas" as he was interviewed by Larry King.

During the Bosnia conflict, Hackworth was back in the field. From Sarajevo, he would send his information to Duncan, who would dispatch it by modem to its destinations.

At a speech at Grattan's Grouse Mountain Lodge in 1991, Hackworth said, "I was born here and I love this great land, but I don't like what I see. The USA is in deep trouble."

He described the nation as foundering in debt, morally corrupt, despairing and violent, and run by politicians who have been bought out by the military.

Men and women who fought for their country as he did were asking, "What the hell did I fight for?" he said.

His disillusionment began during his service in Vietnam, seeing the needless "loss of too much blood."

He said the nation spends too much money on the military. Instead of building bombs and tanks, the country should be building America, he said.

While he was in the desert during the first Gulf War, Hackworth said he noticed something missing: "I didn't see any Japanese soldiers. I didn't see any German soldiers."

America was fighting for a resource, oil, that is "fueling their economy, fueling their industry that's ripping our chops," Hackworth said.

By the mid-'90s, the media demands for Hackworth outpaced his technological ability to keep up in Whitefish, Grattan said.

"It was increasingly difficult for him to be a commentator on network and cable news broadcasts because there wasn't any TV uplink from here," Grattan said.

Always the man who wanted to be where the action was on the battlefield, Hackworth moved to Connecticut where he could be close to the action of national leaders and the media. His company was called Twin Eagles Ink (named after the birds he enjoyed in Montana), according to his assistant Maura Callaway.

Montana was often on his mind, she said.

"He talked about that all the time," she said. He told the story of "the home he built [on Lion Mountain] and the lessons he learned there."

The lessons he learned and taught will outlive him, told by those who knew him and in his books, "The Vietnam Primer," "About Face," and "Hazardous Duty."

"He'll be sorely missed," said Grattan, who plans to attend his friend's funeral in Arlington, Va.

"He was a delightful man," Duncan said. The ferocious soldier "was actually a very sweet and gentle kind of guy."

Hackworth is survived by his wife of eight years, Eilhys England, a stepdaughter and four children from two earlier marriages, the family said.

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com