Col. David Hackworth, veterans advocate, has died

[Modem Butterfly]

Retired Army Col. David Hackworth, a decorated Vietnam veteran who spoke out against the war and later became a journalist and an advocate for military reform, died Wednesday in Mexico, where he was receiving treatment for bladder cancer, his wife said. He was 74.

"He died in my arms yesterday morning," his wife, Eilhys England, said Thursday.

Hackworth, a syndicated columnist for King Features, advocated a streamlined military and improved conditions for troops.


http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct--obit-hackworth0505may05,0,4511774.story?coll=ny-region-apconnecticut

My partner served during the last Gulf war and was a big admirer of Hackworth. Hack rose from an enlisted man to a Colonel. He was an outspoken critic of American foreign policy in Vietnam, and later under the Bush administration. He was a soldier's soldier, and always had the grunt's best interests at heart. He will be missed.