Col. David. H. Hackworth, 1930-2005

http://www.hackworth.com/

In high school, our history teacher had us put Jane Fonda on mock trial. I was on the side of the defense, and was assigned the role of Hack. Doing research on the internet led me to his page, and I blithely sent him an email asking for his ruminations regarding Hanoi Jane. He responded promptly and kindly, but was quick to distance himself from her and that side of the anti-war movement. I have since lost the brief email exchange, which I regret.

I do remember my teacher was rather impressed that I was able to get in contact with him. This was the late 90s, and the abilities afforded by the internet were still new and surprising. I was too stupid at the time to realize what I was doing; all I knew was that Hack was worthless for our defense case. I didn't understand the significance of the issues involved, or the gold I had gotten from my exchange with Hack.

Since then, however, I have paid some more attention to Hack, occasionally reading his column and stopping to watch whenever I catch him as a talking head on one of the cable news channels. He is smart and straight-talking, and I have much respect for him.

He was a patriot, and will be missed.