BOOK REVIEW: STEEL MY SOLDIERS HEARTS.

 THE HOPELESS TO HARDCORE TRANSFORMATION OF 4TH BATTALION 39TH INFANTRY UNITED STATES ARMY VIETNAM.

Another book from my library. This one is written by the legendary Col. David Hackworth, one of the US Army's most decorated soldiers and a well known figure of the Vietnam era. 

Known as Mr. Infantry because of previous publications aimed at improving the performance of infantry soldiers, Hackworth had an illustrious career . He joined the army aged 15 as a private in 1945 and by the end of the Korean war he was a Captain. He served almost five years in Vietnam including a tour commanding the 4/39. 

This was a problem unit which had one of the worst casualty rates and poor discipline records of any Infantry battalion  in Vietnam. Full of drafted soldiers, Hackworth was given command with instructions to make the battalion effective and efficient. This book details his efforts.

Over the following months Hackworth introduced improvements on a daily basis, sacked and replaced inefficient officers and instilled discipline in the battalion. His soldiers initially hated him and there was a bounty on his head. By the end of his command cycle however, the battalion had the lowest casualty rate and the highest body and captured weapons count of any unit in country and his troops considered him the best officer in the army.

Hackworth was however unpopular with his peers due to his tough no nonsense and uncompromising view that most of his fellow officers were incompetent ticket punchers. Eventually he became so frustrated with the poor performance of senior leaders that he provided a press interview where he laid bare all that was wrong with the US Army.  Although promoted to full Colonel, the youngest in the whole army at the time, he was encouraged to resign his commision. He then turned to writing and completed a number of books including this one.

I am a fan of Hackworth. Even allowing for the inevitable bias of any author, his story is inspirational. There is little doubt that if the US Army had followed Hackworth's teachings, the Vietnam war would have had a very different outcome. Unfortunately the Army encouraged officers to pursue promotion via a series of ticket punches as more of a priority than to fulfil their real duty of winning the war by training, developing, protecting and leading their men.

I hope that attitude no longer exists today and Hackworth is recognised as the premiere infantry officer he undoubtedly was during the Vietnam era. This is a highly recommended book.