Steel My Soldiers' Hearts: The Hopeless to Hardcore Transformation of U.S. Army, 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry, Vietnam

Hackworth’s story is one of leadership, about how to take a losing unit and turn them into winners through energy, training, and discipline. Inheriting a broken and despirited battalion, Hackworth went from a CO with a bounty on his head to commander of a crack team of killers. The lessons in this book are about esprit de corps, warfare, and how an organization rots from the top, are universal.

Unlike most of these war memoirs, Steel My Soldiers’ Hearts has an antagonist, the careerist and incompetent Colonel (later Major General) Ira Hunt, who interfered constantly in Hackworth’s plans to the detriment of the ordinary soldiers in the battalion. The VC are a respected and crafty foe, but Hackworth has no time for the slow work of counter-insurgency. He’s a master of light infantry tactics, and stealthy and brutal ambushes and patrols. For a layperson, this is a good intro to the chaos of airmobile operations.

As a writer, Hackworthy is as pulpy as a freshly squeezed glass of politically incorrect orange juice. The book is far from a neutral account, but it’s his story and he tells it with verve and gusto.

New crazy Vietnam War moment: A helicopter taking out an AA gun in hand-to-hand combat. Just lean out and karate chop it down.