Part 3: Hackworth's Medals: "The Most Decorated Living Soldier"?

Does Hackworth have his own Boorda problem?

No one doubts that David Hackworth earned--earned in battle--his medals. But is he, as he tells readers incessantly, "America's most decorated living soldier"? Not according to the Army.

The Army does not recognize, and has never recognized, the title. According to an Army memo, "It has been a long-standing and unwritten policy of the Army that no single soldier or veteran is ever named officially as the most decorated person in a conflict or in a particular period of time." The Army did not even keep a central medal database until the mid-1970s. It has never searched through its millions of individual records to find top medal winners.

But let us suppose that Hackworth is the soldier who has earned the most medals, which is possible. Would that make him "America's most decorated living soldier"?

Again, no. The Army rejects the concept of "most decorated soldier" for fear that someone would do exactly what Hackworth is doing. Medals are not equal. The Medal of Honor, which Hackworth never won, is by far the most important award. "Statistical comparison, if possible, could allow a recipient of many awards to surpass a soldier with the Medal of Honor," says the Army memo, and this, the Army makes clear, is not acceptable. There are more than 200 living Medal of Honor winners. All of them, in the eyes of most military men, trump Hackworth. Hackworth's claim is puffery.

Click here to go to Part 2: Why Hackworth Left the Army