About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior | Colonel David H. Hackworth, Julie Sherman

About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior | Colonel David H. Hackworth, Julie Sherman | ALL THE WAY!

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About Face: The Od...

	About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior Colonel David H. Hackworth, Julie Sherman Touchstone, 1990 - 875 pages average customer review:based on 75 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

U.S. Military Reality; it is what is taught and what is not.

Mr. Hackworth, like so many before him, learned and through his book has tried to teach the most valuable lessons a military member can possess; LEADERSHIP and ORGANIZATIONAL REALITY. The Army is like an alcoholic trying to teach his/her child no to drink; all the while holding a beer in his/her hand. Many lessons for life can be found reading this work. The politicians are unfortunately finding their way into every sector of our lives and in Hackworth's account, this unfortunate reality has only resulted in the deaths and ruin of many fine soldiers. I commend both the book and the man; a must read for anyone interested in joining or learning about the military.

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ALL THE WAY!

Having just finished reading ABOUT FACE, I cannot overstate how impressed I am with Col. Hackworth's ability to describe the world of a professional soldier. His detail is at times a little too much (a lot of names,unit numbers,etc.), but his description of life in the ARMY and of his experiences in war are brutally on target. Also, I've found his views on the Vietnam War to be the easiest to understand, and the most accurate from what we now know. His hatred of those who chose "ticket punching" over true leadership, anger me as I write this. I would like to commend Col. Hackworth on a great book, and thank him for his service to America.

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Leadership in action

I listened to the writer at a recent conference (garage.com) and had to buy the book. I was up all night reading it. This person has lessons to teach in real people management, lessons I never learned in B-School. A must read.

Simply superb.

This book is a "must read" for anyone who is interested in the military. The author tells an excellent story about his experiences and of those around him, but also reveals the hypocrisy of the brass in the Army and how it caused the trench warfare in Korea and the no win attitude in Vietnam.

Inspiring and Educational, yet Worrying

Two main themes came out of "About Face" for me. The first is that it is an excellent "how-to" manual on practical leadership in the military. All of the lessons pounded into me as an Officer Cadet are shown here. Know you soldiers, care for them, lead by example, don't get them to do what you wouldn't..., the list goes on. In my opinion, this book, or at least large parts of it, should be required reading in every Officer training establishment that seeks to produce real commanders. As I read it, lights came on in my head as I began to understand some of the points I had missed in my training as a cadet. I believe it has been of some benefit to my performance as an Army Officer. For any cadets or junior officers out there, read this book.

The second theme is the way in which he describes an Army sinking into the morass so common of militaries in peacetime. The most worrying thing for me was the parallels I could see happening in my own Army. An easing of standards in recruitment and basic training, decisions being made based on politics and finance, rather than on realities, increasing bureaucratisation and micromanagement, etc, etc, etc. Things seem to be the same all over. Unfortunately, neither Col Hackworth nor I can give any easy answers.

Overall, an excellent book,that should provoke a few thoughts.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, page 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

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