About face
by David H. Hackworth · first published 1989
38% recommend54% neutral8% critical
Why HN recommends it
Memoir of career soldier Col. David Hackworth, covering Vietnam and the Army. It offers a first-hand, candid account of the military, especially useful for studying the US Army in that period.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A startling look at the US Army from a infantry leaders level from Korea through Vietnam. Hackworth was one of the highest decorated soldiers in the army and doesn't hold back on what was wrong with the system.
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Agreed on "hampered by political leadership", but my studies of the US Army in the period tells me it also was a very large factor in the early to middle part of the mess (About Face by Hackworth would be a good first book to read on this). I could go into many details but this is probably not the forum for that. One big leadership one, though, is apropos: the 6 month tour of duty…
on “Why former employees say Microsoft can't innovate” ↗If you like that you should read "About Face" by David Hackworth. I have not read it but I've hear about it via the Jocko Podcast.
on “The first non-bullshit book about culture I've read” ↗Since Don't Make Me Think already came up, going to add About Face (have 2.0 but heard 3.0 is even better) http://www.amazon.com/About-Face-Essentials-Interaction-Desi... and Design of Everyday Things http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/d...
on “Ask HC: Which books on user interface design do you wish your CEO/Cofounders would read?” ↗I’ve read War is a Racket. It’s a great piece and raises issues we all should think about. I also read A Bright Shining Lie, About Face, The Best and The Brightest and other books critical of the military [1, 2, 3]. Like I said in my previous comment, I have many issues with the military, but I’m also concerned when the elite of society…
on “Ask HN: If you're funded by the military, how do you tell people?” ↗I recommend About Face by Army Colonel Hackworth and Red Storm Rising
on “Editorial: California should say goodbye to grass that’s only there for looks” ↗…his appointments calendar and noticed the discrepancy. It appears he did a limited number of bullshitting sessions and pulled his results out of his ass. Read e.g. the completely unrelated Hackworth About Face for a bit more on his feet of clay, in Vietnam. My counterpoint to the soldier's load argument is that the tradeoff went too far, e.g. I've read some accounts of SAW operators who really wished the round…
on “Gun Trouble” ↗I just started reading Cooper's About Face and by chapter 2 it's already changing how I think about UI design. Granted, I sucked at it, but still...
on “Ask HN: Where to look to learn UX/Design” ↗…novel so far, I liked Alina Rodriguez's The Husband Habit and I could not put down Born To Run which gave me new insight into running, a sport I'm just getting started with. Currently reading Cooper's About Face (only technical book on the list :-) and about to start Joshua Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World
on “Ask HN: What are you reading right now?” ↗…that better. It helped me to see how pathetically unhelpful and badly designed interfaces are everywhere, something I accepted and took for granted before. A couple of metaphors he uses, there or in About Face: Programmers are like those into extreme sports, revelling in the difficulties of working with computers, but most people aren't like that. When they board an aeroplane, they want to sit down and get…
on “The Case Against Google” ↗…question the authenticity of some of Marshall's other books and has lent academic weight to doubts about his integrity that had been raised in military circles even decades earlier.[17] In his 1989 memoir, About Face, David H. Hackworth described his initial elation at an assignment with a man he idolized, and how that elation turned to disillusion after seeing Marshall's character and methods firsthand. Hackworth…
on “The Siege of Gondor, Part I: Professionals Talk Logistics” ↗…was unlikely to break out with absolutely no warning, and they could be stationed at the border if tensions rose I have recalled where I first heard about the Davy Crockett a - from Hackworth's memoir 'About Face'. Looked it up in google books to verify. Per Hackworth, while the Crockett platoon leader in his battlegroup did not know where to obtain live rounds, they would have been procured in about two hours.…
on “Nuclear Effects Calculator” ↗In "About Face", Hackworth had something to say about that. Units did not have the warheads, but they could be brought forward very quickly.
on “Davy Crockett (nuclear device)” ↗I'm familiar with the books you mentioned (haven't read Mattis' yet though) but I think you are probably referencing the About Face book by David Hackworth. Jocko also had covered this book ad nauseum on his podcast. I'm not sure we're disagreeing on much other than you can't have a field manual for everything which is where the…
on “How to waste your career, one comfortable year at a time” ↗In About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior (1989), David Hackworth mentions about being on patrol in the Korean war: None of us used repellent (Chinks could smell it as easily as after-shave, soap, tobacco,…
on “Poor Human Olfaction Is a Nineteenth Century Myth” ↗