Chapter 16 Summary and Analysis

Hackworth's first tour of duty in Vietnam would soon end and he wanted to teach at the Infantry School at Fort Benning. Instead, he was assigned to the Pentagon Office of Personnel. He moved his family to a house at Bunker, Virginia. After two months in his Pentagon position, he accepted assignment to Vietnam as an aid to General Marshall. They were to devise plans to improve combat efficiency.

General Marshall, known as Slam, and Hackworth toured Vietnam. They established schools to teach post combat interviewing techniques in which the combat groups would discuss the battle, identify mistakes, and learn from those mistakes. After two weeks in An Khe, they went to Di An. Here they studied Operation Attleboro and uncovered all of the deficiencies in what everyone thought was a stunning operation. The troops involved were not combat ready. At...