DD214 Chronicle

By John H. Tidyman, editor

When Hudsonresident Dave Hack decided to run for mayor of Hudson, Ohio, he made

it clear he would accept no campaign contributions. Instead, he would self-fund the

campaign.

To further his branding efforts, he offered sweatshirts, hooded sweatshirts, and wind

shirts, each emblazoned with “Hack for Mayor” and theHudson clock tower.

He also offered copies of the small paperback book he wrote and published. Writing in

the third person, Hack wrote about himself in, “The Life of a Warrior: Based on the True

Life Story of Sgt. Hack.” The book is reportedly under consideration for a movie,

according to Hack’s website.

When a television reporter questioned Hack’s alleged status as a Ranger during the

Vietnam War, his military service came under scrutiny.  Apparently, Hack claimed to be
something he wasn’t. He held a news conference last month, but refused to speak
to reporters. Instead, a lawyer said to be representing him announced a suit
filed in Summit County Court, charging the current mayor, the television
reporter, and 25 John Does with slander.

Not since 1984, when Hudson became a sister city to Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria, Germany,
has the city been so focused.

In his book, Hack wrote, “He (Hack) worked hard as a raw recruit, training to be a

special forces soldier in the Rangers and completing his Ph.D in Military Science. The

Rangers’ training is grueling, and spending every other waking moment studying for a

Ph.D helped make it just a little harder.”

It isn’t clear which college or university granted his Ph.D.

In another section, he describes his
arrival in Vietnam:

Sergeant Hack’s deployment to war-torn Vietnam played out like a scene from a Hollywood
action adventure film. Under heavy artillery attack at night, the Rangers’ transport plane

was unable to land on the airstrip, but the Rangers would
deploy. At the Jump Master’s command, the five-member special teams unit exited
the plane out the rear hatch that scraped the runway as the plane lumbered
along at thirty- six knots. Each Ranger tucked himself into a ball and rolled
out onto the airfield over the sparks, which were sent up by the metal hatch
door dragging on the concrete pavement.

Once on the ground, the Jump Master got the unit together, back-to-back in a tight
group to face any attacks from the surrounding jungle. This was how Hack spent
his first hours in Vietnam; awaiting an unseen enemy to spring from the jungle, whose numbers could have
surely overwhelmed the small Rangers’ unit.

As the night passed and dawn approached, the clamor of battle receded into a
distant echo, and it seemed that everyone would be alive at first light. But a
war zone is never safe, and to let one’s guard down is suicide. Out of modesty,
a Ranger left the group to urinate, and before the Jump Master could reprimand
him, modesty was his death. The unseen enemy’s machete cut through the man’s
neck so quickly and completely, that only one stroke was needed to remove the
head. Sergeant Hack and the others, still squatting, looked on in frozen horror
as the man’s head actually hit the ground before his erect body fell, so clean
was the decapitation. The Jump Master did not move, nor did he order any one to
move. He simply whispered, “Welcome to Hell, boys.”