In January 1969, Lt. Col. David H. Hackworth began his second Vietnam tour, transforming the demoralized 4/39th battalion into the legendary Hardcore Recondos. In January 1969, one of the most promising young lieutenant colonels the US Army had ever seen touched down in Vietnam for his second tour of duty, which would turn out to be his most daring and legendary.David H. Hackworth had just completed the writing of a tactical handbook for the Pentagon, and now he had been ordered to put his counterguerilla-fighting theories into action. He was given the morale-drained 4/39th—a battalion of poorly led draftees suffering the Army's highest casualty rate and considered its worst fighting battalion. Hackworth's hard-nosed, inventive and inspired leadership quickly turned the 4/39th into Vietnam's valiant and ferocious Hardcore Recondos. Drawing on interviews with soldiers from the Hardcore Battalion conducted over the past decade by his partner and coauthor, Eilhys England, Hackworth takes readers along on their sniper missions, ambush actions, helicopter strikes and inside the quagmire of command politics. With Steel My Soldiers' Hearts, Hackworth places the brotherhood of the 4/39th into the pantheon of our nation's most heroic warriors. ContentsPROLOGUEDebt of Honor ONE9th Infantry Division Headquarters, Dong Tam, Vietnam, 15 January 1969TWOFire Support Base Dizzy, Dinh Tuong, 31 January 1969THREEFire Support Base Dizzy, Dinh Tuong, 01 February 1969FOURFire Support Base Dizzy, Dinh Tuong, 04 February 1969FIVEMy Dien, Plain of Reeds, 04 February 1969SIXFire Support Base Moore, 19 February 1969SEVENSouthwest of Fire Support Base Moore, 26 February 1969EIGHTOn Toward Danger, 01 March 1969NINEFire Support Base Danger, 11 March 1969TENCo Co Canal, 13 March 1969ELEVENSniper Control Center, 15 March 1969TWELVEThanh Hung, 23 March 1969THIRTEENKien Phong Province, 25 March 1969FOURTEENKien Phong Province, 25 March 1969FIFTEENDong Tam, 25 March 1969SIXTEENFire Support Base Danger, 05 April 1969SEVENTEENSteam ¹n¹ Cream, Dong Tam, April 1969EIGHTEENGiao Duc General HospitalNINETEENFire Support Base Danger, 13 April 1969TWENTYFire Support Base Danger, 28 April 1969TWENTY-ONEDong Tam, 02 May 1969TWENTY-TWOCai Be, 06 May 1969TWENTY-THREEFire Support Base Danger, 18 May 1969TWENTY-FOURFive Klicks North of Danger, 22 May 1969TWENTY-FIVEFire Support Base Danger, 25 May 1969EPILOGUEGreenwich, Connecticut, 11 September 2001AFTERWORDSThe Weakest LinkGLOSSARYACKNOWLEDGMENTSINDEX