Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Col. Askins

Sounds like a typical Paratrooper.
Bob

It's a joke DF. I own the book.

Even opened it once.



Clark

It is an interesting read.

I know you MT guys can be less than enamored with Texicans...

So, I didn't know if you were gesting or not...

DF

Charlie took pride in projecting that image, especially to the uninitiated. He would have fit in here on the Fire...

He had a few close friends to whom he was fiercely loyal. Parker was one of those. He held most others in some contempt, not much in between.

DF

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Colonel Askins was the physical embodiment of that quote. We need more like him.

This^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I'm a retired military medic. My father served in combat. Brother was a combat engineer in Vietnam.

While doing hospice care for dying veterans I listened to a lot of stories they wanted off their chests before they died. WW2, Korea, Vietnam.
Really ugly stuff they had to do for our country. None of them ever bragged about killing other human beings in war. It was their duty to do that. And they put the experiences away as best they could.

What bothers myself about Col Askins is he liked killing and bragged about it. It's just creepy

With Charlie as story teller extraordinaire, it's hard to sort out embellishment from fact.

How much of his cold blooded killer personna is poetic license vs. core truth?

Just a thought, as we will probably never know how that sorts out, and by design.

DF

One thing stands out in my mind from "Unrepentant Sinner" - he liked to kill people from ambush or just plain shooting them in the back.

I was digging through Ken Howell's old posts trying to find his comments about Askins since he knew the man and apparently Askins liked him, and someone said something about Col. Askins being a good man to have your back. Ken replied that was probably not true, it all depended on whether Charlie liked you at that particular moment or not as he very well might shoot you there.

IIRC he did say that Col. Askins' favorite thing to kill was people, or his favorite thing to do was kill people, something like that.

If you were in the infantry you'd know that is absolutely the best way to engage and kill your enemy. Nice guys finish last.
Bob

11B40.

I didn't put a value judgement on it, I just said my take from the book was that he liked to shoot people in the back or from ambush. If you find that statement disturbing or insulting that's your take on it.

11Z5P.

I think we're on the same page. I liked Charlie and knew him from a few visits to his casa in the late 80's. I found him to be polite, gracious, a perfect gentleman and a great story teller. I would have loved to have been his 1SG "back in the day".

There was a thread about him here a few years back that raked him over the coals by people like Ken Howell (who started off by saying he "liked Charlie but...") that accused him of everything from ambushing Viet Minh guerrillas while on a combat tour (he did), to killing little black babies and their mommies while on safari (a total smear by Howell-no evidence except, "he heard"). Towards the end of the thread a new poster on the forum hit back at the peanut gallery and shut them up. She happened to be his granddaughter. I found it amusing that Howell talked about Charlie after he was dead; he would have been bitch-slapped if he said that when Askins was alive. It was even better that Askins' granddaughter got on the forum and took him down.

I don't find your statement "disturbing" or "insulting". It's your opinion, which is fine. Mine is that I MUCH prefer shooting at someone from ambush; way better odds of no return fire. It wasn't high noon in An Najaf Province or Sadr City; we killed them as efficiently as possible, from ambush when they weren't expecting it. That's a good firefight, in my opinion. Askins made the mistake (according to some people) of writing about combat or his Border Patrol shootings and not being overcome with grief or remorse. No, I guess he wasn't "changed forever" after combat. That's the Hollywood narrative. He survived, relished his combat experiences and made money writing about them. Good for him.
Bob

Perfectly said. Charlie liked to start food fights over calibers, barrel length, etc, then sit back and watch the outrage and disbelief over what he wrote. I'm sure he embellished a lot of his stuff. The mark of a good gunwriter.
Bob

never could figure how it is bad to shoot someone in the back but ok to call in an airstrike or artillery

Here's a copy and paste from my superposed thread on Shotgunworld.com. His granddaughter did some serious bitch slapping, no doubt...

Guess that apple didn't fall too far from the tree...



On "24hourcampfire.com" under "Forums", "Hunting and Shooting", and "Ask the Gunwriters" there is a thread, "So...how bout Charlie Askins." Some contributors are Askins fans, others are very critical to the point of being crude. The thread bounces back and forth until the Colonel's grand daughter, under the name, "Thangle" writes a great piece about her grandfather. I'm posting her comments as they contain new information (at least to me) about him fighting in Africa. Some on the Forum had accused him of being a sociopathic baby killer. As the "1933 Superposed" site had essentially turned into an Askins site, I think her comments are interesting and an appropiate addition to this body of work. I'm not sure which granddaughter she is, but I like her writing style. Bill has three daughters and she mentions the Colonel having four granddaughters. If not Bill's daughter, maybe his neice.


"Sigh. To the fans and aficionados, thank you.
To the rest of you, what a load of Cr*p.

Hi, I'm Charlie's granddaughter, let me set some of this straight.

He wasn't a babykiller. I don't know who started that story originally, but its obviously spun out of control.

He loved the women in his family dearly (his wife, his daughter, and his 4 granddaughters). He hated his mother and his sister (met the sister once, what total trash).

He drank tequila and ouzo daily, because he had arthritis. I never once in my lifetime heard him bemoan any kind of issue that he'd need to drink his troubles away.

Yes, he shot a lot of blacks in Africa. There was this little war most Americans don't learn about where the white farmers who had developed Rhodesia were being slaughtered by black revolutionaries. My family had many many friends there, and he was there to help them try to come out on top in that war. Unfortunately that was not to be, and the country is now Zimbabwe. Maybe a few more Charlie Askins could've kept the country from turning into a unfarmable wasteland with 5000% inflation.

If you met him and he was charming the ladies, guess what? He was a charming person when he wanted to be. He wasn't trying to steal you wife, he was just cooler than you, sorry bub.

And yes, the way he fought might be considered sneaky. But he kicked a$$, took names, and lived to be a very old man, which is more than a lot of gung ho whackjobs can say. He'd think most of these kids going off to war currently are total wahoos for the way they do things now, I guarantee it.

He had several strokes, and a a few heart attacks in his later years, and a dwindling case of dementia. Yes, he drove off one day to take his dog to the vet and got lost. There were NOT posters all over town (what crap, we had one news report run, and a family friend actually returned him to us).

He passed away in his own bed at home holding hands with his loving wife. Which is a far sight better than most men, psychopathic killer or not, will ever do".

Fugk Howell.

The reputation Askin's left behind is far more than Howell left behind. Except on the fugkin' internet of course.




Travis

Biographical accounts show Askins as a "recovery officer". That likely translates to him being and Ordnance weanie whose role was to collect the arms remaining on a battle field from casualties well after the smoke, fire and threat had subsided.

As a military retiree I resent Askins being portrayed as a "heroic" character when actually he carried out his perverse and cowardly acts well protected by real men of combat arms.

I've seen a good many of these "heros" and most veterans experienced in a combat environment will likely agree.

You need to read up on what a battlefield recovery officer at the company level did in WW II...somewhat different than you think. The Germans were recovering every Nazi tank, field gun or any parts they could, especially in North Africa, where the Africa Corps was starved logistically. The chances of running into a German unit also doing battlefield recovery was almost guaranteed, as well as armed Arabs stealing from the bodies. Firefights were often, which is why US recovery units were manned and equipped like US infantry companies.

Speaking also as an Army retiree (Infantry 1SG), I don't think Askins being willing to kill enemy Soldiers is "perverse and cowardly". Nobody said Askins was a "hero"...but he volunteered for WW II, did his job well, rose to full COL rank and retired honorably. I knew Askins, and found him to be worthy of my respect as a fellow combat vet. He also went through jump school at 40; now THAT'S a bad-ass.
Bob

Spot on, Bob

Reviewing the granddaughter's account refreshes my memory of the Col's later year confusion. She confirms dementia. I defer to her info.

DF