SFTT Board of Directors

Eilhys England, Chair

Eilhys England Hackworth was wife, partner, co-author, and muse of Soldiers For The Truth (“SFTT”) founder, the late Colonel David H. Hackworth—America’s most valor-decorated soldier—from the late 1980s until his death. Since the passing of this great American hero in May 2005, Ms. England Hackworth has kept her deathbed promise to her husband to continue his mission by taking up the responsibilities as Chair of SFTT.

So committed is England Hackworth to her late husband and his vision, she shuttered her successful public relations and marketing agency in order to more fully support Hackworth on the issue of accountability and reform in the United States military, fighting with him to ensure that America’s front line troops get the best possible leadership, training, and equipment, and the best chance possible of making it home alive, in one piece.

“It’s a difficult issue and this wasn’t exactly an easy job when Hack and I were together, so you can imagine what it’s like now,” attests England Hackworth. “You could cry a river. It is so much easier to raise money for arts endowments and disease prevention than to convince the American public that their government is hanging their soldiers out to dry instead of giving them the right stuff.”

“We have recently decided to expand our mission to call attention to the need to protect our troops from traumatic brain injury (‘TBI’) and post traumatic stress disorder (‘PTSD’) and the urgent need for proper medical care for those that have been afflicted with such injuries.  We need to insure that our troops have the best headgear possible to protect them from these devastaing injuries and insure that they receive immediate and disciplined medical treatment following any head injury.”

Roger Charles, Vice Chair / Secretary

A career Marine Corps officer from 1967 to 1990, Roger Charles has enjoyed a second career as an award-winning investigative journalist. He was a member in 2004 of the 60 Minutes II production team that earned a Peabody Award for the segment “Abuse at Abu Ghraib.”

Among his other journalistic achievements: Charles was awarded a Medal for Excellence in Investigative Reporting by journalism’s Investigative Reporters and Editors (I.R.E.) association for his 1992 Newsweek cover story, “Sea of Lies,” and was an Emmy finalist for best investigative piece for the Nightlight Special “The USS Vincennes: Public War, Secret War” in 1992.

For television, Charles has served as a consulting investigative reporter and contributor to segment development for 20/20 (a special project on the Oklahoma City bombing), ABC World News Tonight, Nightline, Frontline, Prime Time Live, BBC News, and CNN, among others.

Charles has served as an advisor on numerous stories for various print and electronic media outlets including: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, and The New Yorker. He has been published in Newsweek, Insight, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune, Soldier of Fortune, Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute, and the Marine Corps Gazette, where he served as editorial board member from 1987-1989. In 1996, Charles broke the story of the fraudulent use of combat insignia by Admiral Jeremy Michael Boorda, Chief of Naval Operations.

“I saw while I was on active duty that many of the national media that cover security and defense issues are truly ill-informed about basic things they need to perform their job properly,” says Charles of his shift to a civilian role as an investigative journalist specializing in a range of national security issues. “This just destroys any kind of credibility this reporting has for any military audience.”

In 1998, Soldiers For The Truth Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan, apolitical, educational foundation whose purpose is meaningful reform of the U.S. defense establishment, was formed, with Charles serving as the editor-in-chief of its newsletter, Voice of the Grunt. Charles remained active on the non-profit’s Board of Trustees until December 2004, when an ailing Hackworth asked him to assume the foundation presidency and Charles now fills the role of Vice Chair, “The foundation was created around three issues: leadership, training, and equipment,” says Charles. “Think of a stool with three legs. Remove any one of those legs and the stool falls apart.”

Fred Tanne, President

Senior corporate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Mr. Tanne has been a partner of the firm since 1991. He is a member of the 15person Firm-wide Management Committee, the New York office Management Committee and is a founder of the New York office. He has been selected by his peers to be included in The Best Lawyers in America as one of the premier practitioners in the Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity Law practice area.

Bob Evans, Treasurer

Bob served with the 229th Aviation Battalion (First Cavalry Division) in the Republic of Vietnam as a helicopter pilot. He received a commission and extended in Vietnam as the battalion aviation safety officer. He served as division artillery aviation officer, artillery battery executive officer and troop commander at Fort Hood, Texas before separating from the service in 1971.

He spent 25 years in the civilian nuclear power industry in Arkansas, Georgia and at the Nuclear Energy Institute in Washington, D.C. In the nuclear industry, he began as a training manager, with responsibilities continuing in the areas of operations, maintenance and support services, and industry and government relations.

Bob is presently a National market manager for the 3M Company in Washington, D.C., working with legislators and government agencies in the areas of homeland security, disaster relief, incident response, and energy conservation.

Directors

Richard W. May, Communications

Richard (“Rick”) W. May, who served in Military Intelligence at the Pentagon from 1969 to 1971, joins SFTT as Director, Communications after an extensive career in international banking and finance. He runs several internet businesses and, together with his wife Sheila, owns Therese Saint Clair, a stationery store, located in Greenwich, CT. He has already leveraged his extensive business acumen and computer-tech skills to manage a host of communications across the digital spectrum including the SFTT website reconstruction. “It is an honor and a privilege to continue on with my ‘service’ to SFTT, supporting the brave young men and women who defend our freedoms,” May said.