Nick Brokhausen - We few: U.S. Special Forces in Vietnam

NICK BROKHAUSEN

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Copyright Casemate Publishers, Nick Brokhausen, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-5040-0819-8

Casemate Publishing
1950 Lawrence Road,
Havertown, PA 19083, USA
www.casematepublishing.com

This edition distributed in 2018 by Open Road Integrated Media
180 Maiden Lane
New York, NY 10038
www.openroadmedia.com

But we in it shall be rememberd;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother;

Henry V

William Shakespeare

To my peers I told you I would get even I hope I did you proud.

This is to acknowledge the people that helped me through this catharsis and still remained sane.

The first and foremost would have to be my editor, Mary Lisa Allen, who had to change her name to Icepick Kelly to satisfy the need for protective camouflage on her part. Icepick worked long and laborious hours to pull my crazed ramblings and dementia into focus, whilst bearing invective-laced comments about being tainted by too much education. She accomplished the impossible by pulling it all together and for this should get all the accolades. Life being capricious, she will probably be part of the public flogging.

To Dennis Cummings, my publisher, goes the Gonads of the Decade Award.

And finally, to those of you not hung up on the flinty-eyed, strong-jawed poster image sold by the spin doctors, and who share that splash of reality only war gives, do something inane and embarrassing in front of your kids to go along with this acknowledgement. I salute you.

This book is the first of two detailing the actions and experiences of a small group of Americans and their indigenous allies who were the backbone of ground reconnaissance in the Republic of Vietnam during the war.

The unit that is described here was part of MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command Vietnam Studies and Observations Group), or Studies and Observations Group as it was innocuously called. In the eight years that it existed, the small recon companies that were the center of its activities conducted some of the most dangerous and daring missions of the war. Originally conceived as a unit capable of infiltrating the heart of the areas controlled by the North Vietnamese in both Laos and Vietnam, it expanded its reach to North Vietnam, Cambodia and a few other places best left unmentioned.

During that time the companies never exceeded more than 30 Americans, yet they were the best source for the enemys disposition and were key to the US Military being able to take the war to the enemy, through the air and on the ground. This was accomplished by utilizing new and innovative technology, but also heavily relied on the ability of the individual team members being able to use tactics as old as those from the French and Indian Wars.

In that process this small unit racked up one of the most impressive records of awards for valor of any unit in the history of the United States Army. It came at a terrible price, however; the number of wounded and killed in action resulted in the computation of a life expectancy that was measured in a matter of a few months. Those missions today seem suicidal. In 1970 they seemed equally so, yet these men went out day after day with their indigenous allies, consisting of Montagnard tribesmen, Vietnamese, and Chinese Nungs, and faced the challenges with courage and resolve.

After the fall of the Republic of Vietnam the indigenous survivors faced persecution, and in some cases, wholesale execution. Today the Montagnard minority is still being persecuted by the central government as their traditional life is being robbed along with the resources of their homelands in the mountains of Vietnam and Laos. In the end, the Communist regimes seem determined to wipe out these amazing people.

For their devotion to our cause and to the very standards that we hold as sacred, they were abandoned through political compromise, and except for a few staunch allies in this country consisting of Special Forces veterans, were left to become one more victim of tyranny. That terrible price for fidelity and devotion to duty is not yet fully paid.

Those veterans of CCN are a diverse lot. Some came home and did as our forefathers before have done war after war. They picked up where their lives had left off and became citizens and pursued a life outside the military. Others stayed in the harness and acquitted themselves with honor and distinction in the wars and conflicts since. Some have risen to positions of power and influence, and others have become examples of the bedrock of American society, average men with families, kids, mortgages and the loves and woes of just being.

Others were not so lucky. Some sought solace in the bottle and welded the cap on tight, sinking into dependency to numb the pain of surviving and the horrible scar that war puts on your soul. Some sought solace in isolation, away from the demands of society. These are still our casualties, and as brothers we continue to reach out to them for we are the only ones that really understand.

The majority of us, through hard living and age, have lost that lean hardness that combat gives you. But we share a set of common traits. We are joyous to be alive every single day because it is a gift not a burden. We love this country with a passion akin to religious fervor, though we are at times disappointed in how the system is abused by special interests using the freedoms that we paid for with our blood. We still have an aversion to bullies and self-righteous fools that are concerned more with power and authority than with what is right, fair, and just.

We are still a bad sort to back into a comer, and three hundred to one odds are something that we consider as unfair to the guy with two hundred and ninety nine of his buddies against us. There are anecdotes innumerable of people that have assumed wrongly that we are just a bunch of old people who can be buffaloed or intimidated. We survived the war on pure aggression and murderous efficiency and some things just dont mellow with time.

We are and will always be a band of brothers, bonded by war and bathed in the pure love for each other that only combat veterans can understand. These men are my peers and I am terribly proud to be one of their number.

In the recent past I have had the pleasure of working with the new generation of Special Forces soldier, both officers and enlisted. This country is just now beginning to see what these unique men are capable of doing in the face of adversity. To say that we are proud of them doesnt quite convey the idea. To us Special Forces is a way of life, not a job description, and that code of conduct is exemplified in todays force.

This book and its companion is my tribute to my peers; it was written neither as the Great American Novel, nor with the intent to give the reader the impression that we were death-stalking giants of the battlefield. We had our weaknesses and we certainly had our fear. We all have our ghosts that haunt us in one way or another and at times, I am sure, regrets about not being a better person. I hope it gives the reader a window into the past. I hope it will convey the incredible strength and macabre sense of humor that one needs in order to survive. But most of all, I hope that the reader will come away with a sense of how fortunate we are as a people that we can produce these qualities in our youth. I am proud to be a member of that small brotherhood of unwashed, profane, ribald, joyously alive fraternity.