US MACV-SOG Reconnaissance Team in Vietnam

US MACV-SOG Reconnaissance Team in Vietnam
Author: Gordon L. Rottman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 65
Release: 2011-09-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1849085145

In 1964 Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, activated a joint unconventional task force known as the Studies and Observation Group-MACV-SOG. As a cover its mission was to conduct analysis of lessons learned in combat by all branches of service. SOG's real mission was to conduct covert strategic reconnaissance missions into Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam as well as sabotage and 'Black' psychological operations. Ground, air and naval assets were employed to insert, collect, extract, and otherwise support these operations. This book tells the complete story of these covert agents, from their recruitment and training, through to their deadly black-ops in the jungles of Vietnam.

Black Ops, Vietnam

Black Ops, Vietnam
Author: Robert M Gillespie
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2011-09-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1612510647

During the Vietnam War, the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACVSOG) was a highly-classified, U.S. joint-service organization that consisted of personnel from Army Special Forces, the Air Force, Navy SEALs, Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance units, and the CIA. This secret organization was committed to action in Southeast Asia even before the major build-up of U.S. forces in 1965 and also fielded a division-sized element of South Vietnamese military personnel, indigenous Montagnards, ethnic Chinese Nungs, and Taiwanese pilots in its varied reconnaissance, naval, air, and agent operations. MACVSOG was without doubt the most unique U.S. unit to participate in the Vietnam War, since its operational mandate authorized its missions to take place “over the fence” in North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, where most other American units were forbidden to go. During its nine-year existence it managed to participate in most of the significant operations and incidents of the conflict. MACVSOG was there during the Gulf of Tonkin incidents, during air operations over North Vietnam, the Tet Offensive, the secret bombing of and ground incursion into Cambodia, Operation Lam Son 719, the Green Beret murder case, the Easter Invasion, the Phoenix Program, and the Son Tay POW Raid. The story of this extraordinary unit has never before been told in full and comes as a timely blueprint for combined-arms, multi-national unconventional warfare in the post-9/11 age.Unlike previous works on the subject, Black Ops, Vietnam is a complete chronological history of the unit drawn from declassified documents, memoirs, and previous works on the subject, which tended to focus only on particular aspects of the unit’s operations.

MAC V SOG

MAC V SOG
Author: Jason M. Hardy
Publisher:
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2012
Genre: Vietnam War, 1961-1975
ISBN: 9780984443024

US Military History Special Forces

Green Beret in Vietnam

Green Beret in Vietnam
Author: Gordon L. Rottman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2012-06-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1782000518

Vietnam was the US Special Forces most complex and controversial mission, one that began in 1957 and ended in 1973. Camp strike forces, mobile strike forces, mobile guerrilla forces, special reconnaissance projects, training missions and headquarters duty provided vastly differing experiences and circumstances for SF soldiers. Other fluctuating factors were the terrain, the weather and the shifting course of the war itself. Gordon Rottman examines the training, life, weapons and combat experiences of the Special Forces soldier in this challenging environment.

We Few

We Few
Author: Nick Brokhausen
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 391
Release: 2018-04-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1504008197

A Green Beret’s gripping memoir of American Special Forces in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. In 1970, on his second tour to Vietnam, Nick Brokhausen served in Recon Team Habu, CCN. Officially, it was known as the Studies and Observations group. In fact, this Special Forces squad, which Brokhausen calls “an unwashed, profane, ribald, joyously alive fraternity,” undertook some of the most dangerous and suicidal reconnaissance missions ever in the enemy-controlled territory of Cambodia and Laos. But they didn’t infiltrate the jungles alone. They fought alongside the Montagnards—oppressed minorities from the mountain highlands, trained by the US military in guerilla tactics, armed, accustomed to the wild, and fully engaged in a war against the North Vietnamese. Together this small unit formed the backbone of ground reconnaissance in the Republic of Vietnam, racking up medals for valor—but at a terrible cost. “In colorful, military-jargon-laced prose leavened by gallows humor, Brokhausen pulls few punches describing what it was like to navigate remote jungle terrain under the constant threat of enemy fire. A smartly written, insider’s view of one rarely seen Vietnam War battleground.” —Booklist “[An] exceptionally raw look at the Vietnam War just at the apex of its unpopularity. . . . This battle-scarred memoir is an excellent tribute to the generation that fought, laughed, and died in Southeast Asia.” —New York Journal of Books

US MACV-SOG Reconnaissance Team in Vietnam

US MACV-SOG Reconnaissance Team in Vietnam
Author: Gordon L. Rottman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 125
Release: 2011-09-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1849089426

In 1964 Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, activated a joint unconventional task force known as the Studies and Observation Group-MACV-SOG. As a cover its mission was to conduct analysis of lessons learned in combat by all branches of service. SOG's real mission was to conduct covert strategic reconnaissance missions into Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam as well as sabotage and 'Black' psychological operations. Ground, air and naval assets were employed to insert, collect, extract, and otherwise support these operations. This book tells the complete story of these covert agents, from their recruitment and training, through to their deadly black-ops in the jungles of Vietnam.

SOG Medic

SOG Medic
Author: Joe Parnar
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2018-09-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1612006345

The “hair-raising details of the second-by-second events” of a Special Forces medic’s covert operations during the Vietnam War (On Point: The Journal of Army History Online). In the years since the Vietnam War, the elite unit known as the Studies and Observations Group (SOG) has spawned many myths, legends, and war stories. Special Forces medic Joe Parnar served with SOG during 1968 in FOB2/CCC near the tri-border region that gave them access to the forbidden areas of Laos and Cambodia. Parnar recounts his time with the recon men of this highly classified unit, as his job involved a unique combination of soldiering and lifesaving. His stories capture the extraordinary commitment made by all the men of SOG and reveal the special dedication of the medics, who put their own lives at risk to save the lives of their teammates. Parnar also discusses his medical training with the Special Forces. “A well-written, interesting account of Parnar’s three-year term of enlistment in the US Army, culminating as a Special Forces medic in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969 . . . Parnar takes the time to provide context, circumstance and motivation for heroism and tragedy—for US soldiers and the indigenous Vietnamese soldiers and civilians with whom he worked . . . The service, sacrifice and valor of a generation are vividly documented in the pages of SOG Medic.” —ARMY Magazine

Uncommon Valor

Uncommon Valor
Author: Stephen Moore
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2018-10-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1682473120

Uncommon Valor is a look into the formation and operation of an advanced Special Forces recon company during the Vietnam War. Code-named the Studies and Observations Group, SOG was the most covert U.S. military unit in its time and contained only volunteers from such elite units as the Army's Green Berets, Navy SEALs, and Air Force Air Commandos. SOG warriors operated in small teams, going behind enemy lines in Laos and Cambodia and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, tasked with performing special reconnaissance, sabotaging North Vietnamese Army ammunition, attempting to rescue downed U.S. pilots, and other black ops missions. During that time, Forward Operating Base-2's (FOB-2's) recon company became the most highly decorated unit of the Vietnam War, with five of its men earning the Medal of Honor and eight earning the Distinguished Service Cross-America's second highest military award for valor. Purple Hearts were earned by SOG veterans at a pace unparalleled in American wars of the twentieth century, with casualties at times exceeding 100 percent. One, Bob Howard, was wounded on fourteen different occasions, received eight Purple Hearts, was written up after three different missions for the Medal of Honor, and emerged from Vietnam as the most highly decorated soldier since World War II's Audie Murphy.

US Army Long-Range Patrol Scout in Vietnam 1965-71

US Army Long-Range Patrol Scout in Vietnam 1965-71
Author: Gordon L. Rottman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 117
Release: 2013-02-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472801741

The Vietnamese knew the Long-Range Patrol Scouts as “the men with green faces,” a reference to the camouflage paint that they used. Operating in patrols of four to six men these men were like ghosts – scouting far behind enemy lines. This book examines the Long-Range Patrol Scout's superior stealth movement techniques, camouflage and concealment, tracking, counter-tracking, observation, and other fieldcraft skills. It also examines the occasions they participated in small-scale direct actions including ambushes and raids. Written by a Special Forces' Vietnam veteran, this book not only depicts the remarkable lives of these scouts when on campaign, but also details the training and conditioning that it took to become one of these shadow warriors.

Secret Green Beret Commandos in Cambodia

Secret Green Beret Commandos in Cambodia
Author: LTC Fred S. Lindsey
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 741
Release: 2012-11-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1477273077

We could call this book Special Operations Recon Mission Impossible. A small group of highly trained, resourceful US Special Forces (SF) men is asked to go in teams behind the enemy lines to gather intelligence on the North Vietnamese Army units that had infiltrated through Laos and Cambodia down the Ho Chi Minh trails to their secret bases inside the Cambodian border west of South Vietnam. The covert reconnaissance teams, of only two or three SF men with four or five experienced indigenous mercenaries each, were tasked to go into enemy target areas by foot or helicopter insertion. They could be 15 kilometers beyond any other friendly forces, with no artillery support. In sterile uniforms - with no insignia or identification, if they were killed or captured, their government would deny their military connection. The enemy had placed a price on their heads and had spies in their Top Secret headquarters known as SOG. SOG had three identical recon ground units along the border areas. This book tells the history of Command and Control Detachment South (CCS). The CCS volunteer warriors and its Air Partners the Army and Air Force helicopter transport and gunship crews who lived and fought together and sometimes died together. This is the first published history of CCS as compiled by its last living commander, some forty years after they were disbanded. It tells of the struggles and intrigue involved in SOGs development as the modern-day legacy of our modern Special Operations Commands. Forbidden to tell of their experiences for over twenty years; their After Action Reports destroyed even before they were declassified surviving veterans team together to tell how Recon men wounded averaged 100 percent; and SOG became the most highly decorated unit in Vietnam and all were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.