Sog Kontum

The Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) was a highly classified, multi-service United States Special Forces unit which conducted covert unconventional warfare operations prior to and during the Vietnam War. The unit conducted strategic reconnaissance missions in South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia; carried out the capture of enemy prisoners, rescued downed pilots, and conducted rescue operations to retrieve allied prisoners of war throughout Southeast Asia; and conducted clandestine agent team activities and psychological operations. This book tells the story of the Teams operating out of FOB2 Kontum, near the tri-border area, in 1968–69. From recon missions over the fence to the heroic, and sometimes fatal efforts undertaken to try and rescue missing SOG members, the events are told through the words of the men themselves, supported by previously unreleased official documents.

A year with the men of MACV-SOG at Forward Operating Base Kontum.

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.

Three stirring military portraits—including a biography of the Vietnam War hero who wrote the New York Times bestseller, We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young. Hal Moore: A heroic commander in the Vietnam War, Harold G. Moore cowrote the New York Times–bestselling memoir of the battle at Ia Drang and was portrayed by Mel Gibson in the film We Were Soldiers. This “outstanding” and definitive biography expands on the account of that pivotal battle to encompass Moore’s distinguished military career from the Korean War through his courageous and invaluable service in Vietnam (Armchair General). Shadow Commander: In World War II, US Army legend Donald Blackburn escaped from Bataan along with Russell W. Volckmann and organized the guerrilla fighters known as “Blackburn’s Headhunters” against the Japanese. He would go on to play a key role in the Vietnam War, revitalizing Army Special Forces operations in Southeast Asia, spearheading Operation White Star in Laos, and eventually taking command of the highly classified Studies and Observations Group (SOG). Blackburn was also the architect of the infamous Son Tay Prison Raid, officially termed Operation Ivory Coast, the largest prisoner-of-war rescue mission of the Vietnam War. “A follow-up to a fine bio of Russell Volckmann, this tale of guerrilla warfare spans from Bataan to Vietnam.” —World War II Magazine American Guerrilla: Here is Russell Volckmann’s own story, from his refusal to surrender at Bataan to raising a Filipino army of more than twenty-two thousand men and leading a guerrilla war against the Japanese for the next three years. When General Yamashita finally surrendered, he made his initial overtures not to General Douglas MacArthur, but to Volckmann. The progenitor of modern counterinsurgency doctrine, Volkmann wrote the field manuals that became the US Army’s first handbooks outlining the precepts for both special warfare and counter-guerrilla operations, making him the true “father” of Army Special Forces. “[Volckmann’s private army] waged arguably the most successful guerrilla campaign of the entire war . . . Mr. Guardia argues, convincingly, that Volckmann deserves the title of ‘father’ of Special Forces.” —The Washington Times

Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War allows us to see what really happened to American forces in Southeast Asia, separating popular myth from explosive reality in a clear, concise manner. Containing more than two hundred examinations of different aspects of the war, the book questions why the American military ignored the lessons taught by previous encounters with insurgency forces; probes the use of group think and mind control by the North Vietnamese; and explores the role technology played in shaping the way the war was fought. Of course, the book also reveals the "dirty little secrets," the truth behind such aspects of the conflict as the rise of the Montagnard mercenaries--the most feared group of soldiers participating in the secret war in Laos-and the details of the hidden struggle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail. With its unique and perceptive examination of the conflict, Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War by James F. Dunnigan & Albert A. Nofi offers a critical addition to the library of Vietnam War history.