Former Member of Detachment”A” Nick Brokhausen has written his second book entitled “Whispers in the Tall Grass.
On his second combat tour, Nick Brokhausen served in Recon Team Habu, CCN. This unit was part of MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command Vietnam Studies and Observations Group), or Studies and Observations Group as it was innocuously called. The small recon companies that were the center of its activities conducted some of the most dangerous missions of the war, infiltrating areas controlled by the North Vietnamese in Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. The companies never exceeded more than 30 Americans, yet they were the best source for the enemy’s disposition and were key to the US military being able to take the war to the enemy. This was accomplished by utilizing both new and innovative technology, and tactics dating back to the French and Indian Wars.
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 was incredibly high. Those missions today seem suicidal. In 1970 they seemed equally so, yet these men went out day after day with their indigenous allies – Montagnard tribesmen, Vietnamese, and Chinese Nungs – and faced the challenges with courage and resolve.
Whispers in the Tall Grass is the second volume of Nick’s riveting memoir of his time with MACV-SOG. Written in the same irreverent, immediate style that made We Fewi a cult classic, he continues his hair-raising adventures behind enemy lines, and movingly conveys the bonds that war creates between soldiers.
Former Member of Detachment”A” Nick Brokhausen has written a book about his time in CCN part of MACV-SOG in Vietnam. The book entitled We Few: U.S. Army Special Forces in Vietnam – Suicide missions in enemy territory with the SOG.
This riveting memoir details the actions and experiences of a small group of Americans and their allies who were the backbone of ground reconnaissance in the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. On his second tour to Vietnam, Nick Brokhausen served in Recon Team Habu, CCN. This unit was part of MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command Vietnam Studies and Observations Group), or Studies and Observations Group as it was innocuously called. The small recon companies that were the center of its activities conducted some of the most dangerous missions of the war, infiltrating areas controlled by the North Vietnamese in Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. The companies never exceeded more than 30 Americans, yet they were the best source for the enemy’s disposition and were key to the US military being able to take the war to the enemy, by utilizing new and innovative technology and tactics dating back to the French and Indian Wars.
Brokhausen’s group 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 was incredibly high. Those missions today seem suicidal. In 1970 equally so, yet these men went out day after day with their indigenous allies – Montagnard tribesmen, Vietnamese, and Chinese Nungs – and faced the challenges with courage and resolve.
Former Detachment “A” member Colonel Warner D. “Rocky” Farr has just published a book entitled “The Death of the Golden Hour and the Return of the Future Guerrilla Hospital”.
Rocky served as a medic on Team 3 in Detachment “A” in the 1971-1972 time frame serving with Team 3 Commander Hermann Adler Commander and Bob Charest Team Sergeant.
Colonel Farr has a long and highly distinguished career in Special Forces with sterling professional credentials including BSMT, MD, MPH, MSS, FACP, FAsMA, Associate Clinical Professor of Anatomic & Clinical Pathology, Associate Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine, Aerospace Medicine Specialist. He is also a Distinguished Member of the Special Forces Regiment.
Former Detachment “A” member Dieter Protsch has published Be All You Can Be: From a Hitler Youth in WWII to a US Army Green Beret. Profits were used for purchases of pre-paid phone cards for troops oversees.
Dieter Protsch went on a book tour for his book Be All You Can Be: From a Hitler Youth in WWII to a US Army Green Beret. Profits to be used for purchases of pre-paid phone cards for troops oversees.
Memoirs cover the life of an immigrant from his youth in Berlin, Germany, experiencing World War II to his later immigration to the United States and service in the US Army and Special Forces, the Green Berets.
The book covers his experiences as a member of the “Jungvolk” and Hitler Youth during Air Raids in Berlin, evacuation of the family without a father to the East, life on a Trek from the Polish border back to Berlin and combat against the Russian Army. Following the loss of WWII it describes life under Soviet Occupation, bare survival and later flight to freedom from East Germany to West Germany.
Former Detachment “A” member MG(Ret) Sidney Shachnow – former Detachment(A) Commander is the author of the best seller “Hope and Honor” .
Major General Sid Shachnow was ten-years-old when he escaped the notorious Kovno concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Lithuania. Later, he traveled to post-war Germany, and he earned a living as a courier for his mother’s black market business. His family eventually came to America where he struggled to get an education, held down three jobs, and courted the girl of his dreams, whom he would marry and raise four daughters with.
Major General Shachnow began his career in the U.S. Army as a driver for various officers in Europe, all of whom spotted potential in the young private and encouraged him to become an officer. After nearly 40 years of service to his country, Major General Shachnow could look back on a career and a life with pride, sadness, and a sense of duty spawned from freedom, both lost and earned.
Former Detachment “A” Albert Slugocki has written the book The Autumn Man. Included in its contents is his assignment as Team Det-A, and off duty personal life – 1964/1966. Pay particular attention to Chapter #10, titled Berlin – The Good Life.
Former Detachment “A” member James Stejskal has published several books including:
OE and OSS IN WW2, No Moon as Witness.
Striking where the enemy is weakest and melting away into the darkness before he can react. Never confronting a stronger force directly, but willing to use audacity and surprise to confound and demoralize an opponent. Operations driven by good intelligence, area knowledge, mobility, speed, firepower, and detailed planning executed by a few specialists with indigenous warriors – this is unconventional warfare.
Masters of Mayhem
Striking where the enemy is weakest and melting away into the darkness before he can react. Never confronting a stronger force directly, but willing to use audacity and surprise to confound and demoralize an opponent. Operations driven by good intelligence, area knowledge, mobility, speed, firepower, and detailed planning executed by a few specialists with indigenous warriors – this is unconventional warfare.
Special Forces Berlin: Clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army’s Elite, 1956–1990
Highly classified until only recently, two U.S. Army Special Forces detachments were stationed far behind the Iron Curtain in West Berlin during the Cold War. The units’ existence and missions were protected by cover stories, their operations were secret.
Special Forces Berlin was a one of a kind unit that had no parallel. It left a legacy of a new type of soldier expert in unconventional warfare, one that was sought after for missions such as the attempted rescue of American hostages from Tehran in 1979. With the U.S. government officially acknowledging their existence in 2014, their incredible story can now be told.
The Horns Of The Beast: The Swakop River Campaign & World War I In South West Africa published by Helion & Company, tells the story of the South African Army in its first foreign operations and the German Schutztruppe’s defense of their colony, German South West Africa, during World War I from 1914-1915.