We Few

Nick Brokhausen's We Few is one of the most significant memoirs to emerge from the Vietnam War — an unfiltered, darkly humorous account of running reconnaissance missions with Recon Team Habu, CCN (Command and Control North) under MACV-SOG. MACV-SOG — Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group — was one of the most classified and most elite special operations programs of the Cold War. Its mission was officially deniable — recon teams made up of American Green Berets and indigenous Montagnard fighters slipped across borders into Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam on intelligence gathering missions that the U.S. government publicly denied even existed. We Few covers Brokhausen's 1970 tour running with Recon Team Habu. The book is remarkable for its authenticity and its voice. Brokhausen doesn't write as a warrior seeking glory or a propagandist selling the righteousness of the war. He writes as a professional soldier doing a job, with the irreverence, dark humor, and matter-of-fact acceptance of danger that comes from actually being there. The book details the operational reality of SOG recon — the gear (suppressed weapons, specialized rucksacks, close-haul radio equipment), the tactics (movement through jungle, evasion, ambush response), the relationships between American and Montagnard team members, and the constant reality that extraction might not come. The casualty rates were catastrophic. Most recon teams didn't make it through a full tour. Brokhausen's team was fortunate. We Few became a cult classic among SOG veterans and special operations professionals precisely because it captures the experience without sentimentality, without political messaging, and without the distortion that time often introduces. Brokhausen writes about fear, competence, luck, and the bonds that form between men facing death together. The book is essential reading for anyone serious about understanding special operations or Vietnam War history.

• Brokhausen assigned to Recon Team Habu, CCN — MACV-SOG unit
• 1970 tour: border crossings into Laos, Cambodia, North Vietnam
• Reconnaissance missions with American and Montagnard team members
• Constant threat: enemy hunter-killer teams, air support dependency
• Casualty rates catastrophic: most recon teams didn't complete tour
• Brokhausen's team survives through competence, luck, and coordination
• Irreverent, authentic voice captures operational reality without sentimentality

Whispers in the Tall Grass is the previously unpublished follow-up to We Few. Brokhausen returns to Vietnam for another tour, and the war has entered a new and deadlier phase. The enemy has learned from earlier recon operations. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong now deploy specialized hunter-killer formations — units specifically organized and trained to locate and destroy SOG recon teams. The title Whispers in the Tall Grass comes from Brokhausen's description of the sound of enemy movement through the jungle. In earlier operations, recon teams had advantages — surprise, air support, superior equipment. Now the enemy is prepared, coordinated, and committed to destroying the teams before they can extract. Brokhausen writes with the same unflinching honesty as in We Few, but the tone is darker. The losses are heavier. The missions are more desperate. More experienced team members are killed. Replacements come in with less experience and less training. The cumulative weight of sustained danger and the knowledge that casualty rates are increasing creates psychological pressure that even the most professional soldiers feel. Whispers in the Tall Grass provides essential context for understanding the war's final phase. By the time this memoir's events occur, the U.S. is beginning withdrawal, but MACV-SOG teams are still operating at full intensity. The missions seem increasingly pointless to the soldiers executing them — intelligence gathering for a war that the U.S. is already losing. Brokhausen captures both the professional commitment to the mission and the growing awareness that the efforts are not producing strategic results. The two memoirs together form the definitive account of MACV-SOG operations — the equipment, the tactics, the relationships between American and indigenous team members, the air support system, and the psychological reality of running missions where extraction might not come. They are essential reading for understanding special operations history and the Vietnam War beyond the conventional combat narrative.

• Brokhausen returns for second tour — enemy now prepared for SOG operations
• Hunter-killer formations deployed specifically to destroy recon teams
• Casualties increase — heavier losses than earlier war phase
• Experienced team members killed — replacements less trained
• Air support remains critical but casualty rates continue climbing
• Missions continue despite growing awareness of strategic futility
• Psychological weight of sustained danger and losses accumulates