We Few

“Although teams of specially trained commando troops who go behind enemy lines began conducting secret missions as far back as WWII, Special Forces, as they’re now commonly called, didn’t start attracting major media attention until the First and Second Gulf Wars. In this riveting account of his own role in these elite military units, Brokhausen shows how often they were used and how brutally effective they were during the Vietnam War, when he belonged to a small squadron dubbed Recon Team Habu. In the early 1970s, his crew led raids and intelligence-gathering operations in enemy-controlled areas of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Mostly composed of indigenous tribal Vietnamese soldiers, the teams regularly suffered horrific casualties yet brought back critical information about guerrilla troop movements that immeasurably aided the U.S. war effort. 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

“Brokhausen mixes irreverence, perversity, and sarcasm with touches of gonzo journalism to recreate his 1970 tour with the Military Assistance Command Vietnam Studies and Observations Group… Brokhausen draws convincing pictures of his fellow Green Berets’ combat skills and idiosyncrasies and the areas in which they operated. He taught me lessons about Special Forces tactics and weapons—more than I learned from Ken Burns’ television saga on Vietnam, which I never finished watching.” ~Vietnam Veterans of America

“Brokhausen interconnects anecdotal accounts of small-unit tactical engagements to provide an overview of the challenges, opportunities and risks associated with support from Joint Forces capabilities during the Vietnam War. He transmits details that activate each human sense through an imaginative response to the reproduction of a mission… We Few, U.S. Special Forces in Vietnam is a recommended read for small-unit leaders and others seeking a short but entertaining non-fictional book” ~ARMOR

“Nick Brockhausen’s memoir We Few: U.S. Special Forces in Vietnam recounts his days as a member of the US Special Forces during the Vietnam War. Brockhausen served in reconnaissance, formally known as Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV-SOG)… he describes all sorts of mischief he and his brothers-in-arms used in between battles, when they just sat waiting for their next mission.” ~Tulsa Book Review

“Brokhausen’s personal account is gritty, harrowing, descriptive, and full of detail… His account is full of visceral accounts of battle, soldierly descriptions of fellow warriors, and other tales both mundane and exceptional. The various missions described are full of the sort of military detail and and recall expected of a reconnaissance operator, giving a vivid impression of the activities of the author’s unit. The everyday prose flows naturally and draws the reader into the narrative.” ~Christopher Miskimon, Military Heritage

“We Few pulls no punches. This book endlessly recounts the wanton thievery that Special Forces men routinely engaged in, their predilection for random acts of violence, and their many dust-ups with REMF authority. Brokhausen is as hard-boiled as they come, but this book is also replete with plenty of humor, even if it is obsidian black… an excellent and 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

“…one of the best books describing the SOG experience”  ~Modern Forces

“I can see why this book soon became a cult classic on its first publication ten years ago - it is essential reading, and spectacularly well written and quite riveting, for anyone with an interest in the conflict that defined modern-day America.” ~Books Monthly

Special Forces veteran Brokhausen starts this memoir with the remembrance of a dream. He’s on a fishing trip with his brother, who turns toward him, sobbing, and reaches for him. But it’s not his brother; it’s a Viet Cong soldier Brokhausen killed, cleaving his skull in half with a trenching tool. “I took his future,” the author muses, and the dream ends. The prose is clunky at times, and the mentality of the soldiers can be sophomoric, but niceties of style are beside the point here because Brokhausen writes painfully and truthfully of the realities of war. The combat scenes are wrenching; the constant drinking, thieving, and fighting is disturbing. One passage describes how Special Forces troops would borrow from new recruits, figuring that when payback time came at the end of the month, there was a 50 percent chance the soldier who loaned the money would be dead and the borrower would get off free. Throughout this personal narrative, Brokhausen shows the harrowing state of mind that exists when walking outside means putting one’s life at risk. VERDICT Gritty and real. For all readers interested in war memoirs. ~David Keymer, Library Journal

“The book captures a lot of profanity and bluster by Special Forces, recording their foibles and drinking habits and occasional raids looking for bad guys and rescuing downed pilots… It’s good stuff.” ~ARMY

“Some of the action accounts have you holding your breath in anticipation of the ending.” ~Miniature Wargames

"Nick Brokhausen approaches his very personal history of duty in Vietnam like Hunter S. Thompson described a journey to Las Vegas; he takes no prisoners and no one is left off the hook, except perhaps his "unwashed, profane, ribald, joyously alive" brothers in arms. Brokhausen explains that writing this book was a catharsis and, more importantly a tribute to those with whom he served and those lost during these missions. Among SOG veterans, his harrowingly accurate descriptions of tghe missions are jokingly called "most likely to cause a PTSD relapse." ~On Point: The Journal of Army History