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This riveting memoir details the actions and experiences of a small group of Americans and their allies who were the back 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 ( 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 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. Table of Contents Acknowledgements Author’s Note Prologue 1 The Road to Mandalay 2 Keys to the Kingdom 3 First Blood 4 Cold Storage 5 Buff aloes Can Dance 6 The Coolest Man Alive 7 Polite Society Meets Reality 8 We Few, We Happy Few 9 Luck is a Fickle Mistress 10 Blue Eyes 11 Operation Afrika Corps 12 Selection Process 13 Bright Light 14 The Anthill Mob 15 With Texans Expect Bumps 16 As Through a Glass Darkly 17 Saltwater Therapy 18 Monkeyshines 19 Isn’t Science Wonderful 20 The Cuckoo’s Nest 21 Little Island in the Sun 22 King of the Cannibals 23 Rubik’s Cube 24 Gin and Heartbreak