Book Reaction: 15 MONTHS IN SOG

"SOG," as its called in the U.S. Army, stands for "studies and observations group," and was probably the most covert, secretive, and effective group of soldiers the Army had during the Iraq . . .I mean Vietnam War. The soldiers who made up this unit were all Army Special Forces troops--"special forces" referred to, essentially, the "Green Beret's," or, as we know them today, the Rangers. The Navy SEALS, in my opinion America's elite fighting force, had just begun to materialize . . .

Retired Colonel Thom Nicholson narrates the collection of stories recollected from his second tour in Vietnam, when he was a young Captain commanding the "Raider Company"--about 200 troops--in some of the war's most deadly missions. The pros of the book, I guess, is that it is real, honest to goodness recounting of war stories--the kind you would expect to hear around a campfire or a kitchen table mottled with empty cans of Miller Light. "Nick," as he's called in the book, pulls no punches, and employs no rhetoric devices like pathos in order to create a certain feeling or mood. He just tells it like it is, and thats it. This can have its pros and its cons. As a huge fan of Tim O'Brien's THE THINGS THEY CARRIED (one of the two or three books that made me cry) I like to see the intimate part of war (as if one exists) where we truly get into the soldiers psyche and "feel" their sense of grief, loss, and pain. I think I like the intimate stories O'Brien tells, mostly, because I am the type of guy who brings "Buttershots" and "Hot Damn" liquor to camping trips.

The biggest con of the story, was, frankly, that Nicholson is a terrible writer. In fact, I dont know when I've read worse writing. But is this okay? Should war stories such as these BE blended and construed with all kinds of sappy, emotional gobblygook? Am I spoiled--and are we all spoiled--by the way war is "glamorized" in Hollywood? Nicholson doesn't "waste" any time reflecting on the bad losses he accumulated while serving; when a fellow Captain covers his "Recon Duty" one particular night, and ends up getting shot by VC troops, Nicholson makes an ineffective, generic "his imprint is in my heart always" kind of saying. Actually, thats exactly what he said. But, again, is it okay that he doesnt get too soft? Assumedly, this would be tough for a lean, mean, special ops killing machine (or am I stereotyping?)

The bad imagery and poor attempts at creating good writing fizzle like a rice cake under the Vietnamese sun. Describing a fellow NCO from Georgia, Nicholson writes: "his skin was as black as night, and his smile as warm as the hot Georgia sunshine of his youth." Stuff like that kept occurring, and it was sort of annoying. Another difficult thing was the incessant "techno-speak." You know how Rachel Ray does that things where she says she is going to add some "E-V-O-O to her seared boy, and then explains "that's extra virgin olive oil?" That is what Nicholson does. Again, very impersonal and overly technical with things like SOG, CCN, ARVN, MAC, and S1-5 for describing officer's ranks. Everything in his ultra trained and disciplined mind has an acronym or abbreviation. RON, for example, stands for nothing for than "remain overnight," to designate where a Recon team would camp when out in the bush.

If you are looking for a detailed, authentic, unadorned war story, then I think you'd like it. I enjoyed the information and the point of view very much--very fresh to read something so "non attached" and un-emotional in this day and age! Meanwhile, I am going to go hide, since I did say some negative things about the book, and Col. Nicholson might already be hiding in my room, waiting to kill me . . . .