Break Contact — Continue Mission

Book excerpt: Follows a veteran's experiences with MACV-SOG’s Recon Team Iowa, highlighting perilous missions behind enemy lines and the bravery of U.S. and Montagnard soldiers. Join Garner, Dodge, and the rest of RT Iowa as they venture “across the fence” to help stem the flow of the North Vietnamese on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Tense hours of moving in areas “denied” to the U.S. military are interspersed with fierce firefights; back at Kontum, the Green Berets unwind with wild abandon, while the recon first sergeant makes repeated, often doomed attempts to ensure the teams’ success—and survival. First published in 1990, this classic account of Military Assistance Command Vietnam, Studies and Observation Group, was written as a novel by a veteran of Recon Team Iowa to bring his experiences and those of fellow MACV-SOG soldiers to a wider audience at a time when their dedication and sacrifice was little known. The small tight recon teams—each comprising three U.S. soldiers and five to seven indigenous allies—undertook some of the most hazardous missions of the war. They would operate for hours or days in areas controlled by the North Vietnamese in order to collect essential intelligence on the enemy’s disposition. The unit would receive many accolades, but also suffer sky-high casualties. With a new author’s note and epilogue, Break Contact—Continue Mission is Harris’ tribute not only to the American soldiers that he fought alongside, but to the Montagnard fighters of RT Iowa—Whean, Kehn, Phe, Djuit, Kuie and Dominique.