Special Men

A recipient of two Purple Hearts gives readers an inside view of US Army special forces through his own trial by fire during the Vietnam War.

Days before he was drafted in 1962, Dennis Foley volunteered to join the army in the hopes of someday getting into West Point. He was only eighteen years old. At basic training in Fort Dix, New Jersey, a presentation by two impressive, self-confident special forces sergeants made an indelible impression on him.

His career would come full circle. In 1972, wearing a green beret, Foley would be given command of his own A-Team. But between those two pivotal moments, his determination, loyalty, and mental and physical strength would be tested as never before, fighting in the jungles of Vietnam alongside the bravest men he would ever know.

In Special Men, Foley describes his experience at the 7th Army NCO Academy in Germany, where he learned more about leadership than at any other school he would later attend. He takes us moment-by-moment on his heart-pounding introduction to combat—a nighttime, amphibious ambush patrol with the South Vietnamese Navy. We see the shock set in upon realizing that conventional training left him unprepared for the guerrilla army he faced in Vietnam. And we share his sadness over fallen comrades and his own relief at surviving his injuries. This is an unvarnished account of horror and heroism and a tribute to the unselfish devotion to duty of the LRPs, Rangers, and Green Berets.