Born Twice: Memoir of a Special Forces SOG Warrior

Description: "...a near-unbelievable story of deadly missions carried out by small Green Beret-led teams operating deep in enemy territory against all but impossible odds."

Brief description: Dale Hanson is an accomplished sculptor who has led a life of adventure and enjoyed numerous accomplishments. He is a black belt martial artist, an author, a pilot of fixed wing and glider airplanes, has flown aerobatics and is a Special Forces underwater diver. He is a disabled veteran and a member of MENSA.During the Vietnam War, Dale was a highly decorated Green Beret who served three years as a commando in the famous SOG program, whose mission involved extremely dangerous raids far behind enemy lines. This unit received more decorations and suffered higher rates of casualties than any American unit since the American Civil War. On one of these raids, Dale earned the first of several purple hearts as his right hand was mangled by a burst of machine gun fire. It is ironic that he became a sculptor, a field in which one's hands are so critical.

Review Quotes: "Dale Hanson takes us from a northern Minnesota boyhood to the incredible stresses of U.S. special operations during the Vietnam War, the deadly world of MAC-V-SOG, the top-secret Special Forces project that conducted America's Secret War against the Communist forces on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Shrouded in mystery and equipped with exotic weaponry, SOG operators suffered casualty rates in excess of 100% for three successive years.

Dale Hanson served with Recon Team Florida during one of the legendary missions of SOG, the killing of an enemy colonel who was carrying super-secret documents of enormous importance to the American war effort. After intense fighting, those documents were brought back by the team. Dale survived and went on to serve three tours with the legendary special operations group.

The American heartland can bring forth young men of great valor and commitment, and one such man wrote this book. To read it is to go along on a near-unbelievable story of deadly missions carried out by small Green Beret-led teams operating deep in enemy territory against all but impossible odds."

-Michael P Buckland, Special Forces SOG warrior

"At times light hearted and other times deadly serious, this recounting of Dale Hanson's formative upbringing and remarkable combat as a 'Green Beret' is exciting, fascinating reading. We both served as U.S. Army Special Forces recon volunteers, operating deep behind enemy lines on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, and infiltrating enemy sanctuaries in Cambodia. These were extremely dangerous, top secret operations, which tested Dale's mettle; the Christian values of his youth - integrity, placing others above himself, never shying from hard work and always demanding the very best of himself - shone brightly. Read this book and you'll agree with the Green Berets who knew him: Dale is one of the best." -Maj. John Plaster, Ret. Special Forces, SOG author

"Fifty years after the eight-year secret war ended in Vietnam, well-written non-fiction books by SOG recon men are surfacing. Add Born Twice by Dale Hanson - who served three tours of duty during the war - to the growing list of SOG books. Hanson's Born Twice is actually a story within a story. He brilliantly sets the stage for being hunted by communist soldiers on the ground in Laos in the dark of night, casually mentioning the damage his fingers sustained following face-to-face combat with three AK-47-firing enemy soldiers. Then he deftly shifts gears, taking you through his childhood in Ojibway country in northern Minnesota and his coming of age before joining the Army. Both aspects of this proud Green Beret's history make for a fascinating read. This isn't his first book and I hope it's not his last."

-John Stryker Meyer, author of Across the Fence: The Secret War in Vietnam, On The Ground and SOG Chronicles: Volume One

"Each time I pick up a book or short story written by Dale Hanson, I know I'm about to read something unique and special. Dale is more than a writer, he is a wordsmith. Born Twice takes the reader from the bitterly cold Minnesota winters of his youth to leading a MACV-SOG recon team in the steaming jungles of Southeast Asia. If you want to know what it was like to run reconnaissance missions into denied areas during the Vietnam War, then Born Twice is a book you must read." -Dennis J. Cummings, author of The Men Behind the Trident: SEAL Team One in Vietnam