The author of an award-winning memoir about growing up black in Mississippi, Chalmers Archer now turns his attention to his experiences as one of the first members of the U.S. Army's Special Forces in the years between 1953 and 1965. His perspective is unique, not only as one of the first to wear the Green Beret but as a black man in the early days of armed forces integration.

Archer's unit operated alongside the CIA, helped influence American foreign policy, participated in some of the earliest forays into Laos, and, long before Southeast Asia hit American headlines, was one of the first U.S. units to enter Vietnam. Archer trained the original Special Forces teams of the South Vietnamese army and participated in some of their earliest operations, many of them unknown until now because of their highly classified nature. He saved lives of the first American and Vietnamese soldiers injured in war and also witnessed the first American combat deaths in Vietnam.

A self-described soldier-teacher, Archer developed and spread the early gospel of special warfare while serving in the Philippines, Hawaii, Korea, Taiwan, and Panama, as well as in Southeast Asia. All of these activities are fully chronicled here, and Archer's perspective as an African-American in an elite unit of the U.S. armed forces in the 1950s gives the memoir additional depth and insight. It is an uplifting — though sometimes harrowing — story of struggle in unfamiliar environments and an eye-opening account of events little known today.