Yellow Green Beret Vol. I: Stories of an Asian-American Stumbling Around U.S. Army Special Forces

by Chester Wong, Jeff Hsiao (Illustrator)

Forget slapstick comedy, when it comes to U.S. Army Special Forces veteran Chester Wong writing his memoir, Yellow Green Stories of an Asian-American Stumbling Around U.S. Army Special Forces, it’s more about chopstick humor—and random acts of hilarity. From his days at West Point through his time serving as a Green Beret combat commander on the frontlines of Iraq and the Philippines, Wong tells how he scaled the ranks despite being more adept at cutting corners than taking orders. Darkly comic and brutally honest, Wong’s stories range from sting operations on Filipino cell phone thieves to ordering pizzas during special operations wilderness survival school. And beyond the humor, his darker stories offer up a no-holds-barred account of what it’s like to serve on the front lines as a Special Forces commander, showing the strange mix of tedium, absurdity, danger and bravery that colored his four tours and just what it’s like to be yellow and fight for the red, white, and blue. Whether or not you’re in the Army, there’s a whole lot of adventure and a whole lot of “who’d have thoughts” and “imagine thats” in this military memoir. With short stories like “Johnnie Walker Brown,” “Wily Filipino Cell Phone Thieves,” and “Sniper Extending the Range of Personality Lethality,” Wong pokes fun at the ironies of special operations combat, the idiosyncrasies of military life, and the absurdities of life on the frontline; more often than not he heckles his own harebrained ways. Each vignette is a standalone anecdote; sometimes there’s a lesson, sometimes it’s just for a laugh. He reminisces his West Point and Special Forces training, working with various militaries in Southeast Asia, and serving in Iraq and the Philippines, as well as general tidbits of military life. With a self-deprecating humor style, he leaves readers rolling with laughter and reflection on his unique observations and lessons learned from a path not often taken, which is good since this memoir is the first in a three-part collection.

Genres: Nonfiction, Military Fiction, History

330 pages, Paperback

First published November 21, 2011

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining and thought-provoking memoir from a person with a unique story to tell. Chester Wong (a pen name), writes about his experiences as a Green Beret officer, and to a lesser extent as an Asian-American in the US military (although the second can't be completely separated from the first). His writing style is engaging, conversational, and often very funny. The book is also very well edited for being a self published work. Some reviewers have criticized Wong for being too full of himself, but I never felt that. Sure, has a bit of swagger, but it's partially his sense of humor. I actually found him to be more critical and self-effacing than I would have expected. He provides a very honest reflection on both his successes and failures, and how they have shaped him as a person. It just so happens that those experiences include things like sniper training, leading rebel insurgencies, and hunting terrorists.

The Green Berets, as Wong portrays them, are the thinking man's commandos. Their role is not seek-and-destroy (he says that's the job of the Rangers or SEALs), but infiltrate and conduct guerrilla operations with indigenous forces. As such, a 16 person Green Beret A-Team becomes a trained and organized 600 person rebel insurgency. The lessons in leadership that Wong describes from his experiences in this role are every bit as applicable to the civilian world as the military one. Below is one of his best:

"Only people who have no awareness of their own limitations talk shit. There's a saying in Chinese, 'bu jiao de guo', which translates to 'the dog that doesn't bark'. The meaning is that who have worry about the dog that looks at you but doesn't bark, that's the one that's going to bite you, not the one woofing it up."

While I can't vouch for the authenticity of Wong's military experiences, he tells a good story and makes a number of keen observations on life and work. A very enjoyable read.

[Michael Mosby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny and entertaining, yet heart warming. Mix in a little danger and heroism and you have Yellow Green Beret. It's a fast read of short stories chronicling the life of a young Asian man surviving West Point, his trials as an Army officer and later an "infamous" Green Beret special ops soldier.

The stories are in no particular order, which for me, maybe it's only downfall. But each story is a self contained experience that speaks to a life lesson in humanity, adversity or down right hilarity. It is a great little read!

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you want to hear someone talk about how awesome he is for 300ish pages, then this is the book for you.

[Linda Foley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting

I found this story very entertaining. I feel like I learned about warfare, and some of what our military has been doing in other countries in a way that was easy for non military people to understand. The author had many stories that added humor to a serious business. i developed quite a bit of respect for the author, and I liked him too. I will definitely read more by him

[CASPER HILEMAN · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chester Wong introduces us to his journey of how he became a Green Beret. From his youth in Cupertino California to The United States Military Academy.

[Hoyee Li · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chester Wong his book about an Asian-American in the US military is hilarious and very interesting account of his time from the time in the US Army Academy in NY to his graduation.

[Greg Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yellow Green Beret consists of 3 books about a young man's fascinating journey from a nerdy West Point computer science student to a Special Forces CIF Captain (think pre CTU Jack Bauer!).

What makes Chester's stories stand out from other war memoirs are his casual language, dead pan humor, and his incredible honesty. It's an extremely candid read, warts and all. Using a pen name seems to give the author a great deal more freedom to express himself. Other war books are heavy on the chest thumping and light on the real emotion and humor. They can be rather dry and hollow, probably because they don't want to offend anyone. The author is not afraid to talk about his shortcomings, insecurities, and the important life lessons that he learned along the way.

To be honest, it takes a about a 100 pages to get used to the fact that the stories are not in chronological order. However, later you start to understand why he wrote the books in that order. As the books progress, Chester starts to reveal more about himself at different points in his career. You simply become hooked. You want to know what happens to him and what makes the guy click. Definitely worth the time to read all 3 books, even if you aren't into the military.

[Kyle Timmermeyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author's conversational style makes this book about the mysterious, secretive society of the Special Forces incredibly accessible. All of the episodes in this text are compelling, each in a different way, but I wasn't a fan of the non-chronological order in which they were presented. Although explained as a deliberate step in the introduction, the jumps can be somewhat jarring at times, especially when background information turns out to be repeated. And, even though the conversational style is one of the book's largest assets, I wish that the author had pushed the conversation in a bit more "literary" direction in certain places. But these minor gripes occur only because I enjoyed reading the book so much, and would like to see the author play up his writing talent instead of playing it down.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, available for free on Kindle. Features 23 stories from a pseudonymous Asian-American (Chinese) guy who grew up in Cupertino, went to West Point, then became a Green Beret who served in Iraq and the Philippines.

Stories, which are self-contained and not in chronological order, feature equal doses of bragging and self-deprecation, and feature his experiences at West Point, through Special Forces training, and deployments to the Kurdish regions of Iraq, counterinsurgency operations in the Philippines, partying in Korea, sniper school, and more.

Volumes 2 and 3 are also available on Kindle.

[Jeaneen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book, awesome writer.

The writer takes us on his unique journey from being and Asian-American West Point cadet through Special Forces training and more around the world and back...and more. His stories, his thoughts, his ideas, responses, his opinions run the range of funny, sad, heartbreaking, hilarious, thought provoking, challenging.. and the list goes on. The stories seem to be written in such a matter-of-fact way that you cant help but feel they're true.

I absolutely love, love, love this book. The writer is hilarious, so much so I busted out laughing on the train many, many times.

Do yourself a favor and read it!

[Erik Sapp]

I enjoy reading books about SpecOps operators, but have not found a lot on the Green Berets. This book was just what I was looking for. The author tells very good stories about his time at West Point and in the Army before and after becoming a Green Beret. You can tell he takes everything seriously, but there is a light-hearted tone throughout the book that made it a quick and easy read.

The author says that he wrote these books so that his children and grandchildren can know what he did in the Army. For that reason, the stories are very personal and go into his thoughts, feelings, and opinions.

[Steve Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I read a lot of military memoirs and though there are many by ex-members of other special operations units I think this is the first I've read by an ex-Green Beret. It was interesting to read how they operate in modern wars like Iraq. It had never really occurred to me before that this kind of work was being done there.

The author has a great way of injecting humour into what is otherwise a pretty serious subject. The fact the book was a collection of stories in random order rather than the chronology usually seen in memoirs was refreshing.

[Brett G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wong puts together a number of hilarious stories. As someone who can relate to the topics of many of his stories, I'm amazed at the humorous twists and perspectives he has on the situations he finds himself in.

Something not advertised that is gained from the book is a wide variety of leadership lessons. Wong may not intend to present his stories as lessons to his readers but you will most certainly learn a thing or two about leadership from how he handled (or didn't handle a situation). Come for the entertainment, stay for the knowledge.

[Paul Marteney · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's hard to imagine the trials, tribulations, distress and hardship he went through. It must have been a frightening and arduous ordeal. I can only imagine the horror. And I'm talking of whomever had to edit this trainwreck. Interesting topic, but it makes me seriously frightened for the security of the country that someone who writes on a sixth-grade level could rise to the level of major in our army. Scary stuff.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting theme: culture within U.S. special forces. I found the book difficult to read and passages not really coherent, because, as the author points out in the introduction, the majority of the book was written while he was inebriated. It reads like someone in a bar is trying to tell you a story.

[Carol and Gary Curtis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one different book. The story is fascinating in parts and deadly boring in others. The process the author describes is full of drama until he gets bogged down in useless detail. I did do a bit of skip reading in some sections while in others, I read the section twice to be sure I got it all. All in all, this was very original and worth the read.

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this read and learned things I didn't know about some of the US Spec Ops stuff over the years. I truly enjoyed his thought process and what he went through in life working towards Spec Ops and his roles.

I was honestly upset that the book ended and I am pleasantly surprised to find out there are two other volumes for me to read.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I've ever laughed this hard in a book. I mean, gut-wrenching, achy laughter the whole way through. He has a gift for comedic writing.

Also, I learned a lot about the special forces. A book like Lone Survivor paints the elite soldier as a soulless, killing machine. This showed what happens when regular guys land in these top organizations.

[Hoyee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book that Chester Wong was very humorous and kept me entertained and it was VERY HARD TO PUT DOWN. VERY WELL CHESTER!!

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories were more interesting than others. Overall an OK read.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good book on experiences of an Asian American Special Forces officer written with humor. Enjoyed the read.

[Dyun Tsang · Rating 3 out of 5]

More self-conscious than self-aware but some good anecdotes.