Dutch: From Rising Sun to the Rise of Jihad, Six Decades of Service

by Kim Kipling

Master Sergeant Jan W. “Dutch” Wierenga was a little known but highly respected Special Forces and CIA legend. He served the USA for sixty years in total, in some of the most dangerous and difficult circumstances imaginable. Born in Indonesia in 1936, he and his family spent a total of four years imprisoned in Japanese and Indonesian internment camps under unspeakably harsh conditions. They were rescued under fire by British Gurkha troops in 1946. He was running jungle combat patrols by age 16, and emigrated to Holland by cargo ship in 1955. He arrived in the USA in 1960, became a US citizen and enlisted in the US Army in 1963, serving three tours in Vietnam. A Green Beret, he was a Recon Team leader in the then-secret, now legendary MACV/SOG, running some of the most harrowing and highly-classified missions of the Vietnam War. He later served as a Special Forces Team Sergeant, Recon Instructor, HALO parachuting instructor and First Sergeant of the Special Forces Training School. He was the Senior NCO at the founding of the Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape (SERE) program under COL James “Nick” Rowe. Dutch earned numerous combat decorations including the Silver Star, four Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart. He retired from the Army in 1986. Dutch then joined the CIA as a Paramilitary Operations Officer. He conducted numerous clandestine missions for CIA, including serving as a Battalion Adviser to the Nicaraguan “Contras” and acting as Chief of Station in a war-torn African country. He became a beloved Training Instructor at the CIA's “Farm”, serving in that capacity until he finally retired in Spring 2022. Now, his incredible life story can at last be told. This book is the biography of this remarkable American patriot. It contains numerous period photos, and first-hand descriptions of Vietnam combat, CIA operations and other historic events. It was written by a friend and CIA colleague.

Dutch Wierenga passed away on 09 January 2023. His ashes will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery, in the company of America's greatest heroes.

259 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 13, 2022

Reviews

[Cory Jarrett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Master Sergeant Jan W. “Dutch” Wierenga was an incredible man who lived an incredible life....this book however, is a slog.

[Deon du Plessis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

Incredible journey with Dutch. What a dedicated soldier. I served in the South African Defence force for 18 years (Infantry) and felt so many emotions with his experiences as we fought a war for more than 20 years too. Take care Dutch and wishing you many more healthy years.

[Brian Pangburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing story... and life

An amazing account of someone who should be a household name... but isn't. Certainly a life "well lived". Great read and highly recommended!

[Martha McLaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review

Thx dutch. Great read. Your dedication to our country was amazing. I was 11B and in 71 was in 1st 22 infantry 4th division recon. I made it home. Regards bob from phx AZ mac-1construction@cox.net

[Mountain343 · Rating 2 out of 5]

What others have said is accurate, it's simply a love letter to a buddy.

The writing is perfunctory, with no real insight or information about the career, or missions beyond long form quotes from others.

You get very little information about what it was like to be a part of MACVSOG beyond what you can read on wikipedia, and much of the text seems very copy/pasted from official histories and such.

What is worth reading is the beginning sections about Dutch's time in Indonesia, with good details, overview and insight. The rest of the book fails to live up to that section though. The back half of the book is simply a long ramble about what Dutch taught at the Farm, which is basically nothing more than an elongated syllabus of the courses, without much insight or relevance to a story that is supposed to be focused on Dutch, except that this is what Dutch taught.

There's a better book to be written about this man, one that takes the lessons from the first half where narration was supplemental to the personal testimonies, vs the last half where personal testimonies, experiences, thoughts, emotions, and interactions were minimal compared to the blathering narration that boils down to a list of what guns they fired, and grenades they threw.

Absolute meh.

[Donna A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dutch

One of the best books about a real person’s experience in their lifetime. The author included stories of his own experiences as well. Great book about MACVSOG, I wish the crest on the book was like the one over the door of a certain hotel I’ve been told about, but this one is bada**!

[Medusa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m sure there’s a good book to be written about this extraordinary man and his extraordinary deeds. This is not that book. The writing is flat and workmanlike at best, frequently not even that good, and the anecdotes often seem about as well told as the yellowed vintage office mimeograph “newsletters” one finds in grandpa’s attic. Further, the book seems perfectly judged to make Dutch sound deeply sexist, classist, and arrogant. I’ll stop there. I do appreciate his service to this country and I understand he like all of us was a product of his era. But Waugh’s Hunting the Jackal is a much better read.

[Kim Kipling · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding book about an exceptional unsung hero and patriot. It is very well written, and offers some clear insights into both history and the current malaise affecting the CIA and America at large. The review above by a reader claiming that the book is poorly written is simply undeserved criticism, probably because the author states some politically incorrect but accurate assessments of the damage woke progressive policies are doing to our country. The snarky review speaks volumes more accurately about its writer than it does about this excellent book.