An American Special Forces soldier rests his arm on the shoulder of an indigenous striker at a MACV-SOG compound in the Republic of Vietnam. Both wear the tiger-stripe camouflage that became the signature of SOG's cross-border reconnaissance program; the American carries a submachine gun, most likely a Thompson, slung muzzle-down. Behind them stand the wooden team houses, duckboard walks and sandbags of a forward launch site. The overwhelming majority of SOG's ground strength was made up of Montagnard, Nung and Vietnamese soldiers led by very small American teams, and photographs such as this one - from the Lt. Col. Gene McCarley papers in the Donald L. Engebretsen collection - record a partnership that seldom appeared in the public record at the time. Project: 218854