060: Hawaiian SOG Warrior, Jim "Kimo" Wheeler. From SOG to the CIA

SOGCast: Untold Stories of MAC V SOG

John Stryker Meyer

History, Documentary, Society & Culture

5.0 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2026

⏱️ 127 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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Hawaiian born and raised in a warrior tradition, Jim “Kimo” Wheeler volunteered for Vietnam and joined the ranks of MACV-SOG during the Secret War. From brutal recon missions in the DMZ and Laos to surviving grenades, firefights, and near-death extractions, he lived the reality of unconventional warfare.

After SOG, his service continued for decades in Special Forces and later with the CIA’s Special Activities Division, conducting paramilitary operations across the globe.

This is a story of loyalty, sacrifice, quiet professionalism — and a lifetime spent serving the United States of America.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Good morning. Welcome to Sogast number 60. This production of Sogast is brought to you
0:06.0	courtesy of Jocko Willing Productions and his technical staff. And my name is John Stryker-Meyer. I'll be your host today.
0:14.0	And again, we thank Jocko. So today we have a very special guest and I'd like to introduce Jim Kimo Wheeler.
0:24.7	And Jim, welcome to the show.
0:26.6	Thank you.
0:27.4	Good morning, sir.
0:28.1	I'm honored.
0:28.8	Indeed.
0:29.2	Well, that's a mutual admiration society.
0:32.2	So let's start off because the, I don't know how many men we had in Sog that were born, raised
0:38.7	in Hawaii, then wound up serving in Sog, but you're one of the, one of our few that I knew,
0:45.6	at least.
0:46.6	We had a number coming out of, especially coming out of Okinawa and they're coming on the
0:50.3	snake bite teams.
0:51.3	Right.
0:52.3	In fact, when at the time I got to CCN, we had three up there and one was my uncle, George Koo.
0:58.6	And he's the one that Snake Adams bit the ear off in a bar fight at CCN region.
1:04.6	And just at the time to time, to let our viewers know, snake bite teams, we had the first
1:10.1	special forces group at that time,
1:11.6	stationed in Okinawa. They sent small teams, which were called Snakebite teams, to Vietnam.
1:17.6	And they suffered some of the first casualties of the Secret War.
1:22.6	And the first group and seventh group before fifth group was there.
	...

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