Mad Dog and the Call to Duty begins when Filer is contacted by Charlie Boyd, a former Seabee who served with Filer in Vietnam. Charlie offers Filer a job to retrieve a Mini bulldozer they used on a dangerous mission to repair a Marine Corps helo pad at firebase Foxtrot. Charlie wants the Mini for his personal Museum. Filer has doubts bout accepting the job, but after consulting his Coffee Crew buddies and his female pal Hoops, he accepts the job. Now Filer recruits Ted Johns, a gaffer, he met when he was a stuntman on the Copper Thieves, a movie made in part about his first job as a lineman. Next, they recruit Jordan Cross, an independent film and documentary producer who used the two as security for her Burning Man Festival filmed at Black Rock City in the Nevada desert. The last member of the team is Erica Franklin, a Fresno school teacher, Filer met at the Burning Man. After landing in Chu Lai, Vietnam where Filer was stationed in Vietnam Filer meets up with Michael, a renegade Frenchman, living by his wits in a country that expelled his grandparents and parents. Michael advises Filer to hire a Filipino crew to help retrieve the Mini. Once the Mini is found and prepared for transport to the states by a cargo plane Filer and his team make plans to visit Angor Wat in Cambodia and finally a well-earned beach vacation in Thailand-job over and done. But their adventures are not over.