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Summary: Exotic Asian Vacation Trips Courtesy Uncle Sam by SOG Travel
Review: If you thought John's first book was a trip (SOG: The Secret Wars of America's Commandos in Vietnam), this one is mandatory. It is bound to become required reading in every senior war college in every country in the world. It is covert operation best of breed techniques and tactics evolved by both sides over an eight year period. It also puts an evolutionary perspective on the development of those tactics and techniques. How to put em in, pull em out, what to wear, what to take, what to do while you're there, how to do it, and what to whistle while you're doing it. Moves and counter moves. "Hey John, what do we do about the dogs?" Because both books cover the same unit and period, there is a superficial duplication. The first book was primarily a collection of amazing, small, war stories in a historical framework with enough background and profile material to hold anyone's interest. While it had a little of the soldier's bias "from the bottom of the trench", the current book is a lot more objective with more history and substantial tactical and technical detail. Did I mention 700 photographs? Two of the photographs are mine and he actually spelled my name right - Thank you John. About half of the book could (and will) be used as textbook and manual for future recon operations. It also includes a lot of info on the intel/spy/psyops operations and miscellaneous odds & ends we occasionally got mixed up in. The photographs are unreal. Nothing like this has ever been done. It is an instant classic in military circles.This unit was unique in that it could only have evolved in the way that it did in the time frame and with the people as they existed. Almost all of the SOG commanders were either WWII OSS or jungle guerilla types. The last missions were run in '72 and in another 2 or 3 years, all of the experienced people from SOG left in the military will have retired. The Army in their infinite (and normal) wisdom evidently destroyed the photographs and most of the documentation. The senior brass that is left will not have the foggiest idea of what this is all about. You can recreate the TO&E and fill the slots, but you cannot order people to do what the men in this unit volunteered to do three or four times a day (or night). John does an excellent job describing that esprit de corps and comradery that makes men stand in line, without a thought to personal safety, to leap in harm's way to rescue another. There was a lot of James Bond and John Wayne in this outfit. What does live on exists in the spirit and knowledge imparted to and residing in the various Special Operations Command units. There is still some well deserved bitterness because we often had to fight our own senior military command, State Department, and politicians as well as the North Vietnamese, and any of the above could get you killed. There might be some more bitterness due to the fact that after the US pulled out of South Vietnam, a lot of the natives, both Montagnard and Vietnamese, that we worked and fought with, and loved, probably wound up against a wall or spent at least a decade or more in re-education camps. It should also be noted that the SOG vets that brought these photos back with them to the States were also in some serious jeopardy because of the TOP SECRET classification on all of SOG's activities. Photographs showing identifiable terrain features in Laos, Cambodia, or North Vietnam would identify the photographer as being in those forbidden or illegal locations. Photos showing actual operations in progress, people preparing for operations, and people returning from operations could create some rather enormous international problems (and maybe a wee bit of political embarrassment) when obviously American led troops were still in NVA uniforms and carrying AK-47's. Real "Spy" spoken here folks. The release or publication of these types of photos could have resulted in prosecution and up to 20 years in a Federal Fun Resort. That was then - this book is now and belongs to all of us with John still in the one-zero seat. When Hollywood gets around to SOG, they will have to tread lightly. The problem they will have to face will be believability, because the reality was much larger than any fiction and no writer would dare to go this far out on the credibility limb. But then, there are those 700 photos.
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Summary: Plaster Did A Superb Job
Review: John Plaster was not "cross-compartmented," which means that he had to rely on the words of others to describe ops that he was not briefed on because of security.
He does, however, do a fantastic job of describing the OP-35 operations which he participated in. I just wish he'd shared some of his sniper tales in the book.
Plaster knows what he's talking about. I was in SOG in '67-68.
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Summary: When Giants Walked the Earth
Review: Some years ago one of my friends from 3rd Battalion, 12th Special Forces Group, and I were talking about the men we knew who served in SF during the war in Southeast Asia. My friend, an old sergeant with a lot of time "downrange," commented that it was a time when giants roamed the earth. The giants he was referring to were the old-timers in 3/12, some of whom were SOG veterans, a few of which are mentioned in John Plaster's second inspiring book. These giants don't talk much (even in a "safe bar") about their excursions across the battlefield, but Plaster has told their story again, even better than before. The photographs add a depth and detail that is nothing short of stunning. What he has given us is a big family album of the hardest of the hardcore SF community. This book gives you an idea of what kind of stress the experience of long-term direct combat with a skillful enemy is actually like, something no American units have encountered for nearly two decades. US Army Special Forces is a different kind of place today, and still a home for giants. But there was something about the pressure-cooker of Southeast Asia that filtered and distilled the very best qualities of the American soldier and turned him loose with lethal effect on the NVA and VC. They were ultimately betrayed by their chain of command, but before they were pulled out, they became the stuff of legend. John Plaster has preserved that legend twice, and this photo history is a wonderful contribution to the history of these amazing men and their accomplishments.
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Summary: This is a fascinating book
Review: This book tells the story of secret ("black") military operations run by the United States during the Vietnam War. Under the name Studies and Observations Group (SOG), the secret was kept so well that few veterans ever heard of it until long after the war. It was composed purely of volunteers from the best of the American military, including Army Special Forces and Navy SEALs. Their missions involved going behind enemy lines in Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam, areas officially off limits to US ground troops. That's why all of their missions were classified. The North Vietnamese went to great lengths to keep the Ho Chi Minh Trail open at all times. Special military units, stationed from one end to the other, had the task of maintaining and defending a 20-30 mile stretch. If the US bombed a particular area one day, it would be fixed and open the very next day as if nothing happened. The task of a SOG team could be practically anything, from prisoner snatching, to confirming something seen in aerial reconaissance to placing sensors on a road to give Intelligence an idea as to the traffic level. Every mission was meticulously planned and rehearsed. From the moment they were on the ground behind enemy lines, the team members could assume that the enemy was seconds, or minutes, away. A number of teams made it out safely (the only escape route was by air), but they had to shoot their way out. Some teams were never heard from again. Since their missions were secret, nothing the soldiers wore or carried could be traced to America. There were no dogtags, no obviously American uniforms, and, in many cases, their weapons were foreign modified weapons. This book also profiles the people who risked their lives day after day. To most people, they wer just American soldiers who served in Vietnam, but, to those who were there, the following names are practically legend: Larry Thorne, Billy Waugh, Walter Shumate, Jerry "Mad Dog" Shriver and Dick Meadows. When SOG was disbanded in 1972, all the photo files were ordered destroyed. The interesting thing about this book is that the several hundred photos here are not the "official" photos. The photos were taken by the men who were there and kept in trunks and shoeboxes for many years. The author also knows something about SOG, having been a three-tour veteran. For military historians and those interested in special operations, this book is a requirement. For the rest of us, this is a fascinating look at an unknown part of the Vietnam War. It is highly recommended.
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