John Plaster

Writing about the classified and the denied is always hard. Plaster does his best to produce a systemic account of SOG, the elite crossboarder recon force in the Vietnam War, but at the end of the day, he is a soldier, not a historian. When this book sticks to what Plaster knows, his own war stories and those of his friends, it is very good. When it moves to a different subject, the politics of the war or the broader military impact of SOG, it loses touch.

SOG was composed of courageous men show more and skilled fighters, and we should be honored that Plaster and his comrades chose to share their stories with us. While this is a good secondary source for the Vietnam War buff, it's not quite literary or insightful enough to recommend to a broader audience. show less

This is a very detailed and fascinating account. Tracking specials ops techniques and personnel from OSS and Jedburgh clandestine operation during World War II as well as the 1st Special Service Force sabotage ski "Devil's Brigade" to the earliest and final days of US involvement in Vietnam. The "Studies and Observations Group" (SOG) was a highly classified, multi-service United States special operations unit which conducted covert unconventional warfare operations prior to and during the show more Vietnam War. The detailed actions collected here chronologically tell a story of incredible odds where small numbers of highly resourceful and even reckless personnel held down a myriad North Vietnam soldiers and developed innovative techniques. Among those techniques was HALO jumps. Beside interdictions into the incredibly elaborate transportation routes in Cambodia and Laos, the SOG fighters collected intelligence and saved downed pilots while working with Montagnards and Nùng people. Often those rescues were at very high costs in deaths and equipment loss. With the intelligence gathered was interesting revelation of spies related to the Green Beret Affair. Spying from within Saigon appears to have hampered SOG successes materially and constantly. show less

This was an outstanding book, managing to combine scholarly high-level coverage with the kind of stories and insight unique to someone who was there fighting alongside these SOF soldiers and their indigenous force allies. Maj. Plaster brings a unique and welcome perspective to this topic, and I recommend this book to those interested in studies of the Vietnam War.