Historic Articles by Major John L. Plaster, U.S. Army Special Forces, (ret.)

(Please click on the title to open the full article)

America’s Greatest Special Ops Soldier, Major Dick Meadows ~ Find out why he’s the only Green Beret with his own statue at Ft. Bragg
By Maj. John L. Plaster, USAR (Ret.)
It was perfect timing. Dick Meadows phoned not a dozen days after I’d finished two year’s work on a history of SOG. At last we could start his twice-postponed biography.

SOG’S Most Exclusive Memorabilia Silver Pistol ~ Militaria collectors pay thousands for a SOG knife; here’s the even rarer SOG pistol.
By Maj. John L. Plaster, USAR (Ret.)
Though the famed SOG knife has become the Vietnam War’s most sought after Special Operations artifact — with even reproductions commanding hundreds of dollars — this attractive
blade is not the most exclusive or valuable SOG souvenir.

The Last Stand of Recon Team Kansas ~ Outnumbered worse than the Alamo defenders, here’s the story of a SOG team’s desperate last stand.
By Maj. John L. Plaster, USAR (Ret.)
The once bustling Khe Sanh Marine Base in South Vietnam’s extreme northwest had been a ghost town more than three years by the summer of 1971. Though used briefly that February to
support the South Vietnamese Army’s invasion of Laos, after that bloody debacle the South Vietnamese abandoned not just Khe Sanh but the entire region, yielding immense areas to the NVA,
who almost overnight began extending their Ho Chi Minh Trail highways into South Vietnam.

The True Story of Operation Tailwind
By Maj. John L. Plaster, USAR (Ret.)

Gary Rose, Hatchet Force Medic during Operation Tailwind
At an emergency meeting in Bangkok, the CIA’s senior war planner told the visiting Chief SOG, Colonel John “Skip” Sadler, that two CIA-supported Hmong tribal battalions were
trying to recapture the most important strongpoint on the Bolovens Plateau, and “were getting the bejesus kicked out of them daily.”

The Untold True Story of Mad Dog Shriver ~ Mad Dog led dozens of covert missions into Laos & Cambodia until his luck ran out.
By Maj. John L. Plaster, USAR (Ret.)
There undoubtedly was not a single recon man in SOG more accomplished or renowned than Mad Dog Shriver.

The Bolt Action Springfield 1903 Rifle in Combat
by Maj. John Plaster, (ret)
The Spanish-American’s war most famous veteran, President Theodore Roosevelt, involved himself in develop9ing a Mauser-like successor to America’s inferior Krag rifle.
The new weapon was designated the “U.S. magazine Rifle, Model of 1903.