SOG

By: John L. Plaster

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's Summary

John Plaster’s riveting account of his covert activities as a member of a special operations team during the Vietnam War is “a true insider’s account, this eye-opening report will leave readers feeling as if they’ve been given a hot scoop on a highly classified project” (Publishers Weekly).

Code-named the Studies and Observations Group, SOG was the most secret elite US military unit to serve in the Vietnam War - so secret that its very existence was denied by the government. Composed entirely of volunteers from such ace fighting units as the Army Green Berets, Air Force Air Commandos, and Navy SEALs, SOG took on the most dangerous covert assignments in the deadliest and most forbidding theaters of operation. 

In SOG, Major John L. Plaster, a three-tour SOG veteran, shares the gripping exploits of these true American warriors in a minute-by-minute, heartbeat-by-heartbeat account of the group’s stunning operations behind enemy lines - penetrating heavily defended North Vietnamese military facilities, holding off mass enemy attacks, launching daring missions to rescue downed US pilots. Some of the most extraordinary true stories of honor and heroism in the history of the US military, from sabotage to espionage to hand-to-hand combat, Plaster’s account is “a detailed history of this little-known aspect of the Vietnam War...a worthy act of historical rescue from an unjustified, willed oblivion” (The New York Times).

©1997 John L. Plaster. All rights reserved. (P)2019 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

More, give me more.

Hardly anybody talks about SOG. Survivors who fought this way have something to say. It took 22 years from Plaster's hardcover in 1997 to get 2019 on Audible. It's 14 hours of epic audio content on the Secret Wars.

Plaster provided harrowing accounts and even a little analysis. So many SOG teams disappeared. Tactics on each side changed daily. Strategic reconnaissance missions and unconventional warfare behind enemy lines, some mastery over fear, that's what it's about.

We got Nick Brokhausen's book 'We Few' on Audible. We got Lynne M. Black's book 'Whisky Tango Foxtrot' (but not yet on Audible). SOG warriors have memories, and listeners are like wolves to get the scent of it. This will never end 'cause we should have more.

Amazing

I’ve read and listened to hundreds of military books and the stories contained within this book are some of the best. They are historically accurate and tell the amazing story of this special operations community during the Vietnam war.

Wow

Great group of stories a TON of black operational action. We need more from the Vietnam vets, to understand in detail what they went through. I’ll read it all.

Fascinating and funny, mostly

This is a history of a mostly-unknown facet of the Vietnam War and giving credit to some really amazing people for what they did there.

The first portion outlines complicated organization tables and narrates long lists of individuals, If you don't know any of those people it's deadly boring. After half an hour I was ready to shut the book down and return it, Instead, I skipped ahead two chapters, where it became more interesting. Much of the book was fascinating, but suffered from a lack of continuity – not truly a story but a series of vignettes. Some of it was funny. One part was so funny I doubled over laughing and almost fell down. Truth.

There are a whole lot of names, home towns and personnel details throughout the book giving credit to some truly heroic men. This dies not make for an interesting book, but these guys truly deserve credit.. I was there as a REMF, frightened by every RPG that came within a hundred yards.

Not fannof the narrator

Great book. My only issue was the narrator. This is the second book I have listened to with Mr Morey and I find his voice to be better suited for a horror novel, rather than a great war story.

Boring, boring, boring

Do you like long unconnected boring stories told from an outside perspective?
Are you a big fan of hearing about SOG missions from the officers who had no part of them?
Do you like reenacting?
Then this book is for you!

If you enjoyed “we few” or any other war story that is told from a first person perspective, then this is going to bore you to death... I sat through the whole thing, never once remembering a name or an especially amazing mission. It was just painful, like hearing a war story from a officer who never left the united states. Please do yourself a favor and read “we few” where the story is told first hand and passionately. Not this garbage.

Excellent.

Start here - a must read for anyone interested in the history of SOG written by someone with firsthand knowledge.

Great book, about great men.

This book gives a great account of SOGs operations during Vietnam.

I recommend for anyone who enjoys military history, as well as a look into incredibly secretive operations.

Story was great

The feeling of this history never felt dry, it was like a friend telling you old war stories about what he and fellow soldiers did in vietnam. nicely done

Amazing.

Got interested in SOG due to Dick Thompson’s interview on Jocko. This book was just as amazing. I appreciate the men of SOG like I appreciate the legend built from Inside Delta Force.