Education
Plaster graduated from high school in 1967.
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(Here is the single greatest volume ever published about C...)
Here is the single greatest volume ever published about Civil War sharpshooting, from the expert perspective of world-renowned sniping and shooting authority John L. Plaster. Comprehensive in scope, this book details how sharpshooters were recruited, trained, and organized. Plaster fully explores their armaments, their tactics and techniques, and how they operated (sometimes decisively) in battle. Discover dozens of accomplished and colorful but forgotten sharpshooters who, until now, had faded into the past. Exhaustively researched and profusely illustrated, these pages contain more than 160 rare photos, along with original artwork. Excerpted from Plaster's epic History of Sniping and Sharpshooting, this book is a must-have for historians, reenactors, and students of the American Civil War.
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(When John Plaster's The Ultimate Sniper was released in 1...)
When John Plaster's The Ultimate Sniper was released in 1993, it was hailed as an instant classic in the sniping community, influencing an entire generation of military and police marksmen around the world. Now, this revolutionary book has been completely updated and expanded for the 21st century. Through revised text, new photos, specialised illustrations, updated charts and additional information sidebars, The Ultimate Sniper once again thoroughly details the three great skill areas of sniping; marksmanship, fieldcraft and tactics. This new edition includes the latest tactics and techniques from the frontlines of the War on Terror, including the mountains, deserts and urban areas of the Middle East and Central Asia; analysis of evolving techniques including lasers, night vision, FLIR and ballistics programmes; an all-new chapter on countersniping'lessons learned' in Iraq and Afghanistan; and detailed ballistics and trajectory data for sniper ammunition. About the Author Major John L. Plaster served three tours in the top-secret unconventional warfare group, Studies and Observations Group, in Vietnam. As a long-range reconnaissance leader, he led tiny intelligence-gathering teams behind enemy lines in Laos and Cambodia before leaving SOG in late 1971. He was decorated for heroism four times and retired from the U.S. Army as a major.
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(Thirty-six months in combat. Twenty-four years as a snipi...)
Thirty-six months in combat. Twenty-four years as a sniping instructor. Twenty years of exhaustive research, including decades spent seeking out hundreds of historic volumes long out of print, test-firing historic firearms, walking Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields with a laser rangefinder, and visiting military museums in the United States and Europe. Only Major John Plaster, author of the highly acclaimed The Ultimate Sniper, has the background and knowledge to bring you this authoritative history of sniping and sharpshooting – the first such book from a combat rifleman's unique perspective. In The History of Sniping and Sharpshooting, John Plaster has assembled the most comprehensive combat history ever published on the subject. It begins in the 15th century, with the first use of "precision" musket fire in Europe and continues into the 21st century with the significant role sniping is playing the Iraq and Afghanistan and the global War on Terror. Detailing major engagements and minor skirmishes over five centuries of warfare, Plaster has unearthed hundreds of incidents where calculated precision rifle fire has changed the course of battles – and, sometimes, history. He fittingly addresses well-known sharpshooters and snipers – Hiram Berdan, Vasili Zaitsev, Carlos Hathcock – but also pays tribute to forgotten riflemen such as John Burns, Benjamin Forsyth and Arthur Wermuth, to name but a few. He also explains how the evolution of firearms and optical technology has intertwined with sniping on the battlefield and how it has influenced tactics, organizations, and capabilities – a subject that has never before been address adequately.
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(SOG Secret Commandos)
SOG Secret Commandos
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(SOG was a secret operations force in Vietnam, the forerun...)
SOG was a secret operations force in Vietnam, the forerunner of today's Delta Force and Navy SEALs. Exceptionally skilled Green Berets, they were the most highly decorated unit in the war. Always outnumbered—often by as much as 100 to 1—SOG commandos matched wits in the most dangerous environments with an unrelenting foe that hunted them with trackers and dogs. Ten entire teams disappeared and another fourteen were annihilated. In Secret Commandos, John Plaster tells of his own remarkable covert activities in SOG from 1969 to 1971, as well as those of dozens of his comrades, vividly describing these unique warriors who gave everything fighting for their country—and for each other. Play the video game inspired by the book: http://www.boldgames.com/sog.html
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Plaster graduated from high school in 1967.
A decorated Vietnam War veteran who served in the covert Studies and Observations Group (SOG), Plaster co-founded a renowned sniper school that trains military and law enforcement personnel in highly specialized sniper tactics. He was trained as a communications sergeant in the Special Forces. He was wounded once, and decorated four times, eventually receiving a field commission in recognition of his combat experience.
He retired from the military at the rank of Major.
Foreign units that have attended the school include the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Spanish Foreign Legion. Since 1993, Plaster has been a precision rifle instructor at the Gunsite Training Center in Paulden, Arizona.
He was recently Chief of Competition for Autauga Arms"s United States. and European sniping championships. Plaster holds a Bachelor in Journalism from the University of Minnesota.
Plaster"s experiences serve as the basis for the video game Call of Duty: Black Operations
(When John Plaster's The Ultimate Sniper was released in 1...)
(Here is the single greatest volume ever published about C...)
(SOG was a secret operations force in Vietnam, the forerun...)
(Thirty-six months in combat. Twenty-four years as a snipi...)
(SOG Secret Commandos)
Special Forces]
He served three combat tours in Vietnam as a member of SOG, leading intelligence-gathering and recon teams in North Vietnamese Army-controlled areas of Laos and Cambodia and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Plaster parlayed his military experience into becoming a sniping instructor to members of many United States. governmental agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Customs Service, the United States Marshals, Navy SEALs and United States Marine Corps.
