My favorite SOG books.

Elsewhere  on Fields of Fire, jimmila asked me: "What are your favourite SOG books??" I thought the answer should appear here.

I have at least 15 books on SOG, all nonfiction. I think there have been some fiction as well, but I prefer to read the real thing.

If I could only have two they would be these two, both by John Plaster,
 a SOG recon team leader himself, or a One-Zero as they were called.




The top one was, to my knowledge the second book published on SOG. It is a history of the organization. There is a minimal amount of big picture stuff in it. Most of it relates to missions. But there is enough of the big picture stuff to understand what they were doing and how they did it. It covers the most famous missions and the most famous members of SOG such as Bob Howard, Dick Meadows, Doug Miller, Jerry "Mad Dog" Shriver, Fred Zabistosky, and lots of others.

The lower book's subtitle says most of it. Wonderful photos and sections on different aspects of SOG like weapons, tactics, and so on.

Then there is another class of SOG books that are very important. These are  the personal experiences of the authors. John Plaster did one on his three one year tours with SOG called Secret Commandos. It is excellent as Plaster is such a good writer.

Franklin "Doug" Miller's (MoH) Reflections of a Warrior" is also excellent. It is the only book published to my knowledge on SOG prior to Plaster's SOG. Another personal account that is very good is Whiskey Tango Foxtrot by Lynne Black. He was involved in one incredible fight that was the subject of a History Channel episode and DVD called Jungle Ambush.

John Stryker Meyer did three books, combining the history of other members and his own experiences. His books are Across the Fence, On the Ground, and SOG Chronicles. The last is primarily devoted to Operation Tail Wind. Tail Wind was a very large successful operation, but  I prefer Meyer's other two books.

Tom

A good write-up - I need to get these.

Thanks Tom ,

awesome books ; thanks for this , and the recommendations for further reading ; I love this subject .

the first John Plaster book 'secret commandos' is a fantastic read . I have bought a hard copy and read this at least twice . (I usually read first off my kindle ) .

I have the book 'Running recon' which is a great photo book . expensive a little but worth it for the details here .

I am about to order the Dog Miller book on kindle .

Hooray ! Thankyou .

Nice recommendations Tom.  I have a couple of these, but seems like I will want to pick up some more.

jimmila, Actually, Plaster’s Secret Commandos was either his second or third book. I am not home now to look. SOG was his first book.

You are right that Running Recon is great.

Tom

FlyinSquirrel wrote:Nice recommendations Tom.  I have a couple of these, but seems like I will want to pick up some more.

Feel free to borrow from me, I have tons of SOG books.
Beware "15 months in SOG", it has some "differences" to reality that cannot be quantified as memory issues.
There are some interesting memoirs out there. Talked to Doug Miller's brother Walt just the other day (he too was in SF, with my pops) and he said the family still receives royalties from the book, so that's a good thing!
"Whispers in the Tall Grass" and it's prequel are some of my favorites, as well as "WTF". The parts about Tilt Meyer teaching Liar's Dice is a hoot! I was invited to play a round back in 1999 or 2000 at the SOAR convention and to be quite honest I suck and ended up paying a hefty tab for the group.

You will notice that the vast majority of writers were on CCN teams. Not a whole lot has been written about CCS activities other than on Shriver and Benavidez, which is unfortunate. The couple of CCS vets that I knew whom were writing their stories have all passed, their works unlikely to be finished or ever seen.

Between Plaster and Greico's pictorial books you have more than everything you'll ever need to make/paint minis or even be an reenactor.

Darby, here’s one on CCS. Very thick. Paperback only.


LTC Fred S. Lindsey USA Re
Secret Green Beret Commandos In Cambodia: A Memorial History of MACVSOG's Command and Control Detachment South (CCS) And Its Air Partners, Republic of Vietnam, 19671972

Tom

hiya gents .

? was/would the 'Blackjack 33' books / memoirs be based on CCS ?
There are three of these AFAIK . I have read two and three (i think). I think they are well known .

! sorry cant remember authors' name ; I remember the author as a USSF medic with a cambodian fighters in multi-platoon foot patrols of a few days duration in and around war zone D. I think . I will look it up .

The Blackjack books are the Mobile Guerrilla Force, rather than SOG. Great books nonetheless.

Tom