John Plaster

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Recipient of the Purple Heart medal

title: "John Plaster" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["american-military-writers", "living-people", "united-states-army-officers", "university-of-minnesota-school-of-journalism-and-mass-communication-alumni", "united-states-army-personnel-of-the-vietnam-war", "members-of-the-united-states-army-special-forces", "1949-births", "recipients-of-the-air-medal"] description: "Recipient of the Purple Heart medal" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Plaster" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Recipient of the Purple Heart medal ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox military person"]

Field	Value
name	John L. Plaster
birth_date
image	Plaster mil.GIF
nickname	"Plastic Man"
allegiance	United States of America
serviceyears	1967–1971
rank	Major
branch
unit	5th Special Forces Group
MACV-SOG: RT New Mexico
battles	Vietnam War
awards	Bronze Star Medal

::callout[type=note] the soldier ::

Purple Heart

Meritorious Service Medal Air Medal

Army Commendation Medal

Presidential Unit Citation Good Conduct Medal

National Defense Service Medal Vietnam Service Medal Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal Combat Infantryman Badge |relations= |laterwork= Gunsite Training Center, Paulden, Arizona | signature=[[File:John_plaster_signature.jpg|150px]] John L. Plaster (born 1949) is a former United States Army Special Forces officer regarded as one of the leading sniper experts in the world. 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 is the author of The Ultimate Sniper: An Advanced Training Manual for Military and Police Snipers, The History of Sniping and Sharpshooting, and Secret Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines with the Elite Warriors of SOG, a memoir of his 3 years of service with SOG.

Early life and education

Plaster graduated from high school in 1967 and holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Minnesota. He was trained as a communications sergeant in the U.S. Army Special Forces.

Career

Plaster was initially assigned to 5th Special Forces Group and served three combat tours in the Vietnam War as a member of MACVSOG beginning in October 1968, leading intelligence-gathering and recon teams in North Vietnamese Army-controlled areas of Laos and Cambodia and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. He was wounded once, and decorated four times, eventually receiving a field commission in recognition of his combat experience. Plaster's final tour with MACVSOG ended in November 1971. He retired from the military at the rank of Major.

Plaster parlayed his military experience into becoming a sniping instructor to members of many U.S. 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. 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' U.S. and European sniping championships.

Plaster's experiences serve as part of the basis for the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops; he assisted the game's developers in developing the game by providing his wartime experiences to them.

He wrote a script with John Milius about the Son Tay Raid that as of 2025 has not been filmed.

Awards and decorations

Bronze Star Medal
Purple Heart
Meritorious Service Medal
Air Medal
Army Commendation Medal
[[File:United States Army and U.S. Air Force Presidential Unit Citation ribbon.svg|border|23px]] Presidential Unit Citation
Good Conduct Medal
National Defense Service Medal
Vietnam Service Medal
Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Combat Infantryman Badge

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/US_Army_Special_Forces_SSI.png" caption="90px]] [[File:SpecialForces Badge.svg"] ::

Published writings

Books

The Ultimate Sniper: An Advanced Training Manual for Military and Police Snipers (1993). Paladin Press.
Secret Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines with the Elite Warriors of SOG (2004). Simon & Schuster.
The History of Sniping and Sharpshooting (2008). Paladin Press.
Sharpshooting in the Civil War (2009). Paladin Press.
SOG: The Secret Wars of America's Commandos in Vietnam (1998). Onyx.
Sniping in the Trenches: World War I and the Birth of Modern Sniping (2017). Paladin Press.
SOG The Secret wars of American Commandoes on Vietnam. Caliber press 1997

Journals

Notes

References

(5 April 2001). "Secret Vietnam Commandos Honored With Presidential Unit Citation". [[Fayetteville Observer]].
Rosenau, William. (2001). "Special operations forces and elusive enemy ground targets: lessons from Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War". [[Rand Corporation]].
(6 December 2017). "Major Plaster Discusses SOG".
Lewis, Jack. (1997). "Gun Digest Book of Assault Weapons". [[Gun Digest]].
(2011). "Kontum: The Battle to Save South Vietnam". University Press of Kentucky.
(2005). "Special Operations Association". Turner Publishing Company.
Pakinkis, Tom. (11 May 2010). "CoD: Black Ops gets expert advice". ComputerAndVideoGames.com.
Vagg, Stephen. (23 May 2025). "Great Unfilmed Screenplays: The Greatest Raid of Them All by John Milius and John Plaster".

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