IV Troop said;
Here is a little news for ya. Plaster was not a sniper in Vietnam. He has done a good job of making people believe so without outright saying so.
Here's a little news for you. John Plaster has never claimed to have been a sniper in Vietnam. Never not once. In fact when I was in the 47th Infantry Division Sniper School which MAJ Plaster along with a little know soldier and shooter MAJ Gary Schraml concieved, wrote the POI for and convinced the chain of command to fund (this was before the Army's formal sniper school was created at Ft Benning), never once mentioned what he did in Vietnam.
I never knew what a great soldier he was until I read about him later. You wouldn't find a more humble man anywhere. He doesn't have to claim anything. His deeds as a soldier in MACV-SOG will speak for themselves for generations.
If you actually read his book, you'll find that in no where in it does he claim to have been a sniper in Vietnam. The experiences he relates in regards to camouflage are clearly explained as having happened in CONUS after Vietnam when he was doing some other things, watching for livestock theives if I recall correctly.
You can disagree with what he wrote in the book. Professionals can disagree about things in a civil manner. If he's still like he was at the school, I'm sure he'd be willing to sit and talk with you about the points you disagreed on.
But you can't, not for one minute insinuate that one of the finest soldiers this country ever produced is a poser.
Kinda like all of Ayoobs "years on the street" when he was a "maverick officer". He was a reserve officer in a sleepy town where violent crime was almost unheard of.
What's the population of Grantham, New Hampshire? What's the crime rate in Grantham, New Hampshire? For that matter, what's the crime rate in small towns in general? Do you have any idea?
Let me tell you, that you have the same crimes in Mayberry as you do in the South Bronx. There are drugs bought and sold everywhere, and the gang violence that often accompanies it has invaded small town America. People in small towns still shoot, stab and bludgeon each other at about the same rate as they do in the big city. The only difference is that in the big city, there is more of it because there are more people.
There is another difference between working for a small town police department and a big city one. In the small town, you don't have a fraction of the resources to deal with a situation that you have in the city. As I type this at 1:33 am there are probably 9 police officers on duty in the rural county I'm in. Around 1000 square miles of territory and about 30,000 people. In the big city you can have several officers on scene to back you up in a couple of minutes. Officers who work in small towns and in rural counties might wait 20 minutes or more for
one officer to back them up. That's a long time to fight alone if you have to. Officers who work in small towns routinely handle calls alone that a bigger department would send two to four officers to handle.
The job is the same everywhere. The difference is the resources.
I never have been able to understand why some people feel the need to put down people they have never met.
Jeff
