Sergeant Alvin York was seemingly born to a hardscrabble existence and anonymity in death, but World War One changed that forever. The story of York is one that twists and turns like the Mississippi river as he went through redemption and battled personal demons.
At the end of it, all was the story that could have secured fame, finance, and his future - but York turned his back on it all to go back to the simple life and try and make a positive 
impact on the community in which he lived. York's early upbringing laid the foundations for the heroic feats that he would perform later on in life. He was born in a log cabin in 1887 close to Pall Mall in Tennessee, the third of 11 children.
His upbringing was typical of the poor, subsistence farmers living in the area. Alvin was only sent to school for nine months as his father wanted him to help out on the farm and hunt to provide extra food on the table. This lack of schooling may have set York back in some ways, but it gave him the essential skills that he would later use to achieve his fame.
When his father died in November 1911, Alvin took charge of supplementing the family income as he was the oldest sibling still living in the area. To do this, he took a job on the railways at Harriman, Tennessee. York was a skilled worker who always had the welfare of his family in his mind, but despite this was a raving alcoholic who loved nothing more than getting into drunken fights. This led the authorities to arrest him on several occasions.
His mother was a pacifist Protestant and tried to get her son and dominant breadwinner to change his ways - although he only did so after his close friend Everett Delk was beaten to death as a result of a saloon brawl. And so York went from one end of the spectrum to another as the former fighter and drinker became a member of the extreme pacifist sect called the Church of Christ in Christian Union - who forbade almost anything fun.
As a fundamentalist sect, this church believed in a strict moral code that denied its followers were drinking and fighting. York had undergone a complete moral U-turn, and the consequences of that would trouble his conscious for his whole life in the Army. When York found out that World War One had broken out, it caused him immense trouble. In response to the news, he simply wrote: "I was worried clean through. I didn't want to go and kill. I believed in my Bible."
This conscientious stance to fighting continued into 1917 when he was required to register for the draft. Every man between the age of 21-year-old and 31 were required to do so - however, they could claim exemption from the draft on conscientious grounds. On his draft slip, he simply wrote, "Don't want to fight." As a result, his claim was denied. It's difficult to say what would have happened if York had undergone more than nine months of schooling - had he been able to put his thought down more eloquently, there is every chance his story would never have happened.
In November 1917, York was drafted and sent to Camp Gordon in Georgia to begin his Army service. It was from there that he was drafted into the United States Army and assigned to Company G, 328th Infantry Regiment, 82nd Infantry Division. York remained at odds with his pacifist code and held in-depth discussions with his company commander and battalion commander, during which they quoted him biblical passages that condoned violence.
After returning home for ten days to think, York returned to the Army convinced it was his duty to fight for the Lord - and that God would keep him safe. He was then sent to France and served in the St Mihiel Offensive. After the fighting was concluded, he was sent on to take part in the Meuse-Argonne offensive.
On the 8th of October, 1918, York and his unit received an order to capture German positions around Hill 223, which was along the Decauville rail line north of Chatel-Chehery in France. York was about to enter the fight that would earn him a Medal of Honor. Talking about the engagement, he said: "The Germans got us, and they got us right smart. Our boys just went down like the long grass before the mowing machine at home."
In short, it was a terrible situation. The enemy held a ridge; they were pouring machine-gun fire into Allied men, and it was taking a horrible toll. They needed a hero, and in the form of an anti-war, deeply religious crack shot, they found one.
Sergeant Bernard Early, four non-commissioned officers including the then Corporal York and 13 privates, were sent to get behind German lines and take out the machine guns. The men worked their way behind the Germans and took the German headquarters in the area by surprise - capturing a large number of the enemy.
As Early and his men worked to secure their new prisoners, the German guns on the hill turned their fire on the small group - killing six and wounding three others. Because of the loss, York was now in charge of the men.
York then worked his way into position to target the machine guns, after leaving the rest of his squad behind to guard the prisoners.
Using all that knowledge from hunting as well as his incredible skill, York began firing at the guns. There were around 30. In his own words, all he could do was 'touch the Germans off as fast as possible.'
But this brought about another moral dilemma for the soldier, who was also calling out for the enemy to surrender so he could stop killing them. At one point in the engagement, six Germans charged York's position - but the man calmly drew his pistol and shot them all down before they could reach him.
Eventually, the German Commander First Lieutenant Paul Vollmer took into account his mounting losses and offered to surrender to York - who gleefully accepted. York and the remaining seven Americans then marched 132 prisoners back to friendly lines.
Upon being presented with this haul, York's brigade commander is said to have remarked: "Well York, I hear you have captured the whole damn German army." To which the hero responded: "No, sir. I got only 132."
York was promoted to Sergeant and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, which was swiftly upgraded to the Medal of Honor. France also decorated the man with the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor.
Back home in the States, York turned down several offers that would have secured his future - and instead fell into debt by 1921 after several well-meaning public schemes to provide for the hero fell flat.
He also founded the Alvin C. York Foundation, whose goal was to increase education for those in Tennessee, and in 1935 York began work with the Civilian Conservation Corps. During World War II, he tried to re-enlist in the Army but was denied because of his physical condition. York was, however, commissioned as a major in the Army Signal Corps.
He had eight children with his wife Grace and died in 1964 in Nashville, Tennessee.
On January 27, 1945, 75-years ago this month, the Soviet Army pried open the gates of Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland and liberated some 7,000 emaciated prisoners. About 58,000 others had been hurriedly marched westward before the Soviet Army approached. Auschwitz, the German word for the Polish town of Oswiecim, 
was the site of the largest Nazi concentration camp during WWII. It consisted of a concentration camp, a labor camp, and large gas chambers and crematoria. More than 1.3 million people were sent to Auschwitz between 1940-1945. Some 1.1 million of them were killed. Nine in 10 were Jews.
During WWII, the Nazi regime imprisoned an estimated 15-20 million people who they perceived as a political threat or inferior, especially Jews. They were held in camps and ghettos across Europe and subjected to abominable conditions, brutality, and murder in what has become known as the Holocaust.
Auschwitz was the largest of these death camps and was divided into three main camps: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Auschwitz III. Auschwitz I housed prisoners in abandoned Polish army barracks. Some were subjected to inhumane medical experiments carried out by SS doctors. Auschwitz II, also known as Auschwitz-Birkenau, held the greatest number of prisoners and also housed large gas chambers and crematoria. Auschwitz III was a work camp that housed prisoners working at a synthetic rubber factory. Other smaller sub-camps also existed.
The Nazis experimented with Zyklon B gas to kill prisoners at Auschwitz I. These tests were deemed successful and the program greatly expanded at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When new deportees arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau, they immediately underwent selection. Some were saved to be used as forced labor, while others went directly to the gas chambers. This process tore families apart, and separated family members would typically never see one another again.
One such family was the Guttmann family. Irene Guttmann and her twin brother Rene were living in Prague with their parents when German soldiers arrested Irene's father. He was sent to Auschwitz where he was killed in December 1941. The twins and their mother were deported to Theresienstadt ghetto and later to Auschwitz where their mother died. The 5-year-old twins were separated and subjected to horrific medical experiments under Dr. Josef Mengele. Their story is just one of many that occurred during the Holocaust.
On January 18, 1945, as the Soviet Army approached, the Nazis abandoned Auschwitz. The SS tried to hide evidence of the crimes committed at the camp by burning documents and blowing up several crematoria. The 'healthy' prisoners, numbering about 58,000, set off westward on a death march. Very few of them survived. The remaining prisoners, some 7,000, were too sick and starving to march and left to die in the camp.
Rene Guttman was herded onto a truck to be sent to his death, but Dr. Mengele countermanded the order, saying that only he could kill his twins. With this order, both Rene and Irene remained in the camp.
On that bitterly cold morning of January 27th, prisoners huddled in their barracks. "We heard a grenade exploding near the entrance area," recalled a former prisoner. "We looked out and saw some Soviet reconnaissance soldiers approaching, guns in their hands. The soldiers came up and said: 'You are free at last.'"
The Guttmann twins recalled liberation day. "I remember walking out of Auschwitz. I do remember trying to look back and around me to see if I could find Irene because I was leaving this place. I did see her, but we had to march on. There was shooting all around us, then we were surrounded by Russians dressed in white uniforms, that was the liberation," said Rene. Irene, who was too weak to walk, was carried by a Polish peasant woman to her home.
One year later, a charity organization arranged for Irene to come to the United States along with other war orphans, where she was adopted. She wondered if she would ever see her brother Rene again. With the help of her adoptive family, they managed to locate Rene, who was living in Prague. The family adopted him as well, reuniting the twins in 1950.
When evidence of the atrocities committed at Auschwitz and other concentration camps came to light, the world was shocked. Decades later, the 2005 United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution naming January 27th, the day that Auschwitz was liberated, as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Legion Etrangere is better known as the French Foreign Legion - a military organization open to men who are foreign nationals. In 1945, however, the Legion made one exception (and so far, the only one) for a very deserving person.
Susan Mary Gillian Travers was born in London on September 23, 1909, to a wealthy family. Her father was Francis Eaton Travers, a Royal Navy Admiral, who married the heiress Eleanor Catherine Turnbull for her money. Theirs was not a happy home, and Travers later claimed she was happier the further away she was from it.
Susan made up for it by becoming a semi-professional tennis player, financed by a doting aunt who helped her become independent. When the Phony War (precursor of WWII) broke out in late 1939, Travers was living in the South of France and loving it. She joined the Croix Rouge -the French Red Cross. It was a decision she regretted immediately.
Having lived a pampered life, Susan had no stomach for sickness or blood. Instead, she joined the French Expeditionary Force as an ambulance driver. In November 1939, they set out for Finland to help the locals in their Winter War against the Soviet invasion.
They were there until April 1940 when Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. The Force fled to Iceland, and from there, back to Britain. Across the English Channel, France had become a divided nation with half (the Vichy French) working with the German occupation and the other half (the Free French) opposing it.
Travers opted to fight the Germans by joining General Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces. She became an ambulance driver for the 13th Demi-Brigade of the French Foreign Legion.
In September 1940, Travers was with the Allies when they attacked the port of Dakar in French West Africa (now Senegal) to dislodge the Vichy forces. They failed and withdrew to North Africa through Dahomey and the Congo, where she continued her duties and lost her squeamishness over blood and gore.
The former socialite had no qualms about sharing the same rough conditions, hardships, and risks as the other men - earning herself the affectionate and respectful nickname, "La Miss."
Posted to Eritrea, she continued driving for senior officers - showing remarkable skill in avoiding landmines, rockets, and bullets. In June 1941, Travers became the driver for Colonel Marie-Pierre Koenig - her Commanding Officer in charge of the 1st Free French Brigade. Koenig was married, but that did not stop him from having an affair with his new driver and becoming the love of her life.
In May 1942, the couple was with the 8th Army at the Fort of Bir Hakeim in Libya. To one side was the Italian 132nd Armored Division, and on the other were the German 21st Panzer Division and the 15th Panzer Division under the command of General Field Marshall Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel - the "Desert Fox."
The Axis forces were trying to get to the town of El Adem, where the British Royal Air Force (RAF) had a base. Their ultimate goal was the Allied-held city of Tobruk - the most strategic port in North Africa. The reason Rommel was called the "Desert Fox" was that he had proven himself both wily and unstoppable on the African front.
Confronted by the French at Bir Hakeim, Rommel confidently told his men it would be theirs within 15 minutes, possibly less. On May 26, he ordered his fighter planes, tanks, and heavy artillery to attack. The French, however, did not fall within 15 minutes.
By June 10, they were still at Bir Hakeim, and Rommel was no longer happy. Neither were the French. They had ordered all their female personnel to leave several days before, and all had - except Travers. She would not leave Koenig behind.
With th
eir food, water, ammo, and other vital supplies gone, Koenig had to bow to the inevitable - they all had to leave. To do so, they had to negotiate a minefield and three rings of Axis forces intent on blowing them to smithereens. Or they could surrender. Koenig was not about to do that.
Late at night, he asked Travers to lead the escape in his staff car. She later claimed it was "a delightful feeling, going as fast as you can in the dark. My main concern was that the engine would stall."
Thankfully, it did not, but her concerns changed when a mine exploded. Seconds later, tracer fire lit up the skies, followed by tank shells and bullets from every direction. They had to keep going; the momentum could not be stopped. The others followed in their cars - even when she drove straight into a line of parked German tanks.
They made it to British lines by 10:30 AM the following day. Travers realized then her car had been hit by eleven bullets, while her shock absorber was gone. Also, her brakes.
Of the 3,700 Allied troops who fought at Bir Hakeim, some 2,400 made it out.
Koenig became a hero, and as heroes sometimes do, returned to his wife. Travers continued driving for him until she was injured when he decided to drive and went over a mine. They stopped seeing each other after that.
In May 1945, she formally applied to join the Foreign Legion but did not mention her gender. They accepted her, and de Gaul made her a General. Travers saw further service in Italy, France, and Germany, and later, in Vietnam during the First Indochina War.
She saw Koenig again in 1956 when he pinned the Medaille Militaire on her chest. All he said was, "Well done, La Miss," and that was that. She also got the Croix de Guerre and the Legion d'Honneur in 1996.
Travers waited for Koenig and her husband to die before publishing her memoirs in 2000. Called Tomorrow to be Brave, she co-wrote it with Wendy Holden to let her grandchildren know just how "wicked" she had once been.
The Continental Army was camped for the 1777-78 winter at Valley Forge, twenty miles from Philadelphia, the British-occupied American capital. At least a third of the eleven thousand men were without shoes, coats, and blankets to protect them from the constant rain. They suffered from exposure, typhus, dysentery, and pneumonia. Food was running out. Men were starving, dying, the desertion rate was escalating, and the States were unable to meet their enlistment quotas. Able-bodied men were simply not willing to fight. Able-bodied white men that is. As they waited out the winter, General Washington had no plan to replace his dwindling manpower.
It was Rhode Island general James Varnum, who commanded the 1st Rhode Island Regiment at the outset of the war, who offered a solution that would not sit well with Washington. Combine Rhode Island's two depleted regiments into a single formation and send the extra officers home to recruit a new unit consisting of both slaves and free men.
In the early days of the war, free black men were serving as well as slaves who served in place of the men who 'owned' them. In many cases, their enlistment bonuses or even their pay went straight to their 'masters.' Even so, it was known that they fought bravely at Lexington and Concord and at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Perhaps because he was a prominent Virginia plantation owner and slaveholder, this information did not sufficiently impress the General. Soon after his appointment as Commander-in-Chief, Gen. Washington signed an order forbidding the recruitment of all black men.
At the outset of the war, he spoke against using black freemen and slaves as soldiers, fearing armed slaves would lead to an armed slave rebellion. But by 1778, things had changed. After intense pressure from the Continental Congress and some of his own Officers, Washington grudgingly agreed to enlist black soldiers into the Continental Army to defend the colony of Rhode Island from the British occupying force. Col. Christopher Greene would remain as the commander of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment.
In February 1778, Rhode Island Gov. Nicholas Cooke and his legislature overrode the objections of slaveholders and passed The Slave Enlistment Act. The law allowed "every able-bodied negro, mulatto, or Indian man slave in this state to enlist as regular soldiers into either of the Continental Battalions being raised." The law also included the promise that any man, even a slave, who chose to enlist, would be freed on their acceptance into the unit and completion of military service. Slave owners were promised 'compensation for the market value of the individual slave recruits.'
The new law had little effect on public opinion or white male enlistment for that matter, in spite of the fact that the British expeditionary forces and several Hessian regiments of foot soldiers had been an occupying force in Newport, Rhode Island since December 1776. Over the next couple of years, their suppression of trade and forays against the rest of the colony, including their later occupation of Aquidneck Island, was the source of increasing anger, hardship, and frustration among the general public.
One of the recruiting officers, Capt. Elijah Lewis, reported that local whites were warning slaves that those who enlisted would be given the most dangerous assignments and that if taken prisoner, they would be shipped off, "to the West Indies and sold as slaves," and sacrificed in battle by being used as breastworks. To be clear, using men as breastworks meant that these soldiers would face certain death serving as unarmed human shields for the white Continental Infantry soldiers.
The six members of the General Assembly who voted against the law issued a formal protest. They argued there was an insufficient number of black men in the state with an inclination to enlist, that the measure would be too expensive, that slaveholders would not be satisfied with the amount of compensation, and that raising a unit of slaves was inconsistent with the principles of liberty that the United States was fighting for.
The majority support from the General Assembly was short-lived. In a statewide election held in April 1778, the voters of Rhode Island demonstrated their discontent by replacing over half of their legislators. One of the first acts of the new administration was to repeal the controversial law. A new edict issued in May declared that the freeing of slaves for military service had only been temporary and that after June 10, "no negro, mulatto and Indian slave, be permitted to enlist into said battalions."
Yet during the months that the Slave Enlistment Act was in effect, Col. Greene and his fellow officers recruited over one hundred forty men who were slaves or freed black men. Many had no prior experience handling muskets or other weapons, but after six weeks of training, their commanding officers decided they were battle-ready.
On August 28, 1778, The Regiment saw its first combat at the Battle of Rhode Island. With a garrison of six thousand British and Hessian soldiers, the British army had secured a first-rate port and a strategic base to support its grand plan to split the northern colonies at the Hudson River and subdue an isolated New England.
The Continental Army was in retreat as the British tried to trap them in New England. General John Sullivan, whose command included the First Rhode Island, ordered the men to take up positions on the hillsides around the town of Portsmouth located on Aquidneck Island.
The British sent ships river to bombard the First. The assault from the river continued for hours as more British troops attacked the Continentals from the ground. Weather conditions stopped the expected support for the Continentals by newly arrived French naval forces. Finally, the British command sent in one of its most feared Hessian mercenary units, the Anspach Regiment.
The Hessians repeatedly attacked, but the First Rhode Island held their ground against a force of four thousand professional German soldiers. As night fell, the Hessians made a push that broke portions of the Continental line. The men of the 1st Rhode Island under Col. Greene held their line against three assaults by both British and Hessian troops on the west flank. The courageous fighting by the First allowed the remainder of the Continental Army to escape the British and regroup. The British had failed to overwhelm the American force.
While the battle was considered a defeat for Continental forces under General John Sullivan, the Black Regiment's performance prevented a complete rout. Historian Samuel Greene Arnold, in his 1859 History of the State of Rhode Island, reported that the regiment: "distinguished itself in deeds of desperate valor. Posted behind a thicket in the valley, three times, they drove back the Hessians, who charged repeatedly down the hill to dislodge them."
Aquidneck Island remained in British hands for the time being, but thanks especially to the heroic efforts of Col. Christopher Greene's troops, Gen. Sullivan was able to complete an orderly withdrawal of his 5,000-man force to Bristol, RI, and Tiverton, RI.
On September 15, 1778, the New Hampshire Gazette reported the retreat was made "in perfect order and safety, not leaving behind the smallest article of provision, camp equipage or military stores."
In 1781, Colonel Greene and many of his black soldiers were killed in a skirmish with American loyalists; Greene's body was reported mutilated. Many believed this was punishment for having led black soldiers.
As troop strength in General Washington's Continental Army diminished, the 1st and 2nd Rhode Island Regiments were joined to form The Rhode Island Regiment participated at the Battle of Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781. It was the engagement that led to the British surrender and the end of the American Revolution. At Cornwallis's capitulation, the freemen and soon-to-be-freed slaves stood at attention alongside all the other Continental regiments - from Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia - and took the salute of the enemy, which until recently had almost destroyed them.
The colonies had won their independence. White soldiers were granted land and a pension. Black soldiers who had been slaves were granted their freedom. According to one historian, the discharged troops were "dumped back into civilian society," with only the white soldiers being guaranteed the one hundred acres of bounty land from the Federal Government, as well as a pension.
Gen. Varnum and another white officer from the regiment, Col. Olney, campaigned unsuccessfully on their behalf. In 1794, thirteen of the veterans hired Samuel Emory to present their claims to the War Department in Washington. In 1818, the veterans of the Black Regiment were finally granted Federal pensions, as were all veterans who could prove their service.
Several black veterans of the Rhode Island Regiment are known to history. Ichabod Northup was born a slave around 1745. He enlisted in the 1st Rhode Island in 1778 and served as a fifer. Northrup was among those serving at Croton, New York when Col. Christopher Greene was killed. Northrup was captured, threatened with hanging for not divulging troop movements to the enemy, and spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner.
He returned after the war to East Greenwich, purchasing a house that still stands on Division Street. In 1820 he testified that he relied on charity, was unable to work - his toes having frozen in the war, was "impoverished, could not support himself," and family and his house was "much out of repair."
On the basis of some five years of service, he was granted a pension under an Act of Congress. He would have been seventy-three years old.
In 1792, Congress passed legislation that limited military service only to "free, able-bodied, white male citizens."
A commission formed by Congress to assess military and national service is calling for women to be included in selective service registration, Military.com has learned.
The 11-member National Commission on Military, National and Public Service is set to release a final report with 164 recommendations Wednesday, 
following two-and-a-half years of research and fieldwork on topics including propensity to serve in the military; the civilian-military divide; and the future of the U.S. Selective Service System.
One of the most hotly debated questions considered by the panel is whether women should be required to register for the draft for the first time in U.S. history.
A source with knowledge of the report confirmed that the commission had recommended that women should be made eligible for selective service. Politico first reported Tuesday on the commission's findings.
Other recommendations include keeping the U.S. Selective Service System and keeping the registration requirement, which currently applies to American males within 30 days of their 18th birthday.
"The panel was created as a result of debate over whether women should be made to register for the draft. In 2016, the same year all military ground combat and special operations jobs were opened to women for the first time, two Republicans in Congress, both veterans, introduced the "Draft America's Daughters Act of 2016." The move was intended to provoke discussion; both lawmakers planned to vote against their own bill.
But the provision ultimately became law as part of the 2017 defense policy package. From that initiative, the commission was formed to further study the issue.
During 2019 hearings on the question, Katey van Dam, a Marine Corps veteran who flew attack helicopters, argued eloquently in support of including women in Selective Service registration.
"Today, women sit in C-suites and are able to hold any military job for which they are qualified," she said. "As society expects opportunity parity for women, it is time to also expect equal civic responsibility. In the event of a major war that requires national mobilization, women should serve their country to the same extent as male citizens."
In an interview with Military.com earlier this month, Joe Heck, the chairman of the commission and a brigadier general in the U.S. Army Reserve, said the issue of including women in draft registration had inspired passionate debate among the commissioners.
"The recommendations made represent the consensus of the commission," he said. "We believe that the commission's recommendations specifically in regard to [the U.S. Selective Service System] will best place the nation as able to respond to any existential national security threat that may arise."
Heck also said the commission planned to chart a "cradle-to-grave pathway to service" for Americans.
In addition to the report, the commission will release accompanying draft legislation Wednesday to assist Congress in turning its proposals into law. A future hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee is also planned to discuss the commission's findings.
Have you ever heard of the Combat Artists Program? In June 1966, the Army created the Vietnam Combat Artists Program. Soldier-artists in this program often reached for paints and canvas instead of weapons. They documented the war using a variety of mediums and created works of art that inspired and provided a visual interpretation of life during wartime.
The idea of using art to invoke emotion during battle was not new. Artists and photographers have created images dating back to the Revolutionary War. 
Photographer Mathew Brady captured scenes during the Civil War that are still viewed regularly today. During WWI, eight artists were commissioned and sent to Europe to capture images involving the American Expeditionary Force.
The Army established a War Art Unit during WWII and selected 42 artists to participate. By the end of the war, the Army had acquired more than 2,000 pieces of art. The Marine Corps Combat Art Program had more than 70 artists during WWII and the program remains today, although with fewer artists participating. The Navy's Combat Art Program began in 1941 and included eight active-duty artists by 1944. The United States Air Force Art Program started in 1950 when the US Army Air Corps transferred some 800 pieces of art documenting the early days of military aviation.
A 9th Infantry Division collection includes Combat Art created during the Vietnam War between the years 1966 - 1969.
Here are a few examples of combat art from this collection. To see additional works, search the 9th Infantry Division Combat Art Collection at the following site: https://www.fold3.com/browse/291/heLnv7_pq_SQ9gGSVLF9kqwfMPiek_K5E
John Plaster (The Ultimate Sniper), a retired Army major, served three tours with the secretive "Studies and Observation Group," aka SOG, during the Vietnam War-a background he has put to good use in this authoritative and insightful look at the now-defunct commando unit. Plaster does much to illuminate both this frequently misunderstood group and its extraordinary participants. Made up entirely of volunteers, SOG tackled a wide range of vital and dangerous duties, including missions deep into enemy territory and rescues of downed American pilots.
Special Forces veterans, in particular, will delight in the descriptions of America's old tribal allies, the Montagnards of Vietnam. Specialists in poison-arrow warfare, the primitive "'Yards," Plaster explains, were both fierce fighters and a constant source of wonderment to the Americans. Plaster reveals the core of the relationship between 'Yards and Yanks in a telling anecdote in which two Green Berets win over a village chieftain with the help of some pipes and two cans of Prince Albert tobacco.
Elsewhere, on a more somber note, Plaster sheds light on part of the ongoing mystery of POWs and MIAs in Southeast Asia. The secretive nature of SOG, he writes, was such that its members were accounted for via a "double bookkeeping" system. The method "proved so confounding that the Pentagon had understated casualties, a fact that became evident when families of MIAs demanded more information." A true insider's account, this eye-opening report will leave readers feeling as if they have been given a hot scoop on a highly classified project.
Readers Reviews
I've always enjoyed Plaster's work, but this is his best yet. I have read a lot about SOG simply because the stories of what they did are so mind-boggling. There are many good accounts of their missions by various authors, many of whom were participants like Plaster, but Plaster is the go-to guy for well-documented histories of SOG. This edition tops them all and contains a bunch of excellent information I've never seen elsewhere. It is hard to write an exhaustive history without being boring, but Plaster pulls it off in grand style. It pretty much covers SOG from start to finish yet reads like an action novel instead of a history.
I am sure all wars have their extraordinary heroes, but for my money, the heroes of SOG in all their forms and missions are the most insanely courageous bunch of warriors the U.S. fielded in Vietnam. Hats off to Major Plaster for first having the courage and skill and luck to run recon across the fences for two years and survive, and second for writing what I think is absolutely the best book ever on the subject.
~Border Corsair
I was a team leader with 1st Force Reconnaissance Company, USMC, in Vietnam (1968-69). Our long-range reconnaissance missions and operational methods were very akin to what SOG was then doing, although our patrols were conducted in areas that were within the geographic borders of South Vietnam. This book profiles the incredible courage, tenacity, and effectiveness of the warriors within one of the top fighting units in American military history. Force Recon Marines of my era have admiration and respect for the men of SOG, to include their Montagnard brothers.
~Recon Marine
I bought this book to read as I have taken an interest in other 20th century conflicts in addition to the two world wars.
Well, what an eye-opener. Major (Ret) Plaster is an incredible man who documents the experiences of daring special operations within Vietnam in a way that only a veteran could.
He takes you through the entire involvement in the war, from prior to major US involvement, throughout the main years of the US-led war effort and in the aftermath and the wind-down, in which SOG was still very active throughout.
He documents how this extraordinary band of men was the true meaning of "economy of force" by punching well above their weight and providing a return of losses in the region of NVA 250:1 SOG Trooper. He documents their incredible missions with tremendous detail to keep the reader interested and recounts how SOG pioneered many innovative and now regular special forces techniques such as HALO jumping insertion, Bright Light patrols, and certain psychological warfare deception techniques, etc.
He also portrayed to me, the fickle nature of the politicians, regularly downgrading or even failing to recognize the tremendous contribution of the average SOG soldier in this bitter campaign they waged simply because the missions were secret, not 100% by the book or similar poor excuses. It is similar to the constant failure of recognition of British troops in small cold war conflicts such as Oman in the '70s.
This book gives a good insight into special forces operations and the dark arts of cold war operations and how truly path-forging these operatives were with their unique ability to push boundaries and pioneer new techniques. It is noteworthy that some of the missions in this book were used as the basis for the Vietnam missions in the Call of Duty Black Ops game, a true testament to their daring nature!!
I highly recommend this book to anyone with even a casual interest in the Vietnam War, special forces development, or just military history - it has earned a rightful place on my shelf!!!
~A. R. Krantz
About the Author
John Plaster 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. government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Customs Service, the United States Marshals, Navy SEALs, and the 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 Gun Site Training Center in Paulden, Arizona. He was recently Chief of Competition for Autauga Arms' U.S. and European sniping championships.
impact on the community in which he lived. York's early upbringing laid the foundations for the heroic feats that he would perform later on in life. He was born in a log cabin in 1887 close to Pall Mall in Tennessee, the third of 11 children.
As a fundamentalist sect, this church believed in a strict moral code that denied its followers were drinking and fighting. York had undergone a complete moral U-turn, and the consequences of that would trouble his conscious for his whole life in the Army. When York found out that World War One had broken out, it caused him immense trouble. In response to the news, he simply wrote: "I was worried clean through. I didn't want to go and kill. I believed in my Bible."
On the 8th of October, 1918, York and his unit received an order to capture German positions around Hill 223, which was along the Decauville rail line north of Chatel-Chehery in France. York was about to enter the fight that would earn him a Medal of Honor. Talking about the engagement, he said: "The Germans got us, and they got us right smart. Our boys just went down like the long grass before the mowing machine at home."
As Early and his men worked to secure their new prisoners, the German guns on the hill turned their fire on the small group - killing six and wounding three others. Because of the loss, York was now in charge of the men.
York was promoted to Sergeant and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, which was swiftly upgraded to the Medal of Honor. France also decorated the man with the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor.
was the site of the largest Nazi concentration camp during WWII. It consisted of a concentration camp, a labor camp, and large gas chambers and crematoria. More than 1.3 million people were sent to Auschwitz between 1940-1945. Some 1.1 million of them were killed. Nine in 10 were Jews.
The Nazis experimented with Zyklon B gas to kill prisoners at Auschwitz I. These tests were deemed successful and the program greatly expanded at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When new deportees arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau, they immediately underwent selection. Some were saved to be used as forced labor, while others went directly to the gas chambers. This process tore families apart, and separated family members would typically never see one another again.
The Guttmann twins recalled liberation day. "I remember walking out of Auschwitz. I do remember trying to look back and around me to see if I could find Irene because I was leaving this place. I did see her, but we had to march on. There was shooting all around us, then we were surrounded by Russians dressed in white uniforms, that was the liberation," said Rene. Irene, who was too weak to walk, was carried by a Polish peasant woman to her home.
Susan Mary Gillian Travers was born in London on September 23, 1909, to a wealthy family. Her father was Francis Eaton Travers, a Royal Navy Admiral, who married the heiress Eleanor Catherine Turnbull for her money. Theirs was not a happy home, and Travers later claimed she was happier the further away she was from it.
In September 1940, Travers was with the Allies when they attacked the port of Dakar in French West Africa (now Senegal) to dislodge the Vichy forces. They failed and withdrew to North Africa through Dahomey and the Congo, where she continued her duties and lost her squeamishness over blood and gore.
In May 1942, the couple was with the 8th Army at the Fort of Bir Hakeim in Libya. To one side was the Italian 132nd Armored Division, and on the other were the German 21st Panzer Division and the 15th Panzer Division under the command of General Field Marshall Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel - the "Desert Fox."
eir food, water, ammo, and other vital supplies gone, Koenig had to bow to the inevitable - they all had to leave. To do so, they had to negotiate a minefield and three rings of Axis forces intent on blowing them to smithereens. Or they could surrender. Koenig was not about to do that.
It was Rhode Island general James Varnum, who commanded the 1st Rhode Island Regiment at the outset of the war, who offered a solution that would not sit well with Washington. Combine Rhode Island's two depleted regiments into a single formation and send the extra officers home to recruit a new unit consisting of both slaves and free men.
The majority support from the General Assembly was short-lived. In a statewide election held in April 1778, the voters of Rhode Island demonstrated their discontent by replacing over half of their legislators. One of the first acts of the new administration was to repeal the controversial law. A new edict issued in May declared that the freeing of slaves for military service had only been temporary and that after June 10, "no negro, mulatto and Indian slave, be permitted to enlist into said battalions."
The British sent ships river to bombard the First. The assault from the river continued for hours as more British troops attacked the Continentals from the ground. Weather conditions stopped the expected support for the Continentals by newly arrived French naval forces. Finally, the British command sent in one of its most feared Hessian mercenary units, the Anspach Regiment.
As troop strength in General Washington's Continental Army diminished, the 1st and 2nd Rhode Island Regiments were joined to form The Rhode Island Regiment participated at the Battle of Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781. It was the engagement that led to the British surrender and the end of the American Revolution. At Cornwallis's capitulation, the freemen and soon-to-be-freed slaves stood at attention alongside all the other Continental regiments - from Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia - and took the salute of the enemy, which until recently had almost destroyed them.
following two-and-a-half years of research and fieldwork on topics including propensity to serve in the military; the civilian-military divide; and the future of the U.S. Selective Service System.
During 2019 hearings on the question, Katey van Dam, a Marine Corps veteran who flew attack helicopters, argued eloquently in support of including women in Selective Service registration.
Photographer Mathew Brady captured scenes during the Civil War that are still viewed regularly today. During WWI, eight artists were commissioned and sent to Europe to capture images involving the American Expeditionary Force.
John Plaster (The Ultimate Sniper), a retired Army major, served three tours with the secretive "Studies and Observation Group," aka SOG, during the Vietnam War-a background he has put to good use in this authoritative and insightful look at the now-defunct commando unit. Plaster does much to illuminate both this frequently misunderstood group and its extraordinary participants. Made up entirely of volunteers, SOG tackled a wide range of vital and dangerous duties, including missions deep into enemy territory and rescues of downed American pilots.
About the Author