Writing about the classified and the denied is always hard. Plaster does his best to produce a systemic account of SOG, the elite crossboarder recon force in the Vietnam War, but at the end of the day, he is a soldier, not a historian. When this book sticks to what Plaster knows, his own war stories and those of his friends, it is very good. When it moves to a different subject, the politics of the war or the broader military impact of SOG, it loses touch.

SOG was composed of courageous men and skilled fighters, and we should be honored that Plaster and his comrades chose to share their stories with us. While this is a good secondary source for the Vietnam War buff, it's not quite literary or insightful enough to recommend to a broader audience.