IF RIFLES COULD TALK
When you’re a solider and don’t want to die in combat, you need a rifle you trust, especially when the sh*t’s coming at you fast and horizontally. For John Plaster, that rifle was the CAR-15.
A Green Beret staff sergeant, Plaster got to Vietnam in 1968. He was assigned to the Studies and Operation Group (SOG), which despite the academic-sounding name was in the business of kicking ass. And business was damned good, in Laos, that is, where Plaster and his Green Beret comrades ran daily missions to play havoc with North Vietnamese men and materials moving down the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Plaster’s weapon of choice was the 5.56mm CAR-15, officially designated the XM177E2. It was a shorter version of the M16A1 and was developed for Spec Ops teams
