Dr. Mark Plaster is not your typical politician and in a minute, I think you will agree. Dr. Plaster spent most of his life as an Emergency Room Physician working the night shift in some of our nation’s biggest cities. He also received his law degree in Health Law so he could better understand his field. He started writing for a medical magazine, and eventually realized he could produce a magazine himself; he started a publishing company out of his basement and grew it to produce two national, and one international magazine every month. In 2001 when Mark was 50 years old he joined the Navy Reserves and ended up completing two deployments to Iraq with the Marine Corps.In 2001, with Mark’s eldest son preparing to graduate from the US Naval Academy, Mark volunteered his medical expertise in service to our nation and joined the Navy Reserves. Dr. Plaster became Lieutenant Commander Plaster and was soon deployed to Iraq leading a Shock Trauma Platoon during the first year of the invasion of Iraq. Upon returning, he was again called on to serve his nation when he was asked to provide expert advice on an expansive classified report for the President of the United States through the Department of Homeland Security regarding our nation’s readiness for a large­scale catastrophic attack on the homeland. Lt. Commander Plaster was again asked to serve when he returned to Iraq in 2008, to provide humanitarian care for the Iraqi people and train Iraqi medical staffs.As you can see Mark Plaster has had many titles and a lot of practical experience, as an ER physician, as a veteran, as a lawyer, and as a businessman. Isn’t it time we send someone to Congress who has the real­world experience required to solve Maryland’s problems?