“This novel re-tells the war stories of a young Military Intelligence captain serving in Vietnam during the years 1972 to 1973 at the very end of the Vietnam War. While the ‘war stories’ contained herein are ‘true’ the names and locations have been changed to protect the men and women, both American and South Vietnamese, who were actually involved in these classified operations.”

“The Stolen Valor Act of 2013 is a United States federal law that was passed by the 113th United States Congress. The law amends the federal criminal code to make it a crime for a person to fraudulently claim to have received a valor award specified in the Act, with the intention of obtaining money, property, or other tangible benefit by convincing another that they received the award.”

If you are reading my books you will always notice that in my preface I always make this statement that I’m telling ‘war stories’ in my novels. There’s an old comment that’s written about war stories; it’s in the form of a question: “Do you know what the difference between a war story and a fairy tale is?”

“A fairy tale begins: Once Upon a time!

On the other hand a war story begins:” there we were!”

As an author, especially one writing war stories, it’s important to understand the comment that I make in my preface. The events that I’ve written about occurred during my time in Vietnam, in some cases they were actually my stories of events that I took part in, or that happened to me. On the other hand many of them are just war stories, there are events that occurred while I was serving in these various locations, I may or may not have been directly involved in them, but they make for an excellent story and they deserve to be told and retold.

But, as an novelist, I did want to make sure that I did not violate any of the provisions of the Stolen Valor Act, nor did I ever want any of my fellow Vietnam Veterans to think that I was some type of a great hero personally, and that all of the awards and activities that I’ve written about were specifically for things that I was involved with. I hope to tell just a good story.

In saying that though I do want to emphasize the fact that there should be a sense of reality in all of that I’ve talked about here. Many of these stories had roots deep in the reality of serving as an adviser to the Vietnamese military. Many of them also had a deep seat in the reality of being a military intelligence officer in Vietnam. Some of these stories need to be told just to set a picture, or create a reason to relate actual events that occurred and hopefully ensure that those who participated in them would be recognized for their actions.

When discussing my counterparts in many cases the story is a synthesist of a number of men who served as my counterparts. So, for example, our first District Chief was a corrupt figure. He did have a mistress who lived with him and he was known to be a thief, a liar, and a very vain man. I needed another figure though to assist him in his miscreant activities and so I invented an advisor to him, Mr. Chinn. The man never really existed but he added a little bit of additional corruptness to the picture.

Our two Vietnamese helpers actually did exist. We had a housemaid that we hired as well as a ‘man Friday’. Their role was to take care of many of the normal household tasks that the larger advisory teams had to take care of themselves. In our case we actually did live with our Vietnamese counterpart in his house and they did all of the food preparation for us. Our housemaid helped with cooking and cleaning and taking care of our basic housekeeping. Our ‘man Friday’ made sure that our generators were working properly, that our Jeep was kept gassed up and clean, and that our boat motors were properly maintained. He was, in reality, a ‘Hoi  Chan’, a deserter from the North Vietnamese army.

My intelligence counterparts at my district actually existed, and I have tried to portray them as they initially appeared to me when I met them. I can’t say that I ever gained the cooperation from them that I talked about in the book, but I was relatively true to their characters in the way that I wrote about them.

I tried to be as respectful as I could when writing about the other members of the team. I tried to present the characters of our District Senior Advisor as well as my noncommissioned officer as closely to reality as I could. They were both interesting characters and over the years I have developed a very deep appreciation for the training that they gave to me as a young second Lieutenant.

As I’ve mentioned in one of my previous blogs when it came to the love stories they were purely fiction. They were added as a result of a suggestion by another writer who recommended that my books need to be something more than just ‘shoot ‘em ups’. He reminded me that it’s women who buy books more often than men and that the love story would hopefully entice a different level of readership. Even in those relationships I tried to be somewhat cognitive of the moral strictures of a young officer in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The sense of morality then was a lot different in those days than today and I tried to portray that in the books.

So, when you read my books, I hope that you’ll remember that they are a work of fiction. They are not historical in nature, but they do relate stories that came from my experiences in Vietnam. Each of the books actually rests upon each one of my three tours in Vietnam. From 1969 until the fall of 1970 I served at a district level on a three man district advisory team in the Mekong delta. From the fall of 1970 through the spring of 1971 I served as the Province Senior Intelligence Advisor of Kien Toung province,  in the northernmost portion of the Mekong delta.The third book, the “Hardchargers” was based upon my experiences in Vietnam with the 525 Military Intelligence Group between the late summer of 1972 and the 29th of March of 1973.

I hope that in my warnings in my preface as well as the things that I posted in my blogs that all of my readers will have an understanding that not necessarily was I directly involved with all of these incidents, they happened on my watch, and they are a part of my memory of my actions in Vietnam.

As far as the decorations that our hero received during his” tours” over there, I can truthfully say that I received all of the normal awards and decorations that an army officer serving in Vietnam would have received. Our hero received a Silver Star, I did not, and I have never indicated that I did in anything that I have said or written. I am the recipient of two bronze stars, as well as the Vietnamese cross of gallantry and the Vietnamese staff service metal.

My main reason for posting this blog is the fact that I just wanted to reassure my readers that I have not tried to take advantage of my time in Vietnam to claim anything more than the fact that I served there honorably with distinction and that I’m proud of my service.

Recently I was confronted by a younger person who questioned my service in Vietnam. His comment was well, would I do it again, and that answer provoked me in a way. I had found a recent response that someone, a Vietnam War veteran, had posted and I thought that it was very appropriate.

“I didn’t survive war to spend my old age explaining my worth to people half my age. I earned my place, once, through service and sacrifice there and I don’t need to go through life having to justify it again and again. It feels more like trying to defend ancient policy and more like forgetting that we carried the weight of war before it was fashionable talking about respecting the warriors that served.”

If you’re enjoying these blogs please drop me a comment or if you have any questions that I might answer, again submit a comment on the comment pages. I’m always glad to hear from you.

Again, please take a look at all of my books that I have listed. They can be purchased from Amazon.com with the click of a button directly from my website, www.ptaylorvietnamadvisor.com.  Until next Friday, Have a good week.

The Advisor Series:

• “The Advisor, Kien Bing, South Vietnam, 1969-1970. A Novel” (Available on Amazon ASIN: B09L4X5NQ3)
• “The Province Senior Intelligence Advisor, Kien Song Province 1970-1971; A Novel” (Available on Amazon ASIN: B0BHL2XCX5)
• “The Hardchargers,” Vietnam 1972-1973; A Novel” (Available on Amazon ASIN: B0C7SPR1JY)
• “The Tuscarora Trail” (Available on Amazon ASIN: B0D3QY2GM6)

Check out my website for other books that I’ve written or edited.

Website: ptaylorvietnamadvisor.com