Peter A. Taylor's Home Page

Category: Community Outreach

  • My Recollections as an Intelligence Officer in Vietnam

    Based upon my writings you can probably easily tell that I was a Military Intelligence officer serving in Vietnam during my three tours over there. So, what was it like? I had no intention of becoming a Military Intelligence officer. I enlisted in the United States Army in the US infantry, 11-Bravo. When I was →

  • Veterans Day 2025

    Today we celebrate Veterans Day. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 the guns fell quietly silent over the battlefields of Europe. This was my Grandfather’s War. He called it the War to End All Wars. More than 117,500 American soldiers, sailors and Marines died as a direct →

  • Saving our Vietnam War Stories

    A couple of days ago I was at a book signing and one of the gentlemen that was there who was also a Vietnam veteran asked me why did I write my books. I asked him what he had done in Vietnam, and he had told me that he’d been an infantryman up in I →

  • Official After Action Report – Battle of Long Khot

    HEADQUARTERS US MILITARY ASSISTANCE COMMAND VIETNAM LESSONS LEARNED NO. 78 UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES MILITARY ASSISTANCE Command, VIETNAM APO 96222 MACJ3-052                                                                                                                 17 February 1970 SUBJECT: Vietnam Lessons Learned No. 78: Action at Long Khot SEE DISTRIBUTION FOR THE COMMANDER: Incl FOREWORD Vietnam Lessons Learned No. 78 is a summary of a recent combat operation →

  • The Saga of Lieutenant Lancaster – Part Two

    The Saga of Lieutenant Lancaster Part Two In our previous post we read about the terrible news that the men of the Second Wisconsin Veteran Volunteer Cavalry received in April of 1865. Rather than going home they were being forced to remain in the US Army. Since officers could resign their commissions without regards to →

  • Field Rations in Vietnam

       I spent twenty-seven years in the Army and one of the biggest changes that I saw was the changes in field rations. Like everyone else soldiers have to eat, and one of the most important aspects of supporting soldiers was making sure that they had food that was ‘transportable’. I was in an unusual →

  • The Most Hated Man in Clarksburg – Tour

    In conjunction with the Clarksburg History Museum, I have been asked to put together a tour of Clarksburg, West Virginia during the Civil War. The tour is based upon my historical novel “The Most Hated Man in Clarksburg” and showcases the city as it existed in May 1861 when Captain Charles Lieb first arrived in →

  • Happy 162 Birthday West Virginia

    On June 20, 1863, West Virginia became the 35th state in the Union. It is a state that was born out of the Civil War. It’s also the only state that separated itself from its parent-state, in our case the State of Virginia. West Virginia has a complicated history. Formerly, we were a part of →

  • Officer Candidate School (OCS)

    On November 11th, 1968, I reported to Officer Candidate School at Fort Belvoir VA. It was perhaps one of the most exciting days, and most challenging occasions, in my early military career. We were all noncommissioned officers either because we had previously been promoted or our orders automatically promoted us to E-5. All OCS candidates →

  • March 29, 1973 – the last Combat Troops leave Vietnam

    At about 11:00 am, Saigon time, on March 29, 1973, the last ‘direct combat’ troops left Vietnam ending the United States involvement in the Vietnam Conflict. I happened to be one of those last guys out. It had been a harrowing ten days. I was initially scheduled to leave around March 20th, but there were →

  • Was it Worth It? Why Was I There?

    This is a question that is well over sixty years old. Was my going to Vietnam worth it and was it worth the blood and treasure of the United States. Guenter Lewy, a German-born American author and political scientist estimated 1,353,000 total deaths in North and South Vietnam during the period 1965–1974 in which the U.S. was most →

  • Author Talk

    Location: Event Space Bridgeport, WV Public Library, 1200 Johnson Ave, Bridgeport, WV Monday, March 31, 2025; 5:00pm – 6:30pm Local author and veteran, Peter Taylor, returns to the library to discuss two new books: The Tuscarora Trail, and The Planet’s Revenge: The Katy Sterling Saga Continues. Local author and veteran, Peter Taylor, returns to the →

  • The Civil War Draft

    A presentation before the Stonewall Jackson Civil War Roundtable January 14, 2025 Unrest  As the decision to draft men unfolded in 1863, people rioted. When the government tried to institute the draft in New York City in July 1863, things quickly got out of hand. Government buildings were torched, and rioters fought in the streets against →