Peter A. Taylor's Home Page

Category: Leadership

  • The Ambush at Nhon-Nhin-Three

    Good morning and Happy 4th of July! Note to my readers. Sometimes a good story just doesn’t seem to fit in a novel. It either adds to many pages to a chapter or requires the reader to shift gears to understand the placement of the story. This happened to be one of those forgotten stories. →

  • 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 →

  • Enlisted Training

    I did my basic combat training at Fort Benning, Georgia, “Home of the Infantry”. Since I was on an Officer Candidate School (OCS) track I was appointed as the “Platoon Goon”, or acting Platoon Sergeant. My job was basically to prepare my 44-man platoon for formations and to attempt to march them to and from →

  • Colonel David “Hack” Hackworth, 44th Special Tactical Zone Commander

    Another senior officer mentioned several times in my books is Colonel David Hackworth. Colonel David ‘the Hack’ Hackworth, like John Paul Vann, was a controversial figure during the Vietnam War and had a military career spanning World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam Conflict. David Hackworth joined the US Merchant Marine at the →

  • Mr. John Paul Vann

    10 February In my books I often refer to my professional relationship with two men, John Paul Vann and Colonel David Hackworth.  In this week’s blog I’ll discuss my relationship with Mr. John Paul Vann. My recollections of Mr. Vann are nothing like those expressed by Neil Sheehan in his book “A Bright and Shining →