Peter A. Taylor's Home Page

Tag: asia

  • The Last Days

    I talk a little bit about it in my third book of the Vietnam series: “The Hardchargers”. On the 15th of January 1973 my team was ordered to shut down all operations; “cease and desist”. We were told that it appeared that the Peace Accords we’re going to be signed and they were afraid that… →

  • Enduring The ‘Gun’ and other medical issues in Vietnam

    Most of us who were in the army in the 1960s can tell some interesting stories about medicine. I think one of the most ‘endearing’ stories deals with the infamous vaccination gun. I can remember as a buck private standing in a long line of other soldiers and as you looked up the line you… →

  • Learning the Vietnamese Language

    I grew up in Dayton, Ohio and entered the US Army in Richmond, Virginia. I spoke midwestern-American English. During my school years I learned a lot of Latin as an altar boy at church. In grade school they tried to introduce us to French. I got pretty good at reciting the Latin mass (Pre-Vatican II)… →

  • Getting around in the Plain of Reeds

    As I’ve mentioned a couple of times in my writing the Plain of Reeds is one enormous swamp. And of course, we had basically two seasons over there it was either hot and wet or hot and dry. This was as a result of the monsoons and their effect on the weather. When I say… →

  • 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… →

  • The Plain of Reeds; life in the Mekong Delta

    A number of times I’ve talked about operating in the Plain of Reeds (Đồng Tháp Mười in Vietnamese). Our entire provincial area bordered with Cambodia on the north and the Vam Cô Tây River on the east. The entirety of Kien Binh district was considered to be a part of the Plain of Reeds. The… →

  • The Chiêu Hồi Program

    The Chiêu Hồi (pronounced roughly as Chew Hoy) was an interesting program that I dealt with on a daily basis. In my book I talk about our “Man Friday”, Ông Hai, or Mr. Hai. He was our go-to guy as far as maintaining our Jeep, boats, trailer, generator, and almost anything else that we needed to… →