Peter A. Taylor's Home Page

Tag: vietnam

  • The Starlight Scope

    Recently I was watching a movie about some soldiers in Afghanistan and I noticed that they were wearing this device on their helmet. It was night time and occasionally they would lower it and look out across the horizon and detect movement. It was a modern night vision device. I had to laugh because when →

  • Merry Christmas – Christmas in Vietnam

    I spent three Christmases in Vietnam. Each one of them was different but then again each of them was the same. Christmas 1969 I had arrived in Vietnam early in the fall of 1969 and had been assigned to my first team. I was at Ap Bac on our three-man team there. I was a →

  • 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 →

  • 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 →

  • 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 →

  • 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) →

  • 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 →

  • Love and War

    It was a sad moving day for Colonel Paul Tyler, US Army retired. After the loss of his beloved wife, Katherine, to breast cancer, he had decided to sell their large five-bedroom house in Tilden, Indiana and move to a two-bedroom condo in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. As they were clearing out the house →

  • 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 →

  • The CORDS Program

    In my books dealing with my time as an Advisor in Vietnam I often talk about the CORDS Program. So, what was CORDS and where did I fit in as an Advisor and as a part of CORDS? CORDS stood for – Civil Operations and Rural Development Support. It was a pacification program of the →

  • Welcome back to all my readers and especially my Brothers and Sisters,

    We are a receding generation of Vietnam Veterans, as our numbers continue to diminish over time remember these few words from the Bard, William Shakespeare who wrote: “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; but he ne’er so vile, This →

  • Vietnam Advisor series; ‘Exotic foods’.

    Welcome Back! As advisors, we encountered changes in our diets. Initially housed at a large replacement depot in Saigon, I awaited my assignment at Camp Alpha, located at Tân Sơn Nhựt Airforce Base. During this time, we processed in, received uniforms, weapons, field equipment, and managed (or mismanaged) administrative and financial matters. My pay and →

  • 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 →

  • 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 →

  • The Brown Water Navy

    “Brown Water Navy” In my books I talk a lot about the relationship that we had with the US Navy River Division that we dealt with at Ap Bac (aka Ap Bing) and at Moc Hoa (aka Moc Loi) When I arrived at Ap Bac (Ap Bing in “The Advisor”, we were heavily involved with →