Aberdeen veteran recalls service as Marine, Soldier

By Yvonne Johnson, APG News

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md.-- Ron Taylor was born in 1936, the year construction on the Hoover Dam was completed; convicted Lindberg kidnapper Richard Hauptmann was executed; President Franklin Roosevelt was elected to his second term in office; the RMS Queen Mary left Southampton, England on her maiden voyage; and Jesse Owens stunned Nazi Germany with four gold medal runs during the Berlin Summer Olympics.

Born and raised in the small town of Mount Pleasant, West Virginia, and the proud descendant of Dutch immigrants who fought in the French and Indian War, Taylor describes himself as “just an old farm boy” and just as proudly declares that his military experiences – including two tours in Vietnam – gave him all the tools he needed to succeed in life.

“Times were real hard back then,” he said noting that life on a dairy farm had its ups and downs depending on local economics. Restless and at odds with his father, with whom he “didn’t see eye-to-eye,” Taylor, with his mother’s consent, joined the Marine Corps at age 17. He went to boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina and then was assigned to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina in 1953 where he was trained in logistics. Unlike while in school, Taylor embraced military training.

“I learned a lot for a 10th-grade dropout,” he said. “I was young and trying to learn everything.”

He was promoted to E-5 during his first enlistment. After reenlisting, he served in Quantico, Virginia and in Okinawa, Japan before he left the service in 1960. Still, jobs were scarce and with a wife and two children, he enlisted again, this time going active Army.

Assigned to Germany in 1962, with the 3rd Armored Division, Taylor was able to maintain his previous rank and gained a staff position at battalion headquarters as a personnel staff NCO. I had a great captain and a sergeant major who was a great teacher,” Taylor said. “I learned a lot there.”

He was even able to obtain a secret clearance.

“I had a checkered background but my military record was clean,” he chuckled.

In June 1965, Taylor returned to the states. He spent just six months in a maintenance unit with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky when the call came to head to ‘Nam. He recalled spending Christmas in Okinawa before moving on to Cam Ranh Bay.

He was assigned as an equipment inspector and spent most of his time on the road, moving from unit to unit to inspect equipment and learn their needs. He spent a year in ‘Nam before rotating back to the U.S. In December 1966 he was assigned to Aberdeen Proving Ground as a wheel and track instructor and in 1967 he applied for Warrant Officer. In March 1968, he found out he made it, but his reaction was bittersweet.

“I knew it meant I would have to go back to ‘Nam,” he said. “This time as a warrant officer supervisor.”

He recalled being on his way back to ‘Nam when Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles, California, just two months after the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination.

Taylor was headed back to Cam Ranh Bay when his orders were changed to Camp Evans in the 1st Cavalry Division’s division artillery (DIVARTY) area. Taylor led the technical maintenance support of units throughout the area. Though not front line troops, his mobile unit was constantly under fire.

“Wherever we went we got shot at,” he said.

After that tour in ‘Nam ended he returned stateside. He served at Fort Lewis, Washington and then was assigned to Korea in 1971. He recalled that tour as “very different.”

“All the officers were Vietnam vets. You didn’t argue. You either got along or you didn’t,” he said. “As a warrant, my job was to show them the technical side of the mission. I’m the kind of person who can get along with anybody so I had no problems.”

“After Korea I had two goals,” he added. “One was to attend the Advanced Warrant Officer Course and the other was to get my bachelor’s degree.”

In 1972, he returned to APG for the advanced course where he “took honor graduate” and then decided to apply for the “Boot Strap” program which allowed active-duty Soldiers to attend college courses for one year on temporary duty (TDY) status. Taylor earned 33 credit hours and a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology.

After another TDY tour in Germany and then an assignment to Fort Benning, Georgia, Taylor was ready for retirement. In fact, he started graduate school at the University of Maryland in August 1974 before retiring in October of that year.

He obtained his master’s in social work administration, recalling, “I had professors younger than me.”

He worked for the State Commission on Aging, traveling throughout Maryland inspecting local offices and nursing homes and eventually gravitated to Columbus, Ohio where he continued working for state and local facilities.

Eventually he returned to Maryland and settled in Aberdeen.

Taylor said he can’t imagine what his life would have been like without the military. He said Vietnam, in particular, helped shape the person he is today.

“In Vietnam, once you get off the helicopter, no matter where you are, you don’t trust anybody but your friends,” he said.

“We always slept with our clothes on because sometimes they’d hit us in the middle of the night. I slept in plenty of bunkers and went to the showers with all kinds of equipment on. It wasn’t pretty but war is hell and you take it seriously.”

He said transitioning back into society was a challenge and he still clings to old habits.

“I slept with a gun under my pillow for years. You didn’t come in and wake me, you had to holler from the doorway,” he said. “Even today when I go to seminars I always watch the exit and I only sit in the aisle seat.”

He said his Marine Corps training helped him most of all once he gained a leadership position.

“Most of the time over there I was in a position of authority and responsible for taking care of people. I relied on that training, and it never failed me,” he said. “Vietnam taught me that anybody can be in a leadership position, but not everybody can lead.”

Overall, Taylor said, he appreciates the experience of ‘Nam.

“I think we should have won it. Politics should not have run it. The only way to win a war is to get in and get out. But it wasn’t my call.”

Today, Taylor is part of a life coaching and mentoring business. Much of what he shares is drawn from his past experiences. “It’s not faith-based but we have faith in what it is,” he said. “Like in ‘Nam, I saw some bad things and went through some bad things but it made me stronger.”

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Like any other war, Vietnam produced an array of veterans. When the conflict ended, some veterans opted to continue service in the military while others returned to civilian life. Some returned with life altering wounds - physical and psychological - while too many others, who never came home at all, remain among the Missing in Action.

On the surface, the veterans of the Vietnam War faced the same challenges as veterans of other wars, except for one glaring difference: they were vilified by American society like no other generation before or since.

Today, nearly 50 years after the war's end, the veterans of Vietnam are in their 60s and 70s. The passage of time has cooled the tempest of indignation that shrouded their homecoming and an ambiance of repentant thanks thrives in its wake. Many still do what they can to serve this nation.

This article originally appeared in the "APG News" as part of an ongoing, multi-year series hailing the service members and civilians who served the nation during the war in Vietnam. Giving a voice to local Vietnam veterans, it is through their stories that we honor their service and sacrifice, and offer a long-overdue "Welcome Home."

The "APG News" is the weekly newspaper produced at Aberdeen Proving Ground, an Army installation located in southern Harford County, Maryland, nearly midway between Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. APG is recognized as one of the world's most important research and development, testing and evaluation facilities for military weapons and equipment, and supports the finest teams of military and civilian scientists, research engineers, technicians and administrators.

For more information about the series or the veterans featured, contact "APG News" Editor Amanda Rominiecki at amanda.r.rominiecki.civ@mail.mil.