Stan Taylor

A first-person account of one soldier's journey through the Vietnam War. Stan Taylor's step-father is a career Army soldier who uses military style disciplines when raising him from a young age. He had always thought his step-father was overly abusive in his methods but discovered as a teenager that he was following a plan to mold this youngster into a man who could take care of himself.

When he enters the Army and eventually sent to Vietnam, he volunteers for the jobs nobody else wanted: walking point and investigating enemy tunnels. And surprisingly, develops a skill and does a wonderful job at both; so much so that others serving with him are in awe of his talents. Eventually, most of his company members had either rotated home or died in battle, and he finds himself as one of the few old timers left. He is promoted to sergeant and finds himself responsible for the training and development of a platoon of new troops. In fact, during one of his jaunts into an enemy tunnel system, Stan has a "come to Jesus moment" that changes his life, and just like many other troops in the war with only a couple of weeks left in their tour, Stan finds is confidence withering and wondering if he will make it home alive.

His nickname, Short-Round, was inherited after a mishap when firing mortar rounds during a training exercise. There is very little dialog in the story, but the author is able to recall many of the events and create a smooth story line. Some other reviewers criticize the author for making errors in weapon nomenclature and question whether he was actually in Vietnam. I, for one, don't care about the errors, and after reading his story know that he had been in-country. Thank you for your service and sacrifice, brother, and welcome home!… (mais)