David E. Taylor (Class of 1966) oral history and papers relating to the Vietnam War, 1967-2014

John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148
Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Published in 2016

Collection Overview

Title:	David E. Taylor (Class of 1966) oral history and papers relating to the Vietnam War
Date range:	1962-1971
Creator:	Taylor, David E.
Extent:	2.0 Linear feet
Abstract:	This collection is an oral history of David Taylor conducted by Professor Beth Taylor in 2010 about his experiences at Brown University and his military service during the Vietnam War. It includes uniforms he wore during the Vietnam War and supporting biographical information about David Taylor. Taylor attended Brown University on a Naval ROTC scholarship, graduating in 1966 before joining the Marine Corps. In the summer of 1968, after 18 months of flight school training, David served as a CH-53 helicopter pilot based out of Phu Bai. During his thirteen-month tour, First Lieutenant Taylor flew more than seven hundred missions. From 1969 to 1971, David then served as part of Helicopter Marine Experimental-1 (HMX-1), an elite squadron whose primary mission was to fly the President of the United States. David left HMX-1 to attend Harvard Business School and pursue a career in commercial real estate. David remained at the Trammell Crow Company until his retirement.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Collection number:	AMS.1U.T5

Scope & content

David E. Taylor (Class of 1966) oral history and papers relating to the Vietnam War include an oral history interview of David E. Taylor conducted by Professor Beth Taylor (no relation to David Taylor) in March 2010 about his days at Brown University and his military experiences during the Vietnam War and publications about the Vietnam War that resonated deeply with David Taylor.

The interview chronicles his feelings about his university experiences, his military experiences in training and in Vietnam, and his personal views about the war and the changes in American culture during 1966-1969.

The collection is organized into the following 5 series:

Series 1. Oral History: This series contains the audio recording of the oral history interview of David E. Taylor conducted by Professor Beth Taylor on March 29, 2010 about his days at Brown University and his military experiences during the Vietnam War. A copy of the audio recording on CD-ROM is included in the collection and is accessible in MP3 format in the Brown Digital Repository. This series also contains a transcription of the interview, a copy of which includes annotations by David Taylor, and Beth Taylor's notes written during the interview.

Series 2. Correspondence via email: This series includes emails from David Taylor that followed his 2010 interview with Beth Taylor and an exchange with Brown student Marjory O'Toole who was researching his flight jacket. They include further memories of Brown, people he met in the service, and his recollections of LZ Argonne operations support, which he felt is accurately depicted in "Matterhorn" by Karl Marlantes and LZ Neville [see Series 5. Supporting materials].

Series 3. Photographs: These photographs show First Lieutenant David Taylor with the new semi-experimental aircraft CH-53. The Marine Corps was in the process of transitioning to virtually an all helicopter fleet for support in Vietnam. Almost 95% of the flight training students at that time were training on helicopters.

Series 4. Museum Objects: This series contains 4 items of military clothing worn by Taylor during his service in Vietnam and the "Description of USMC items received from David E. Taylor" which includes colorful commentary about these items by Taylor.

• 1) Nomex (fireproof) flight suit with Taylor's and wings (no rank) on the breast. This is the suit he wore when he flew.
• 2)Taylor's G-1 leather flight jacket complete with squadron patches and some from the Presidential squadron that were added later. Name and rank sewn on the breast. Standard issue.
• 3) A pair of flight boots. These were made by the H. Brown shoe company. They have steel toes for protection from ejection seats and loss of toes on exit from the aircraft, though helicopters did not have the benefit of an ejection seat or a parachute. When a helicopter goes down, the pilot goes down. This is Taylor's second pair of boots and are virtually unworn as he wore them only a few times. Issue date of Jan 1968 stamped inside.
• 4) Taylor's upland green camouflage utilities uniform.

Series 5. Supporting materials: An article and book that David Taylor felt accurately depicted the experiences of the Vietnam War: "The Battle for LZ Neville" by Janie Blankenship from the VFW Magazine and "The Arnheiter Affair" by Neil Sheehan (Random House: 1971).

Access Points

Subject Names

• Fuller, Kathryn S.
• Generous, William Thomas
• Marlantes, Karl
• McCain, John, 1936-
• Rockwell, George Lincoln, 1918-1967
• Seiple, Robert A., 1942-
• Sheehan, Neil
• Smith, Fred, 1944-
• Taylor, Elizabeth S. (Beth)
• Webb, James H
• Zimmer, Jerry A. (Jerry Allen), 1944-1969

Subject Organizations

• Brown University--Societies, etc.
• Brown University--Student life and customs
• Brown University. Class of 1966.
• Brown University. Naval ROTC.
• Lambda Chi Alpha. (Brown University).
• Pembroke College (Brown University)--Students.
• Pembroke College (Brown University).
• United States. Department of the Navy.
• United States. Marine Corps. Uniforms.
• United States. Marine Corps.
• United States. Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 462.
• United States. Navy. Medals, badges, decorations, etc.
• Vietnam Veterans Archive (Brown University).
• Women's College (Brown University).

Subject Topics

• Air pilots, Military
• Brown University--Riots
• Kennedy, John F.--(John Fitzgerald),--d 1917-1963--Assassination
• Korean War, 1950-1953
• Marines--Medals, badges, decorations, etc.
• Military helicopters
• Nineteen sixties
• Vietnam War, 1961-1975
• Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Aerial operations, American
• Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Camouflage (Military science)
• Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Fiction
• Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American

Geographical Names

• A Shau Valley (Vietnam)
• Khé Sanh (Vietnam)
• Naval Air Station Pensacola (Fla.)

Subject Topics

• Military

Arrangement

This collection is organized in 5 series.

• Series 1. Oral History
• Series 2. Correspondence via email
• Series 3. David Taylor photographs
• Series 4. Museum Objects
• Series 5. Supporting materials

Biographical/Historical note

First Lieutenant David Taylor, United States Marine Corps, graduated from a public high school in Bergen County, Ridgewood, New Jersey and entered Brown University in 1962 on a Naval ROTC scholarship. However, he was not keen at being cast as a “Hawk”, and he did not openly share his feelings. He read quite a bit and felt the conflict in Vietnam was more of a civil war and did not think the Domino Theory of the day was accurate. He played on varsity baseball and basketball and was a member of the fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha. Each summer he would go on active duty. In the summer of 1965, at Quantico, he learned of President Johnson’s escalation of the war. Taylor had earlier thought by the time he finished college, the war would be over and he’d never be involved. He spent the next year on campus in a sort of state of bewilderment, feeling his commitment to ROTC had been a mistake. Just before graduation he met his first wife, Kathryn Fuller (Pembroke, Class of 1968), beginning a whirlwind relationship and then maintaining a long-distance relationship. He received his B.A. degree with a political science major in June 1966, and he immediately went to Quantico for Officer Candidates School (OCS), United States Marine Corps for six months of training. Taylor and Fuller were married in December of 1967.

The Marine Corps required all of their regular officers to be first and foremost infantry officers. To avoid infantry and delay being sent to Vietnam, Taylor chose to pursue flight school which was 12-18 months of training at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. The Marine Corps was in the process of transitioning to virtually an all helicopter fleet for support in Vietnam. Almost 95% of the flight students at that time were training in helicopters. Taylor trained on T-28 and T-34 aircrafts for carrier-qualification. He then moved to a tiny aircraft called a TH-13M, by Bell and then to H-34, the workhorse of the Marine Corps during Korea. He finished flight training in early 1968.

He and Kathryn drove to Marine Corps Air Facility Santa Ana, California by way of Mexico. They lived in Laguna Beach in a garage apartment, because Kathryn refused to live on base. The Marine Corps was forming a new squadron to use the new experimental aircraft CH-53, so Taylor signed into the HMH – Heavy Marine Corps Helicopter 462 and continued with six more months of training with his squadron based in California. During training the squadron stabilized getting to know each other well.

In August 1968, David Taylor left for Vietnam and his wife returned to the New York area. His squadron first landed in Okinawa then flew into Da Nang at night where Taylor felt he had just walked into Dante’s inferno. The next day they flew by C-130 from Da Nang to where they were stationed at Phu Bai. The mission of the squadron was to provide logistical support (moving soldiers, supplies and equipment, and casualties in and out of battle) with CH-53s to the northern half of the operations for the Marine Corps and the northern half of I Corps. This included Hue, Khe Sanh, Con Thien, Dong Ha, Quang Tri, and A Shau Valley on the DMZ or just inside the Laotian border. During his service in Vietnam, Taylor took Forward Air Controller School, in Okinawa, and Jungle Environmental Survival Training in the Philippines and met his wife in Sydney, Australia for one R & R. Taylor served thirteen months in Vietnam and flew seven hundred missions.

In September 1969, the time for him to return to the states, Taylor applied for HMX-1, (Helicopter Marine Experimental, 1st squadron, Marine Corps). Its primary mission is to fly the President of the United States [Richard Nixon, at the time]. Its secondary mission is to be an experimental squadron. Among other things, Taylor tested laser-guided ordnances before they were ever used in warfare and test-landed the CH-53 on the White House lawn. Marine rotations were stateside for three years and then another tour in Vietnam but Taylor managed to take leave and enrolled in Harvard Business School in 1971.

By 1973, Taylor had a three-year old daughter and was working in the commercial real estate business, a partner in a firm called Trammell Crow Company, the largest company in the United States. Taylor remained at Trammell Crow Company until his retirement. Throughout his military service, Taylor felt his marriage was not as strong as it could be and he and Kathryn eventually divorced. He lived in Palm Beach, Florida at the time of the interview and admits Vietnam was the “greatest experience of my life. You faced death every day, so you looked at life differently.” In 2013, after two years and support from several Congressmen, Taylor was notified he would be receiving the Presidential Service Badge, an apparent oversight from his days in the Marine Corps and HMX-1. He credits his involvement with the Brown Vietnam Veterans Archive and Beth Taylor for facilitating his receipt of the Badge.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested.
Use of the materials:	Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. Researchers should note that compliance with copyright law is their responsibility. Researchers must determine the owners of the literary rights and obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Preferred citation:	David E. Taylor (Class of 1966) oral history and papers relating to the Vietnam War, AMS.1U.T5, Brown University Library.
Contact information:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts Box A Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148 Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	Given by David E. Taylor (Class of 1966) June 6, 2012.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Barbara Ambos.
Encoding:	This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit 2016-01-21
Descriptive rules:	Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Additional Information

Related material:

Part of the Vietnam Veterans Archive (Brown University).

Inventory

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