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WE SHOP AT
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6690 Orchard Lake Road
In The West Bloomfield Plaza
West Bloomfield, MI 48322
851-6232
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FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1990
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Re-Born
Continued from preceding page
strips, ammunition dumps
and living quarters for the ar-
my," Dr. Taylor explains. "My
job was to maintain the health
of the men and treat routine
illnesses and injuries. I was
also responsible for the sanita-
tion and hygiene and flew in
helicopters to visit each
detachment."
Though he didn't treat
many casualties, Dr. Taylor
says the men were in constant
danger, "The Vietnam War
was different from other
wars," he explains. 'This was
a guerrilla war. There were no
front lines. During the day
the Viet Cong were your
friends and at night they
threw rockets at you.
"We were surrounded by the
enemy, but we didn't know
who that enemy was."
Occasionally, he still dreams
that he is under a rocket at-
tack. "There were several
nights that I dove out of my
but into the ,foxhole outside
the door," he recalls. "The dirt
falls on you and you think you
are dead. You pray that you
don't take a direct hit."
Dr. Taylor is amazed at the
amount of troops, equipment
and supplies he saw in Viet-
nam. He recalls the physical
discomfort from the stifling
heat and torrential rains, and
he especially remembers the
smell. "You never forget the
stench of Vietnam," he says.
And he remembers the fear.
"I was naive and excited
when I arrived," he recalls.
"The longer you are there the
more frightened you become.
You see so much. It was terri-
fying. My primary goal was to
get out alive. Like everyone
there, I counted the days till I
left."
Dr. Taylor said it is impossi-
ble to experience Vietnam and
not have lasting effects on
your personality. "It makes
you a tougher person," he says.
"I don't want to be hassled
and I'm more impatient of pet-
tiness."
Upon returning to the states
and finishing his tour of duty
in San Francisco, like Ron
Kovic in the film, Dr. Taylor
saw anti Vietnam sentiment
starting to build. "I had an
uncomfortable feeling that my
uniform was a joke to some
people. I took it off when I left
the base."
Dr. Taylor says he felt
patriotic about serving in the
war. "We never discussed
whether it was right or
wrong."
Dr. Larry Blau, who now
practices occupational
medicine, was a captain in the
Army medical corps. He
spent one year at the Third
Field Hospital in Saigon after
training in radiology for eight
Dr. Paul Gold:
Cried with relief.
months at Tripler Hospital in
Honolulu.
"In basic training the army
was short of radiologists, so I
volunteered," Dr. Blau says.
"In Saigon, I reviewed the X-
rays for the surgeons. Working
in the hospital, I didn't see the
bullets hitting people. I saw
the damage they did.
"When I saw Platoon, I
didn't feel it represented what
I saw," Dr. Blau says. "But
Born on the Fourth of July was
exactly what I experienced."
"I saw every form of death,
from incarceration, decapita-
tion and bullet wounds," he
"I had an
uncomfortable
feeling that my
uniform was a joke
to some people."
— Dr. Jerry Taylor
recalls. "The wounded men
were brought from the
helicopter, sometimes 600 a
day. We didn't do cosmetic
surgery, we tried to save lives.
We'd operate, stabilize and
move them out. They went to
Japan or Hawaii to
recuperate.
"I often think about the
deaths," he says, "But I also
think about all the lives we
saved. So many boys were so
badly injured."
Dr. Blau was on call 24
hours a day and at times ex-
perienced total exhaustion.
"I'd fall into bed thinking I
could never read another X-
ray, and have to go back to
work an hour later."
Many of the doctors in Viet-
nam treated civilians as a
gesture of good will. Dr. Blau
read 100 chest x-rays a day for
the Saigon civilian hospital.
He feels fortunate that he
was not in the swamps. "I liv-
ed in an old hotel next to the
hospital that had bathrooms
and running water," he
recalls. But that doesn't mean
he wasn't scared.