How did your experience and training in the Army during the Vietnam War impact your career choices after military service?


 As a draftee in 1969, I volunteered for Vietnamese Language School and was also sent to Army Interrogation School. In 1970–71 I served as a field interrogator with the First Cav on the Cambodian border.

Vietnam, 1970


Fast forward. Upon my return, I immediately used the GI Bill to go to law school. Because I saw China’s huge influence in Asia while in Vietnam, I took Chinese in law school, later teaching US law in Chinese and English as an Adjunct Program of Law in a traditional style Chinese university atop a jungled mountain.

Chinese Culture University, Taiwan


I then used Chinese for international legal transactions for many years. I am currently finishing a Chinese-English textbook based on my teaching experience in Taiwan, entitled « Chinese-English Basic Principles of U.S. Law ».


And interrogation school paid off as well. As a trial lawyer in NYC and elsewhere, including the Korean DMZ, I excelled at investigation pre-trial and cross examination at trial.


Even Basic Training and deployment to the field with the infantry in the Nam paid off when I attended the Army Infantry Officers Basic Course after the war. Most of the training was deja vu and I could read a map and was always selected to lead us from place to place in the bush. Plus I already knew how to set up defensive positions and ambushes, and call in artillery and air strikes. Etc.


So the Vietnam training and experience paid off multifold in my career and life after the war. And still does.

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