"I don't feel scarred, but I feel shaped in a lot of ways." (Video Interview, 1:02:10)
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Peter Robert Young
Peter Young receiving the Soldier of the Quarter certificate [10/17/1969]
War: Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Branch: Army Unit: Base Camp, Special Services, 25th Infantry Division Service Location: Fort Holabird, Maryland; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Dix, New Jersey; Fort Sam Houston, Texas; Fort Ord, California; Alaska; Guam (Northern Mariana Islands); Cu Chi, Vietnam Rank: Specialist Five Place of Birth: DC
Peter Young was a librarian when he was drafted to serve in Vietnam. He considered deserting the Army for life in Canada but remembered why his immigrant father had come to the U.S. from China in the 1930s and, with the reassurance of fellow soldiers who had served in Vietnam, decided to stay on. He was fortunate to be assigned to a library on a base camp in Cu Chi, though he wasn't totally out of harm's way. Young's reflections on his service--its positive influence on his character and its negative object lesson in the futility of many wars--are thoughtfully expressed in this 2009 interview at the Library of Congress, where he was Chief of the Asian Division.