THE WALL OF FACES

Someone asked to confirm this is Jim Taylor from Rennsalear,IN and went to Butler. The post was from a long time ago but this is, indeed, him...Email me at [email protected] if you want more info. would love to hear from you!!

TAYLOR, JAMES EDWARD
First Lieutenant (Field Artillery), U.S. Army
Battery B, 2d Battalion, 33d Artillery, 1st Infantry Division
Date of Action: February 1, 1969
Citation:
The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to James Edward Taylor, First Lieutenant (Field Artillery), U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam, while serving with Battery B, 2d Battalion, 1st Infantry Division Artillery, 1st Infantry Division. First Lieutenant Taylor distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous actions on 1 February 1969 as acting commander of an artillery battery twelve miles northwest of Lai Khe. Shortly after midnight Lieutenant Taylor's fire support base came under intense mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire, followed by a ground assault. As he was checking his six howitzer positions to insure that they were properly manned, he spotted a break in the perimeter wire made by an enemy bangalore torpedo. Braving the hostile shrapnel and automatic weapons fire, he ran to one of the howitzer positions and fired the gun directly into the charging communists. Although he became the target of a rocket-propelled grenade team, he continued his suppressive fire and succeeded in preventing the enemy from entering through the break in the wire. A rocket-propelled grenade struck his position, wounding him and throwing him against a sandbag wall of the howitzer parapet. Ignoring his painful injuries, he returned to the howitzer and fired the weapon until fatally wounded by a second direct hit on his position. First Lieutenant Taylor's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty, at the cost of his life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.

*TAYLOR, JAMES EDWARD
First Lieutenant (Field Artillery), U.S. Army
Battery B, 2d Battalion, 33d Artillery, 1st Infantry Division
Date of Action: February 1, 1969
Citation:
The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to James Edward Taylor, First Lieutenant (Field Artillery), U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam, while serving with Battery B, 2d Battalion, 1st Infantry Division Artillery, 1st Infantry Division. First Lieutenant Taylor distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous actions on 1 February 1969 as acting commander of an artillery battery twelve miles northwest of Lai Khe. Shortly after midnight Lieutenant Taylor's fire support base came under intense mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire, followed by a ground assault. As he was checking his six howitzer positions to insure that they were properly manned, he spotted a break in the perimeter wire made by an enemy bangalore torpedo. Braving the hostile shrapnel and automatic weapons fire, he ran to one of the howitzer positions and fired the gun directly into the charging communists. Although he became the target of a rocket-propelled grenade team, he continued his suppressive fire and succeeded in preventing the enemy from entering through the break in the wire. A rocket-propelled grenade struck his position, wounding him and throwing him against a sandbag wall of the howitzer parapet. Ignoring his painful injuries, he returned to the howitzer and fired the weapon until fatally wounded by a second direct hit on his position. First Lieutenant Taylor's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty, at the cost of his life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.
HQ US Army, Vietnam, General Orders No. 1138 (April 2, 1969)
Home Town: Punta Gorda, Florida

FOREVER REMEMBERED

"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you....and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go.....Be not ashamed to say you loved them....
Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own....And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heros you left behind...."

Quote from a letter home by Maj. Michael Davis O'Donnell
KIA 24 March 1970. Distinguished Flying Cross: Shot down and Killed while attempting to rescue 8 fellow soldiers surrounded by attacking enemy forces.

We Nam Brothers pause to give a backward glance, and post this remembrance to you, one of the gentle heros lost to the War in Vietnam:

Slip off that pack. Set it down by the crooked trail. Drop your steel pot alongside. Shed those magazine-ladened bandoliers away from your sweat-soaked shirt. Lay that silent weapon down and step out of the heat. Feel the soothing cool breeze right down to your soul ... and rest forever in the shade of our love, brother.

From your Nam-Band-Of-Brothers

you are not forgotten thanks for your service to our country from a fellow 1542