Mathew D. Taylor, Army, Specialist -- Rest In Peace

Mathew D. Taylor, 21

Army, Specialist
Based: Vicenza, Italy
1st Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team
Supporting: Operation Enduring Freedom
Died: September 26, 2007
Sarobi district, Afghanistan
Single
Gender: Male
Hometown: Cameron Park
High School: Ponderosa High (Shingle Springs)


From the LA Times:

Taylor, 21, a private first class and .50-caliber machine gunner, died Sept. 26 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio of wounds suffered two months earlier when a roadside bomb exploded near his Humvee in Afghanistan's Sarobi district, east of Kabul. He had been the only survivor of the July 23 blast in which four other soldiers were killed.

Deployed to Afghanistan in May and often on missions in remote parts of the country, Taylor tried hard to stay in touch with his family and friends. He e-mailed and called, or communicated via MySpace.com. Sometimes he was too tired, and the missions were too frequent to allow much more than a brief greeting, his family said.

And from Fallen Heroes:

He suffered burns to more than 75 percent of his body and had both legs amputated.

Family and friends said he had been alert and appeared to be doing well, but his condition took a turn for the worse a few days ago.

"Everyone is just stunned," said Jean Carey, a neighbor and longtime family friend. "We really thought he was going to make it."

On the phone from San Antonio, Patty Taylor is taking a break from her wounded son's bedside at Brooke Army Medical Center.

"I didn't want him to go," says Taylor, 52, a widow who lives in Cameron Park. "Being my only son, he didn't have to go to the front lines. I didn't want him doing that."

But Mathew Taylor did, because he wanted to honor his late father, Richard, an Army veteran who died in a car accident in 2003, the year before he graduated from Ponderosa High School.

This is how it happens, one soldier at a time, across the country.

Read the whole article about Army Specialist Mathew D. Taylor at Fallen Heroes and read more here and visit a guest book tribute here.