Army, Major
Based: Ft. Bragg, N.C.
782nd Main Support Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: March 20, 2004
Fallouja (near), Iraq Single, 1 child
Gender: Male Hometown: Stockton
High School: Lincoln High (Stockton)
Burial: Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.
Before Army Maj. Mark D. Taylor deployed to Iraq in August, he put a set of dog tags around his 6-year-old son Connor's neck and told the boy, "Wear them until Daddy comes home."
"The little boy has never taken them off," said Taylor's mother, Roberta Taylor.
The boy's 41-year-old father was killed March 20 when a rocket hit his living area in Fallouja. Taylor was a surgeon assigned to the 782nd Main Support Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division at Ft. Bragg, N.C.Taylor first served in Kuwait and Iraq from February to May 2003 and was redeployed in August. His work entailed setting up hospital tents and treating soldiers and civilians. "He told us recently that this Iraqi woman, six months pregnant, had been shot and he operated on her," his mother said. "He operated on little kids. He was very proud of what he was doing."
"We spoke with him on Thursday night [March 18] and he was killed on Saturday [March 20]," his mother said from the family home in Stockton. "The main thing he would always say was, 'Don't worry, Mom and Dad. We're safe.' "
Taylor will be buried April 8 at Arlington National Cemetery, where his parents plan one day to be buried with their only child. "He is a hero and we felt that that's the best place to be," his mother said.Read the entire LA Times article about Army Major Mark D. Taylor here, find more at Military Times, Fallen Heroes and visit Major Taylor's Guest Book.
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Also killed with Taylor was Army Spc. Matthew J. Sandri, 24, of Shamokin, Pa.
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