新澳门六合彩内幕信息

MEMORIAL DAY: Honoring the 135th fallen Aggie

Mark Taylor earned his B.S. in biochemistry in 1986 but couldn鈥檛 stay for commencement. Duty called with the California Army National Guard.

Besides his degree, the Stockton native had earned the rank of second lieutenant after serving in 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis鈥 Army ROTC. As soon as he graduated, he hurried off to Fort Sill, Okla., for officer training in the field artillery.

Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor

Fast forward to 2004. He had become a surgeon in the Army and was on his second deployment in the Iraq War. Days before he was due to come home, he was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on his clinic near Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad. He was 41.

He is the last known Aggie to die in military service. Now, in the 10th anniversary year of his death, Taylor鈥檚 story is being added to 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis鈥 Golden Memory Book, to go with 134 other stories of Aggies who died in the military, from World Wars I and II, to Korea and Vietnam, and now to the Iraq War.

The book will be rededicated, with Taylor鈥檚 page, during this year鈥檚 campus Memorial Day ceremony, Thursday, May 22, on the north side of the Memorial Union 鈥 dedicated upon its opening in 1955 to the memory of Aggies who made the ultimate sacrifice. See box for details on the ceremony.

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: Memorial Day Ceremony, presented by Campus Recreation and Unions

WHEN: 5-5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 22 (reception follows, 5:30-6:30)

WHERE: North Plaza

The program includes ROTC color guard (all 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis students, some who are cadets in 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis' Army ROTC and some who are midshipmen in 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Berkeley's Navy ROTC), the national anthem (sung by student Brian Chiang) and a wreath presentation, as well as remarks by Adela de la Torre, vice chancellor of Student Affairs, and Liam Burke, an ROTC cadet.

Veteran Megan Kennedy, who attends 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis, will read a summary of Lt. Col. Taylor鈥檚 page from the Golden Memory Book, and after that six student and alumni veterans will read all the names in the book. The readers: Jay Brookman, Cameron Henton, King Moon, John Paul Wallis, Joseph Wetherbee and Claire White.

Vice Chancellor de la Torre will then preside as Lt. Col. Patrick Rose and Master Sgt. Kevin Tretter, both from the campus's Army ROTC cadre, present a framed copy of Lt. Col. Taylor's page to his mother. Taps will conclude the ceremony.

A reception will follow in Griffin Lounge, in the Memorial Union. The Golden Memory Book will be on display, and the pages will be projected individually onto a screen.

鈥淭hey were our students, our alumni, taken far too early,鈥 said Adela de la Torre, vice chancellor of Student Affairs. 鈥淭heir sacrifice is never forgotten.

鈥淲e are particularly honored this year to recognize Lieutenant Colonel Taylor, who, sadly, becomes the 135th entry in the Golden Memory Book.鈥

Taylor鈥檚 mother, Roberta Taylor of Stockton, who will attend the ceremony, said she is pleased to see her son remembered at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis. 鈥淗e chose it because it was close to home, and he liked it,鈥 the retired schoolteacher said of her only child. The university, she said, had nurtured two of her son鈥檚 passions: medicine and the military.

鈥⑩赌⑩赌

Mark Douglas Taylor enrolled at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis in the fall of 1982 as a junior transfer from San Joaquin Delta College. He was born and raised in Stockton, where he graduated from Lincoln High School in 1980.

鈥淚 never needed to ask him if he had done his homework,鈥 his mother said. 鈥淗ow many mothers can say that?鈥

He was equally diligent in college. His friend Cathy Hilton Conrad, who met Taylor at Delta College and also transferred to 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis, recalled how she and Taylor would study together almost every night, either in Shields Library or the Physical Sciences and Engineering Library. 鈥淗e was always the one to be organizing study groups,鈥 said Conrad, who graduated in 1985.

Once when Taylor鈥檚 parents came to visit, and they could not find him at home, they tried the library. 鈥淭he librarian knew right where he was,鈥 his mother said during a recent interview at her Stockton home. The U.S. flag flies outside and a Gold Star banner hangs in a window near the front door 鈥 indicating the family inside has lost a child in war.

Taylor lived in a residence hall his first year at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis, then pledged the Theta Xi Fraternity and lived there. He called himself 鈥渢he invisible pledge,鈥 because he鈥檇 finish his pledge duties as quickly as possible, then hurry off to study.

Fraternity brother Dave Panconi, who met Taylor in the residence halls, said he remembers Mark鈥檚 studying 鈥 and his power naps! 鈥淗e was always asking us to wake him up in a half hour,鈥 Panconi recalled.

But, he added, 鈥淢ark had a good balance in his life.鈥

鈥淗e was a great guy, very loyal, someone you could count on,鈥 said Panconi 鈥85.

GOLDEN MEMORY BOOK

It has a page for each of our Gold Star Aggies 鈥 鈥淕old Star鈥 is a term that surviving family members might use, as in Gold Star Mother or Gold Star Father, to indicate the loss of a child in war 鈥 and it is kept in a display case in a corner of Griffin Lounge in the MU. Soon the book will have a new home, in the MU renovation scheduled to start in the fall. The plans include a memorial wall with an interactive digital display that will provide direct access to each page in the memory book. See a rendering of what the new wall may look like, in slideshow above.

for a list of all the Gold Star Aggies, each accompanied by class year at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis, branch of service, highest rank and the war in which the Aggie lost his life. Digital scans of every page of the Golden Memory Book can be seen in this .

He recalled how he and other fraternity members referred to Taylor, in a good-natured way, as 鈥淕I Joe,鈥 prepping for duty in the artillery. Little did they know that this GI Joe would end up being Dr. GI Joe.

鈥⑩赌⑩赌

Taylor followed his father鈥檚 footsteps into the military. Robert 鈥淒oug鈥 Taylor served in the California Army National Guard for nearly 40 years, attaining the rank of colonel, while also having a career in the California Highway Patrol, retiring as a captain.

Father and son both started out in the artillery. Doug Taylor would eventually become a helicopter pilot, while his son would move into medicine.

Mark was a 鈥済entle soul,鈥 his mother recalled, who had volunteered at St. Joseph鈥檚 Medical Center in Stockton, and, while attending 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis, at the university鈥檚 medical center in Sacramento.

But he hadn鈥檛 planned on being a physician. Instead, after graduating from 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis and completing his officer training at Fort Sill, he took his biochemistry degree to pharmacy school at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 San Francisco.

He graduated in 1991, focusing on clinical pharmacy, and took a position at a San Francisco hospital. 鈥淗e was following the doctors around, filling their prescriptions, and figured he might as well be a doctor himself,鈥 his mother said.

So he was off to George Washington University in Washington, D.C., earning a master鈥檚 in public health as well as a medical degree. 鈥淚f there was a degree to be had, he had it,鈥 his mother said.

Taylor took a military scholarship for his last three years at George Washington (he graduated in 1996); in return, he owed three years on active duty.

He completed an internship in surgery at Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis (now part of Joint Base Lewis-McChord) in Washington, and, while on deferment from the Army, completed his residency in surgery at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Irvine before returning to active duty in 2001

He was assigned to Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, N.C., home of the 鈥淎ll-American鈥 82nd Airborne Division. It鈥檚 a division of paratroopers, and, to be one of them, Taylor had to jump like them 鈥 out of planes.

He was in his late 30s, early 40s 鈥 remember, he had been through pharmacy school and medical school, and a five-year residency 鈥 but still managed to poke fun at himself. 鈥淲hen I jump out of a plane, it takes me three days to recuperate,鈥 he told his friend Conrad in a letter.  鈥淚鈥檓 getting too old for this. I look around and I鈥檓 the oldest guy doing it.鈥

鈥⑩赌⑩赌

In March 2003, the United States went to war with Iraq a second time, and Taylor found himself in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was deployed for a few months in the first half of 2003, and sent back in August.

鈥淚 can鈥檛 think of a finer thing that I鈥檇 rather be doing than taking care of our soldiers,鈥 he wrote home during a break from the operating room, where he wore an American flag surgical bandana.

He operated on civilians, too, like a little girl with a ruptured appendix, and other children, too, and they came back to see him 鈥 as seen in a photograph, crowded around him, one of them wearing his helmet. He made friends with a barber, too, and treated him for sinus problems.

Taylor "had a great sense of humor and could relate to all types of people,鈥 recalled George Bal, the surgeon in charge on both of Taylor鈥檚 deployments to Iraq. Turns out they were both 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis alumni, earning their undergraduate degrees in the same year, 1986. But Bal didn鈥檛 belong to ROTC, and he didn鈥檛 know Taylor from elsewhere on campus.

They would meet at Fort Bragg, where they worked at the base hospital whenever they weren鈥檛 training for war or going to war. 鈥淗is patients loved him,鈥 Bal said, noting how a good number of them attended a memorial service.

Bal said Taylor was excited about going to Iraq, recalling how his fellow doctor had remarked, "That鈥檚 what we鈥檝e been training for.鈥

Once there, 鈥淗e was probably the most experienced general surgeon I had,鈥 said Bal, an orthopedic surgeon. 鈥淚f we had complicated stuff come in, I would turn to him.鈥

鈥淐omplicated鈥 could include injuries from improvised explosive devices or direct gunshot, and accidents, too.

Bal led the Forward Surgical Team, 782nd Main Support Battalion 鈥 "forward" as in near the front lines and thus better able to quickly treat injured troops. And 鈥渇orward鈥 as in danger, like mortar or grenade attacks at least every other day, Bal said. He and his team lived and worked inside a large compound, where, luckily, the ordnance usually landed on open ground.

Until March 20, 2004, when the enemy launched a particularly heavy attack. Taylor was felled outside the clinic, as he urged his fellow soldiers to get inside. He had been in the process of making a phone call; afterward, Marines found his parents鈥 number on the dialing screen.

The attack also killed Sgt. Matthew J. Sandri, a 24-year-old combat medic. The Army honored both of them in the naming of the Taylor/Sandri Medical Training Center at Fort Bragg in 2008.

Bal, who never went back to Iraq and today serves as the chief of sports medicine at West Virginia University, said he thinks of both soldiers every day and, specific to Taylor, of his promise as a surgeon: 鈥淗e had everything in front of him.鈥

Taylor had a promotion in store, too, having earned the rank of lieutenant colonel 鈥 which was granted posthumously.

EARLIER COVERAGE

鈥⑩赌⑩赌

Taylor never complained about going to Iraq, his father said in an interview shortly after his son鈥檚 death. 鈥淗e said, 鈥楽ure, I wish I didn鈥檛 have to go,鈥 but he says, 鈥業鈥檓 going 鈥 I鈥檓 not being left behind.鈥欌

Doug Taylor died a year and a half after his son. Today, his wife echoes her husband鈥檚 thoughts about their patriot son: 鈥淗e was a soldier, doing his duty. We were so proud of him.鈥

Upon deploying to Iraq the last time, Taylor gave a set of his dog tags to his 6-year-old son Connor, telling him, "Wear them until Daddy comes home." Upon Taylor鈥檚 death, the dog tag story made it into newspapers around the country. Connor is a teenager now, living in Southern California with his mother; she and Taylor had divorced before he was assigned to Fort Bragg.

Taylor gave something to his mother, too: an 82nd Airborne Division pin 鈥 and she still wears it every day to honor her hero son.

Soon 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis will have its own way of honoring Taylor every day, by memorializing his duty, courage and sacrifice for all time in the Golden Memory Book.

 

Media Resources

Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu

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