...Some Gave All

Jesse Allen Taylor's birthday promised more of the same grueling work and discomfort that the previous seven days bore. The date was August 29, 1967. Although I wouldn't be born for another seven years, it was on this day in the hot tropic climate in an even hotter combat zone that 19-year old PFC Taylor saved my life.

He just joined 3rd Battalion, 26th Marine Regiment the week before. The monsoon season created a lot of mud in the parapets, which made it more difficult to rotate the artillery that sat in them. To fix this, a contingency of about 25 Marines stationed at Khe San were sent off towards Lang Vei to retrieve some sand. They knew placing the sand in the parapets would enable them to point the guns in the right direction more quickly.

While on this important mission, a tractor got stuck down at the river bank, and the Marines called in some help from some Seabees attached to a special forces unit to help recover the vehicle. PFC Taylor was the assistant gunner for a .50 caliber machine gun that was mounted on a 2.5 ton truck.

Without warning, a firefight erupted. It was an ambush!

The gunner on PFC Taylor's truck shouted instructions to the driver and immediately returned fire, along with the other Marines, in the general direction of the enemy whose weapons they could hear, but whom they could not see.

The battle was persistent and furious. Both sides had one goal in mind: Kill them before they can kill us.

In the midst of the chaos, one member of the North Vietnamese Army slipped through and managed to successfully throw a chicom grenade onto PFC Taylor's truck, where it bounced around for what must have seemed like a lifetime. Without free range of movement, the gunner was unable to get it out of the truck. PFC Taylor, with the same goal in mind, picked up the grenade and attempted to get it out of range of himself and his fellow Marines.

While performing this heroic act, the grenade exploded, taking PFC Taylor's life. In the process of his attempt, though, he blocked most of the fragments from the grenade from his Marines - both the driver and the gunner who lived on to, seven years later, father his third son -- me.

My dad's unit suffered 100% casualties that day, but PFC Taylor was the only one who died.

Had it not been for PFC Taylor and all of those other brave men who came to their aid in the short span of a few minutes over which the battle was fought -- the two platoons of montagnards or the Green Berets (who would later suffer mightily at the fall of Lang Vei during the Tet Offensive) -- I would never be here to tell you the tale.

A few months after that firefight, my dad, having recovered from his wounds, was able to run through a bombardment to get to the plane that would eventually take him safely home.

He intended to make it on with his friend, LCpl Bernie Kridler, but because the plane was full, LCpl Kridler had to take the next flight. Tragically, that plane crashed, killing everyone onboard.

Do you think this has no meaning for you?

Perhaps you didn't know someone who served in any war -- let alone Vietnam. Maybe you don't think Vietnam had anything to do with our personal freedom, as we understand it.

But without life there can be no liberty, and without PFC Taylor's actions in Vietnam, I would have no life, and therefore could enjoy no liberty. The same can be said, in some way, about most of you.

You may not have had family who served in Vietnam like I did, but there are others who did so that your family was not required to. Pulled a high number in the draft lottery? My Uncle Gary, did not. He did not explicitly volunteer, but he still did his duty to the very end -- even when given a chance to opt out.

For the sacrifice these brave men and women of the military made -- and all the peace and prosperity it makes available to us -- we give our deepest thanks, in solemn appreciation. We honor them, I hope, by continuing the legacy of freedom they've preserved for us. And we never, ever forget them. - Cam Beck

Comments

[Jim Stroup]

Thank you, Cam. I will remember PFC Taylor, together with so many others like him who traded in their futures for those of their comrades in arms.

[Tim Jackson]

There is no way in hell I could have expressed any of this better- bravo, my friend.

Yes, it has zero to do with what side of the issue you stand on, we must never forget those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for the rest of us. No amount of political debate can ever replace them- we must always honor their memory and thank them for what they did and for all the current military now do.

I know I do.

Thank you Cam.

[Polar Bear]

Cam,
The men who gave their lives in my stead would have been very proud of you, son.
Love,
Dad

[Drew McLellan]

Cam,

Amen.

We owe a debt we can never repay to the many PFC Taylors who, through many wars and battles, made it possible for us to still call the United States the land of the free.

Thanks for the reminder.

Drew

[Mike Wagner]

Cam, thanks for sharing these stories from your father's service in Vietnam. (And thanks to him for his service!)

My father served as a Marine at Okinawa during WW2.

He was never able to tell one story about his time there. Not one sentence did he ever share about what happened.

After my father died my Mother told me what she knew which wasn't much. He had been in hand to hand combat. And he was the only one to come out of that encounter alive.

It really does take "the land of the brave" to keep freedom alive from one generation to the next.

With you I share a solemn appreciation for the service of brand men and women.

Thanks for making this Memorial Day all the better with this post.

Keep creating,
Mike

[Cam Beck]

Everyone - Thank you for your sentiments. It's a bit sobering getting up every morning realizing you owe your life to so many people. It's also motivation to honor their sacrifice by living a useful life. Hopefully I will one day be worthy of what they did.

[Trish]

Cam,

What an incredible story both powerful and moving. In sharing this you honor all their memories and in serving our country you have proven yourself quite worthy. Thank you to your father, all those who paid the ultimate price and to you my friend. Thank you so very, very much.