NAME: Danny Gene Taylor
. SERIAL #:
17437416
.
RANK - BRANCH: E6/US Army Special Forces
.
UNIT: Headquarters & Headquarters Company
.
DATE OF BIRTH: 11 June 1939
.
SEX - RACE: Male - Caucasian
.
MARITAL STATUS: Single
.
HOME CITY OF RECORD: St. Louis MO
.
DATE OF LOSS: 28 September 1966
.
COUNTRY OF LOSS: South Vietnam
.
LOSS COORDINATES: 165115N 1063908E (XD760640)
.
STATUS (IN 1973): Killed - Body Not Recovered
.
CATEGORY: 2
.
AIRCRAFT/VEHICLE/GROUND: Ground
.
REFNO: 0476
.
OTHER PERSONNEL IN INCIDENT: (none missing)
THE WALL
Panel 11E - Row 027
Click to get a virtual bracelet for your adopted POW!
Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 September 1990 from one
or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency
sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published
sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 1998.
SSGT Danny G. Taylor was the radio operator for Headquarters
& Headquarters Company, 5th Special Forces. On September 28, 1966,
he was part of a reconnaissance patrol operating in Quang Tri
Province, South Vietnam when the unit was fired upon by enemy
forces.
The patrol returned fire for about ten minutes, and Taylor was
observed to be firing as well. He then put the radio on his
back and made an attempt to jump off some rocks, and was hit
in the back by enemy fire.
Prior to leaving the area, members of the patrol checked Taylor
and found no pulse or heartbeat. Because they were escaping
under fire, they were forced to leave Taylor's body behind.
Hostile forces prevented any subsequent searches for Taylor's
body.
Danny G. Taylor is listed among the missing because his
remains were never found to send home to the country he
served. He died a tragically ironic death in the midst of war.
But, for his family, the case seems clear that he died on that
day. The fact that they have no body to bury with honor is
not of great significance.
For others who are missing, however, the evidence leads not
to death, but to survival. Since the war ended, nearly
10,000 reports received relating to Americans still held
captive in Indochina have convinced experts that hundreds
of men are still alive, waiting for their country to
rescue them.
The notion that Americans are dying without hope in the
hands of a long-ago enemy belies the idea that we left
Vietnam with honor. It also signals that tens of thousands
of lost lives were a frivolous waste of our best men.
