West Virginia
Army National Guard Sgt. Brandon Taylor kneels just before
the grave marker of his fantastic uncle, Globe War I veteran Amos Taylor. Amos Taylor had been buried in an unmarked grave, and Brandon Taylor did the investigation to have a grave marker secured. (Photo
by Jessica Taylor)
WHEELING — West Virginia Army National Guard Sgt. Brandon Taylor loves hunting up his family’s history, which includes its military history. He took particular notice of his grandfather Millard Taylor and fantastic uncle Amos Taylor, each veterans of Globe War I.
As he researched additional, he discovered some thing that he didn’t like — that his fantastic uncle Amos had been laid to rest in an unmarked grave.
So started Taylor’s function to safe that Globe War I veteran’s marker for his fantastic uncle, function that eventually came to fruition earlier this month.
The Taylor household celebrated the placement of Amos’ marker at Greenwood Cemetery in a little ceremony that also was attended by the Moundsville Veterans Honor Guard and the West Virginia Army National Guard Honor Guard.
“It was fantastic to bestow on him a small bit of an honor that I believe he deserved,” Taylor stated. “I didn’t know the man, but with his service, I think he deserved it.”
Each Millard Taylor and Amos Taylor created it dwelling from France in 1919, but Amos had been exposed to mustard gas in the course of combat, some thing that severely impacted him by way of the rest of his quick life. He died in 1925 at age 35, immediately after getting treated for tuberculosis and other respiratory troubles.
Brandon Taylor had began down the path of mastering far more about his fantastic uncle in 2017. It was later that year that he found his fantastic uncle’s gravesite. That discovery was vital for the Taylor household, who has a tradition of laying flowers on the gravesites and putting flags on Veterans Day.
But Brandon Taylor was dismayed to see that his fantastic uncle’s grave was unmarked. He does not know the story behind the burial, but believed instances could have been tight in the couple of years just before the Fantastic Depression, and that the unmarked grave could have been all that could have been afforded.
Speedy forward to the present, and Taylor felt his fantastic uncle at least deserved a marker. He began hunting at the course of action of acquiring a veteran’s marker, obtaining the list of certain facts the United States Military required to confirm his fantastic uncle’s military service. Regrettably, that wasn’t facts that could effortlessly be identified. A fire in the 1970s at the National Archives destroyed quite a few of the records from Globe War I, Taylor stated.
Taylor would not give up. He scoured the web for years attempting to unearth any facts that would have been the important to securing that grave marker. A breakthrough lastly came in 2019 and 2020, when Taylor was stationed in Kuwait in Operation Inherent Resolve. He occurred upon a Facebook web page managed by the National Guard and posted about his fantastic uncle. SFC Arron Heft replied and became interested in the story.
Heft supplied Taylor with far more facts on his fantastic uncle – a service ID quantity and the truth that he probably served in the Meuse Argonne Offensive, a web site of brutal combat in WWI. It nevertheless wasn’t the official facts Taylor required, but it was methods in the suitable path.
When Taylor returned to the U.S. in late 2020, he resumed his search. Earlier this year, hunting back at facts Heft sent him, he identified that his fantastic uncle had been inducted in Cleveland, Ohio. He searched “Amos Taylor” and “Cleveland, Ohio” and identified his fantastic uncle’s Veterans Bureau ID card, the facts he required to confirm his service.
“I quickly named my dad,” Taylor stated. “Then I sat back in my chair and was like, was this right here the complete time or was it some thing that was just identified? I didn’t care. I began placing the packet collectively and stated, ‘This is going to the VA right now.’”
It wasn’t extended immediately after that Taylor discovered the VA had ordered the marker and it was on its way. He contacted Greenwood Cemetery about putting the marker and the cemetery told him it would deal with the price.
Final weekend, the household gathered about that new marker and Taylor’s father Gary Taylor received a U.S. flag in honor of his uncle’s service. Taylor couldn’t give adequate thanks to the WVANG Honor Guard and Moundsville Veterans Honor Guard for coming.
“They do a phenomenal job,” he stated. “I cannot give them adequate kudos.”
Even though it took practically a century, Amos Taylor was offered the honor his fantastic nephew was particular he deserved and worked for years to attain.
“It meant a lot,” Taylor stated. “I do not know what takes place when we die, but the least we can do is bear in mind these who did. I felt the least I could do for him was this.”
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