Taylor Jr. Amos “Buck”.

Taylor Jr. Amos “Buck”, born 28-09-1920 in Philadelphia, son of Amos Johnson Taylor, Sr. and Florence Taylor.  Upon graduation Taylor took an office job with SKF Bearings in Philadelphia for couple of years. Then he worked for Baldwin Locomotives and worked there until June 1942. Buck was the oldest of four brothers. His mother told them to join different branches of the army, so she would not lose all of them on the same day. All of the Taylor brothers survived the war. In July, 1942, Taylor enlisted and volunteered for paratroopers in Philadelphia. Taylor was assigned to 506th Easy Company of the 101 Airborne Division under command of Generaal William Carey  “Bill” Lee and received training in Toccoa, Georgia under Captain Herbert Sobel . Sobel, not a very beloved commander, in 1970, shot himself in the head with a small-caliber pistol in an attempted suicide. The bullet entered his left temple, passed behind his eyes, and exited the other side of his head. This severed his optic nerves and left him blind. Soon afterward, he began living at a VA assisted-living facility in Waukegan, Illinois. He died there of malnutrition on 30-09-1987, age 75. No memorial services were held for him.

Taylor was an excellent shot. He and Darrell ‘Shifty’ Powers

  were the only two men in Easy Company to make expert marksman.

During his training in Fort Benning, Taylor went AWOL to meet with Elaine Price, whom he later married, in Jacksonville, because his three-day pass had been cancelled by Sobel. Taylor never hated Sobel but thought he could be quite unfair sometimes and could not be trusted for battle situation. Therefore, Taylor was one of the NCOs to participate in the mutiny initiated by Mike Ranney

and Terrence ‘Salty’ Harris  in England. Sergeant Myron “Mike” Ranney died on 22-09-1988, age 65, of a heart attack. He was buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery. Terrence ‘Salty’ Harris fought in the battle in Carenten, where he was killed by a sniper. Harris’s gravestone indicated that he was killed on 18-06-1944. He is buried at Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial Colleville-sur-Mer, Plot B Row 22 Grave 16.

Taylor made his first combat jump on D-Day. He found Roderick G. “Rod” Strohl , Shifty Powers and William “Bill” Kiehn after landing.  They joined their own unit three or four days later, before Easy would fight in Carentan. Taylor was wounded right after the battle in Carentan and was evacuated to a hospital in England, where he lost the camera he brought with him into Normandy. Roderick G. “Rod”Strohl, age 97, of Orefield, died 02,-12-2019 at home. William F. “Bill” Kiehn was killed in battle in France on 10-02-1945, age 23 and he is buried on Epinal American Cemetery and Memorial Epinal, Departement des Vosges, Lorraine, France

On September 17, 1944, Technical Sergeant Taylor made another jump for Operation Market Garden, for the liberation of my country, Netherlands, which eventually failed.

In 1944, English commander Bernhard Montgomery devised a daring plan codenamed Market Garden. If Allied paratroopers captured the bridges over the rivers in the Netherlands from the Germans, tanks could advance and attack Berlin via Northern Germany. This could mean the end of the war. American paratroopers were to take care of the Maas and Waal bridges, while the British and Poles were to capture the bridges over the Rhine.The operation lasted from September 17 to 26, 1944. Although all bridges were captured, the bridge near Arnhem could not be held. As a result, the plan failed. The main cause of the failure was that two experienced SS divisions with heavy equipment were stationed near Arnhem, which the paratroopers could not compete with. Moreover, it took too long for the tanks from the south to arrive at the Rhine. The  10. SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg under command of SS Brigadeführer Arthur Heinrich “Heinz” Harmel and the 9e SS pantserdivisie ‘Hohenstaufen’ under command of SS Obergruppenführer Wilhelm “Willi” Bittrich,

surprised the Allied in Oosterbeek..

While Easy Company was defending the Island, Taylor participated in Operation Pegasus led by Frederick ‘Moose’ Heyliger

in 22-10-1944. Heyliger died on 03-11-2001, in Concord, Massachusetts, at the age of 85. He is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts.

After Easy Company had been relieved, Taylor was involved in a traffic accident and was sent to a hospital in Nijmegen. Taylor also fought in the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne. On Christmas Eve, Taylor and Earl “One Lung” McClung

found and killed the German that shot Walter Gordon . In January 1945, Taylor was shot in his leg in Foy, and was sent to an aid station. The wound was serious and the war was over for him. He then spent 11 months in hospitals for his injury. Gordon was shot by a German sniper, with the bullet penetrating one shoulder, traveling through his body and exiting the shoulder on the other side, which paralyzed him. Walter Gordon died in Pass Christian, Mississippi after suffering a stroke in his sleep, on 19-04-1997, aged 77, Biloxi, Mississippi. Earl “Mac” McClung survived the war and died 27-11-2013, age 90, Pueblo, Pueblo County, Colorado,

Buck Taylor was sent back to the States for further operation and rehabilitation. In 19-05-1945, he married Elaine Debby Price while still in the rehab hospital. Elaine’s wedding dress was made from Taylor’s white silk reserve chute. The couple would have two daughters, Joan Taylor Neal and Deborah and two sons Robert M. Taylor and Richard M. Taylor. After his discharge in December that year,

Taylor worked for Veterans Administration in Philadelphia. Then he joined the CIA, which he had spent 25 years with. Taylor family had lived in Seawll’s Point for 30 years. They moved to Orange City in May, 2010. Amos Taylor passed away in 18-08-2011, age 90, 18 days after his wife. Buck and his wife Elaine, born Price, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington County, Virginia, Section 60, Site 9889.

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