Lieutenant Frank DeWitt Taylor

Bronze Star

Frank Dewitt Taylor was born September 23, 1923 to Mr and Mrs LF Taylor. He was raised in Pennsylvania and graduated from Sharon HS prior to entering NMAMC in the fall of 1941 to study Engineering. He attended school for two years, leaving in his junior year to enter the US Army. In October 1942 he married Naydene Armstrong. He was commissioned in June 1944 and assigned to Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 232nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division, the Rainbow Division. His daughter, Bryana Evelyn, was born in September 1944. Shortly thereafter he shipped overseas. In December 1944, his unit reached the southern coast of France and landed near Marseilles. They entered combat on December 24, 1944 near Strasbourg France as part of a 31 mile defensive sector along the Rhine. For his actions as the battalion communications officer during combat operations in January 1945 he would receive the Bronze Star. In March 1945 the 42nd ID crossed the Rhine and began offensive operations against the Siegfried line in the Hardt Forest that would eventually capture major German cities and, on April 25th, liberate Dachau Concentration Camp. Prior to that on April 22, 1945, while leading his men in an attack against a German position near Gutzberg Germany, Lt Taylor was severely wounded from shrapnel from a German bazooka shell. He died two days later, on April 24, 1945. He was buried at Bensheim Germany and eventually reinterred at the Loraine American Cemetery in St Avold France. Lt Frank DeWitt Taylor was 21 years old at the time of his death.