This story is about a young black Marine that came to our platoon early in November, 1967.  It starts out at a place called A-4.  A-4 was one of McNamara’s bases to stop the infiltration of the North Vietnamese to South Vietnam.  McNamara was the Secretary of Defense and his bases were just south of the DMZ. (Line dividing the north from south)

We were moving out of A-4 where we had just spent the entire monsoon season of about 3 weeks. I was in my 11th month and Billy had just got there.  It’s an exciting story.  A nail biter for sure and a story that needed to be told about an unsung American Hero who gave his last full measure.

Billy Taylor is pictured 4th from the left.