Veteran’s Week activities looming; names sought for Hero Field
Maj. Brent Taylor is pictured on the left in this video still during a ruck march with Afghan soldiers in 2018. The march was a recreational activity that took place most Saturdays. Maj. Brent Taylor was shot and killed by an Afghan soldier on one of these marches on Nov. 3, 2018. "This is what it would have looked like the day he died," says his wife, Jennie Taylor.
Maj. Brent Taylor on a hike with a group of fellow American and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan in 2018. The soldiers took a hike on most Fridays.
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Maj. Brent Taylor is pictured on the left in this video still during a ruck march with Afghan soldiers in 2018. The march was a recreational activity that took place most Saturdays. Maj. Brent Taylor was shot and killed by an Afghan soldier on one of these marches on Nov. 3, 2018. “This is what it would have looked like the day he died,” says his wife, Jennie Taylor.
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Maj. Brent Taylor on a hike with a group of fellow American and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan in 2018. The soldiers took a hike on most Fridays.
NORTH OGDEN — Nearly five years since the death of Major Brent Taylor during a deployment to Afghanistan, Jennie Taylor, his widow, strives to maintain an optimistic outlook.
It can be tough, but his death on Nov. 3, 2018, at the hands of a member of the Afghan special forces he was helping train has allowed her to bond with other military families, creating opportunities to both serve and heal.
“We’ve really just been enveloped in opportunities that have been healing for me and my family,” she said. Brent Taylor, then the mayor of North Ogden, also served in the Utah Army National Guard and was nearing the end of a one-year deployment in Afghanistan when he was killed.
Now, as the five-year anniversary of his death looms, Jennie Taylor is helping finalize preparations for Veteran’s Week activities in the North Ogden area, meant to honor her late husband and all other military veterans and service members. The theme of the activities this year — which also coincide with Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11 — is “Legacy Lives On.”
More immediately, Veteran’s Week organizers are seeking names and other information of service members, current or past, to place with the many U.S. flags to be posted in the Hero Field outside Pleasant View City Hall. That’s one of the many activities associated with the event. Go to majorbrenttaylor.com/about-the-foundation/engage to access the link to submit a name.
“We want people to think of all military people they know,” Jennie Taylor said. If the man or woman served, organizers would like to include their name and service details with a Hero Field flag. The deadline to submit a name is Oct. 15.
With the five-year anniversary of Brent Taylor’s death looming, a new activity has been added to the slate of Veteran’s Week events, which extend roughly from Oct. 28 through Nov. 11 — the Major Brent Taylor Memorial Ruck March.
Taylor was on a military training hike — or ruck march — when he was killed. The Afghan man who killed him was among the contingent he was helping train, and others in the group subsequently shot and killed the gunman.
“This is an opportunity to remember him and pause in his legacy,” Jennie Taylor said.
The ruck march, free and open to the public, will be held Nov. 4, a Saturday, and participants will hoof it at their own pace from Brent Taylor’s headstone at Ben Lomond Cemetery in North Ogden to the 2750 North trailhead, also in North Ogden.
Another traditional activity with Veteran’s Week events is the hanging of the giant U.S. flag, “The Major,” across Coldwater Canyon. That’s to take place on Oct. 28 and the flag will stay in place until Nov. 11, Veteran’s Day. Go to the website of the Major Brent Taylor Foundation, majorbrenttaylor.com, for more details of Veteran’s Week activities.