The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970.
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970. Photo: U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Cecil Franklin Taylor.

The Wall › Panel 24W › South Carolina › Cecil Franklin Taylor

CECIL FRANKLIN TAYLOR

Staff Sergeant · U.S. Air Force

December 6, 1935 – May 24, 1969

Service record

Cecil Franklin Taylor, of Seneca, South Carolina, served as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. He died on May 24, 1969, in Laos, at age 33. His name is inscribed on Panel 24W, Line 99 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 24W · Line 99

Position of Panel 24W on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Names are inscribed in the order of loss, starting at Panel 1E at the apex and ending at Panel 1W. At the Memorial, find the panel number at the base and count down from the top line.

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Service

Branch
U.S. Air Force
Rank
Staff Sergeant (SSGT)
Service
Regular
Unit (as recorded)
7 AF
Born
December 6, 1935
Home of record
Seneca, South Carolina (Oconee County)

Casualty

Date of death
May 24, 1969
Age
33
Country
Laos
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Aircraft Crash — crew

Context · from the records

What was happening

45 names on the Wall carry the date May 24, 1969. In May 1969, 1,456 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “7 AF”, his unit in the record, lost 2 of its members that month.

He died in Laos while the air war over Laos was under way. From 1964 to 1973, U.S. aircraft bombed the Ho Chi Minh Trail and supported the war in northern Laos; many of the Americans lost over Laos were never recovered.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 24W, Line 99

Same unit, same day

From Seneca

Source. U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Casualty Analysis System, Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File (as of April 29, 2008), Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Record Group 330, National Archives (NAID 2240992). Panel and line as recorded in that file. This page presents the official record and its historical context; no biography has been written for him yet. See something wrong? Report a correction.