Soldier laid to rest

Summerville native Matthew J. Taylor, who enlisted in the Army the day after Sept. 11, 2001, received a hero's farewell Sunday with full military honors and was remembered as an exemplary soldier, loving husband and father. Staff Sgt. Taylor, 25, was killed by hostile small arms fire Sept. 21 while on patrol in Baghdad. He had last spoken with his family just the day before, when he called to wish his 5-year-old daughter a happy birthday, and was due home in November. On Sunday, hundreds of people attended Taylor's funeral at New Covenant Church of God in North Charleston, where dozens of members of the Patriot Guard Riders lined the pathways outside holding American flags. Taylor had planned to join the volunteer group after completing his military service next year. Inside the church while waiting for the service to begin, the crowd of about 300 watched a photographic memorial play out across large screens, showing Taylor as he grew from a little boy to a Fort Dorchester High School student to a soldier with a family of his own. "He was very proud of his family," said Capt. Ryan Woolf, addressing the audience from a podium behind Taylor's flag-draped casket. "As a soldier, he was simply the best." Woolf recalled Taylor as an always-smiling practical joker, but also an accomplished leader. "At the age of 23, he was my youngest and best squad leader," said Woolf. "He was my go-to guy." Taylor was a member of the U.S. Army 10th Mountain Division, an outfit known as the Spartans. He served a tour in Afghanistan, re-enlisted and served a second tour in Afghanistan. When his enlistment was extended, Taylor was sent to Iraq. "As a leader, I admired him," Woolf said. "As a husband and father, he will live on forever through his wife and three beautiful girls." Don Taylor, Matthew Taylor's father, said his son led through serving, and that his death brought a time of great sadness but also great pride. Addressing his son's comrades in arms, Don Taylor said his son would want them to know "that you are all true heroes and should be treated as such." After the church service, an escort of police and Patriot Guard Riders led the lengthy funeral procession to Carolina Memorial Funeral Home. There, Taylor's family was presented with his medals and ribbons, including the Bronze Star awarded for his actions during a 2007 battle with Taliban fighters on an Afghanistan mountaintop. Taylor coordinated air support and the evacuation of wounded after one of his unit's leaders was hit. A military guard honored Taylor with a traditional three-volley rifle salute, taps was played and his widow and mother were presented crisply folded American flags that had draped Taylor's coffin. The family attended Taylor's entombment in private. He is among 65 South Carolinians killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Woolf, at the church, promised that Taylor's fellow soldiers will carry on his mission. "They will not let democracy or freedom die," Woolf said.