By Clyde L. Stancil, The Decatur Daily (Decatur, Alabama)
NORTH COURTLAND, Ala. - Perks like generous pay and the subsidized education that accompany a National Guard career sometimes come with a big price tag, and Alex Taylor knew that one day he might have to answer the call to duty.
What Taylor didn’t realize was that he would have to go alone, in a sense.
Taylor, who is the North Courtland police chief, was an E-5 with the 142nd Signal Brigade in Decatur, when his superiors informed him that he was going to Kuwait, and that he wasn’t going to deploy with the rest of the unit.
The Army assigned him to a group of 29 men whom he had never seen, sent them through a refresher course on weapons and poisonous gas, and attached them to the 1128th Transportation Co. in Kuwait.
That was in January 2003.
“They did that because the military didn’t have enough drivers in their transportation units,” said Taylor, who was a general’s driver at the time.
The unit’s mission was to deliver supplies such as water, weapons and ammunition to I Corps’ tank division in Iraq.
“At that time, we were invaders,” Taylor said. “We hadn’t established air superiority, and Saddam (Hussein) had ordered his forces to stop our transportation units.”
War sometimes stretches the resources of peacetime armies, and Taylor was thrust into the role of troop leader. He led a convoy of 18 to 20 trucks on missions into Iraq. The unit took fire on his first time out.
He had worn many hats during his military career, from a clerk to a multimedia graphics specialist and a driver. Once the shooting started, his role changed again — this time to combat soldier as he and his newfound comrades exchanged fire with Iraqi troops. A company of Marines helped them.
“A couple of Marines got hit, and my job changed from a combat soldier to a medic,” said Taylor, who was trained as a civilian emergency medical technician.
A bag of medical supplies was not enough to save one of the two wounded Marines that day. But during his 15-month tour of duty, Taylor saved more lives than he lost in that role.
The Army recognized his efforts with a Meritorious Service Award for saving lives when a mine exploded in the company’s tent area. He removed injured soldiers from the tent and provided first aid.
Taylor provided medical aid to heat casualties in the summer by stabilizing them until they could be transported out of the area, and he once treated a soldier who severed his finger while changing a flat tire.
But he is proudest of lifesaving actions in combat. The recommendation that led to his award says that as a combat medic, Taylor always put the mission first and was available to assist with any medical emergency that occurred in the company area, or while on a mission.
It was a role that he was thrust into because the Army requires a medic on every mission. But Taylor said he would not have had it any other way.
“We didn’t have that many combat lifesavers in the unit, so I volunteered for missions,” Taylor said. “I did over and above what I was required to do. A lot of people went to sick call, and we couldn’t (properly staff) missions, because people were playing sick. They were afraid.”
Sooner or later they would have to go into the field, so Taylor reasoned that it was best to volunteer instead of sitting around and waiting for his number to come up.
It was his obligation to his country, and Taylor said he wanted to make his mother, Ernestine Robinson, and his community proud.
“I wasn’t going to come back in shame,” Taylor said. “I might have come back in a pine box, but I wasn’t going to come back in shame.”
Before he left Iraq, Taylor put his police skills to work escorting convoys, including those for private industries that were in the country to support the U.S.-led coalition.
Back in North Courtland since Oct. 6, Taylor said that he must slow down and approach situations differently than he did in Iraq.
“Over there, you just do it,” he said. “Here, you have to think about it.”
Taylor said that he wants his three-man Police Department to be a part of the community, and not just enforcers of the law.
He will not, however, look the other way when crimes occur.
“I don’t care who you are, the laws of the state of Alabama will be enforced in North Courtland,” Taylor said.