After 50 years, Vietnam War pilot’s remains brought home to Rangeley

RANGELEY – After 50 years of waiting a U.S. Navy pilot came home to his final resting place.

Hundreds gathered at Evergreen Cemetery for a graveside service to honor and remember LTJG Neil Brooks Taylor, 25, who was killed on his 68th mission during the Vietnam War.

On Sept. 14, 1965, Taylor’s plane was shot down and he was killed in the Mekong Delta. Forty-nine years later, on Dec. 15, 2014, Taylor’s sister, Ann Taylor Wilbur, received word that a DNA match was found that positively identified her brother’s remains found in Vietnam.

On Monday, Gov. Paul LePage, Maine’s First Lady Ann LePage, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, joined hundreds of family, friends, community members, veterans and law enforcement officers from across the state in attending the committal service with military honors for Taylor held exactly 50 years from the day he died.

In town, signs that said, “Welcome home, Neil,” were posted along Main Street. A honorary procession through town was held before the service. Students were released from school to attend. The Rangeley and Farmington fire departments extended both truck ladders to fly an American flag over Main Street near the cemetery’s entrance. Many who quietly gathered held small American flags.

Under alternating clouds and sun, Rangeley Town Manager and Fire Chief Tim Pellerin and state Sen. Tom Saviello had arranged and coordinated the graveside service, which included a flag folding ceremony and presentation to Ann Taylor Wilbur and her family, a rifle salute, sorrowful Taps, and a flyover by three Navy fighter jets.

Rev. Tony McNaughton began by urging those attending to remember that this service “is a celebration of LTJG Taylor, his life and that he has come home.”

Taylor was born in Farmington on July 18, 1940, to Virginia Brooks Taylor and Milford Soule Taylor. He was raised in Rangeley and graduated from high school here in June 1958. After graduating with a degree in metals engineering he worked at the General Electric Co. until January 1962 when he enlisted in the Navy as a seaman. He applied for and was accepted as a Naval Aviation Cadet and received his wings in 1964. Later that year, after completing more training, he joined his assigned fleet squadron at Atsugi, Japan.

“As a patriot in the best American tradition, he stepped forward to serve his nation,” Collins said of Taylor and she added, at a time during the Vietnam War when it was not met with the acceptance it should have been.

Taylor executed several strike missions in Vietnam, flying a Douglas Skyhawk. During his service, he received several medals and a citation for “exhibiting extraordinary skill and professionalism while under aircraft fire to a direct hit on the exact point selected on the Thanh Hoa Bridge in the face of great personal danger.”

In his third year of service and his 68th flight mission, Taylor’s plane was shot down over the Kien Giang Province in South Vietnam and he was killed in the crash. Once his remains were identified, Anne Taylor Wilbur was notified as the closest surviving relative since their parents had both died in the 1980s.

“It’s taken a long time to get Neil home; home rejoicing that he’s returned,” LePage said. “We cannot do enough for the men and women who served in the Vietnam War,” he added.

The Maine Veterans Service presented the family with a Silver Star medal for his service and a Gold Star for the family’s sacrifice. American flags flown over Maine’s State House and another to be flown over the U.S. Capitol will be given to the family.

Ann Taylor Wilbur teared up when Collins handed her a framed rubbing of her brother’s name inscribed on the Vietnam War Memorial.

“His life is a powerful testament that this is the land of the free and home of the brave,” Collins said, adding that it took 50 years to finally bring Taylor home to rest.

“He truly is a hero,” she said, “and that hero has come home.”

Light rain fell a little bit and then stopped abruptly just as three fighter jets roared across the sky. Ann Taylor Wilbur stepped to her brother’s grave marker and gently placed a red rose on it.