7 minute read
Band of Brothers
Photo by Allison Hess
Airborne Infantry Long Range Weapons Expert Taylor Nordt
WRITTEN BY ALLISON HESS
It was just his fourth day in Afghanistan. After arriving to his platoon, bullets began to pierce the sky. He was in his first gunfire exchange. Basic training had taught him a lot, but nothing could have prepared him for this.
At the monthly Veterans of Foreign Wars meeting in Rosenberg, everyone that surrounded the group were fellow veterans, but Taylor and his friends are the youngest in the room. The others inside the military insignia-filled walls of the building all seemed to know each other, greeting one another with a smile and a warm handshake. But Taylor and his close knit group of friends sit alone at a table.
One of the senior veterans turns in their direction.
“How do you all know each other?” He asks the four men, in what could only be his habitual, boisterous voice. Taylor turns to his friends and smiles.
Growing up near the Beasley-Rosenberg city limit signs, it would be logical for one to believe that Taylor’s had two homes. It was routine to see Taylor and his best friend, Logan Lindemann, together nearly every day from the time that they were in elementary school all the way until their high school graduation day. Logan lived four streets away, and always seemed to be one of the more sociable people in school. This mixed well with Taylor, who in contrast was the quieter type.
“I was always the younger one,” Taylor said. “I would get picked on after school, and Logan would always get involved when he needed to.”
Taylor and Logan, and later with their other friends, Justin, Cameron and Phillip, always looked out for one another. It was in the sixth grade at George Junior High that this band of brothers formed. Each of the five in the group were different — Phillip was the more traditional type, Justin was into agriculture, Cameron always remained humble, Logan was known by almost everyone in school and the Taylor especially loved tennis and golf. What they all had in common with each other was the joy that they had shared when they were together. Not even graduation and the desire to begin a new chapter in their lives could separate the group.
It wasn’t until the Future Soldiers, a U.S. Armed Forces program, whose camouflage uniforms decorated the Wharton County Junior College’s parking lot one day, caught Taylor’s attention. After this day, things would never be the same as they were.
Taylor and a few other friends meandered to the intimidating recruiters. Out of curiosity, he began to ask a few questions. Before Taylor knew it, he was running through the Future Soldier’s training simulator, leading the platoon, with no causalities. The recruiters were impressed. The next was the shooting simulator. Taylor shot a perfect score—he had been shooting his entire life. With no more obstacles to run through, one recruiter bet Taylor that he could not do triangle push-ups. To their surprise, Taylor spread out in the shape of a triangle and his competitive drive kicked in. “Of course, because of my sister and her Marines background, I could do them,” Taylor said.
Two days later and against his sister’s better judgement, Taylor signed the papers to join the Army. Sporting a maroon beret, he would become an Airborne Ranger.
Like all the times that he would make the same drive after school growing up, Taylor immediately drove to Logan’s house to deliver the exciting news to him. “We did everything together,” Logan said. “So when Taylor joined, I thought to myself that I couldn’t let him get hurt by himself. So I went the next day and signed my papers.”
The guys decided they were all going to the army together. Within a week, all five of the best friends were enlisted in the military.
Taylor was able to only make one phone call during basic training— when he got off the bus, to let his family know that he had arrived safely. With one rucksack on his back and another stacked on top of a duffle bag in front, Taylor was wished good luck as he stepped off the bus into the first hours of basic training.
He was alone. Taylor and his four friends had been sent to different locations.
For weeks, he and his other fellow soldiers endured the worst. They stood together in a room for days at a time, learning how to sleep standing up. With a drill sergeant for every soldier at times, the trainees ran countless laps, with a yelling drill sergeant running alongside of them.
“Mentally, they constantly break you down so much to the point where you think that it’s never going to end,” Taylor said.
By the time that he finished, Taylor was built back up stronger, becoming the soldier that he is today. Without the security of his friends, Taylor developed the skills to lead soldiers. Almost as important, he obtained the understanding of when to follow instead.
“You have to be able to follow, but you also have to learn how to lead from the front,” Taylor said. “This means
that if I am leading, I also get my hands dirty, in order to get things done.”
After basic training, the group’s bond was put to a further test when they all were sent to be stationed throughout the world. Whether it was the shores of South Korea, the warm weather of Italy or working inside the walls of Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, not one of the five friends was close to one another any longer.
“The first time I was on that ferry to Cuba was during the 2010 Haiti Earthquake,” Justin Osborn said. “The waves were coming in extremely strong, but I thought the water was some of the prettiest I’d seen.”
The five friends tried to see each other when they could. Each time one would come home, only one or two other men in the group would also be home at the same time. It would not be until years later, in 2013, that all five of the best friends would reunite and see each other again.
“We kind of just started over like we were back in high school,” Cameron Macha said.
While their friendship might have not changed much, the same cannot be said for other aspects of their lives. Returning to Rosenberg had been an adjustment for some more than others in the group, but what was clear was that things might not ever be the way they were for the group prior to being deployed.
Taylor answered the well-seasoned veteran’s question, simply replying and telling the story of how they all had had entered the Army together and were able to reunite much later.
“Now that’s the way it should be,” the elder veteran exclaimed to the entire room.
Taylor turned to face his friends again.
The room suddenly began applauding. For the five friends, some of who might have been pretty rowdy in their younger years, being commended together by so many well-seasoned veterans and members of their community was something special. Still, being in the Army was not about saving or improving themselves. It was so that the people that surrounded them would feel safe at home. And for that, they needed no applause. v
Reconnaissance & Heavy Weapons Expert Cameron Macha
Tactical Communications & Signal Support Specialist Phillip Crume
Justin Osborn & His Team Preparing to Snatch & Grab Unruly Inmates Inciting a Riot
Combat Engineer & Explosives Specialist Logan Lindemann
