NORTH OGDEN, Utah — A Utah mayor who was also an Army National Guard major training commandos in Afghanistan fatally shot by one of his Afghan trainees, was honored on Veterans Day by a massive flag.
Brent Taylor, 39, had taken a yearlong leave of absence as mayor of North Ogden north of Salt Lake City for his deployment to Afghanistan.
He was a military intelligence officer with Joint Force Headquarters and was expected to return to his mayoral job in January.
People in his town flew a 400 pound flag to honor his service. Kirk Chugg, a friend of Taylors, said, “We anchored bolts into the side of the mountain on the side of the canyon, and yesterday morning we are up at the same time for strung a line across the canyon and nobody knew about it.”
“It`s 178 feet or 158` x 78` it`s the largest flag that is ever flown independently. Period,” said Chugg.
Maj. Gen. Jefferson S. Burton, the adjutant general of the Utah National Guard, told reporters that Taylor’s mission was to help train and build the capacity of the Afghan national army.
