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Hillsborough leads state in Afghanistan, Iraq war dead

The Associated Press

Spc. Eric Lembke is the latest of 34 Hillsborough County residents to lose their lives in service to the country in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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By JEFF PATTERSON | News Channel 8

Published: November 10, 2009

On March 4, 2002, Army Spc. Marc Anderson was killed in action in Afghanistan, becoming the first Hillsborough County resident killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A few weeks ago, on Oct. 23. Army Spc. Eric Lembke of Plant City died in Afghanistan, the county's most recent fallen hero.

The two are among 34 Hillsborough County residents who have died fighting for their country in Iraq and Afghanistan – more than from any other county in the state, according to a database complied by The Tampa Tribune.

The numbers and names are just part of the story though.

Michelle Taylor lost her husband in Iraq.

"I think sometimes people might just think about the numbers and not think about the stories that are behind each of those numbers," said Taylor.

She has a very personal story to tell.

Michelle first met Dave Taylor when she was a law student. He was already in the Army.

"When I first met him, I was thinking he's definitely not my type," she said.

The tall, tough soldier eventually won his way into her heart. They moved to military bases around the country, and eventually overseas. Dave Taylor was stationed in Kosovo. She flew to Bulgaria to meet him, He proposed in front of a cathedral. They married and had a son, Jake, together, then Dave deployed to Iraq Jan 2006.

Dave and Michelle kept in close contact through email, but he didn't tell her everything.

"You know, he really sheltered me from the realities of war. I think our emails were almost always about Jake."

Their emails were mostly about their new baby. Before he was born, the discussed potential baby names, later they talked about parenting.

"I think we were kind of like a typical couple expecting the birth of their first child except for the fact that we were thousands of miles apart and he was in a war zone."

Dave Taylor served with pride and patriotism, keeping a handwritten quote about war in his wallet. Michelle read from the quote in her living room.

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse."

She said his faith and patriotism kept him going.

"I think both his faith and his sense that serving in the Army he was able to make this world a better place and I think he was deeply committed to that," she said.

The Army Ranger also kept a journal for his young son, writing just days before he was killed by a roadside bomb, "Just talked to your mom, you were crying a bit in the background."

Taylor wrote how he laughed while holding his son in his first days of life and how the simple memory of that kept him going in the war zone, even in the most difficult circumstances.

"And today was a brutal day across Baghdad," Dave Taylor wrote in his diary. "I responded five minutes after a suicide bomber drove bomb into a national police checkpoint, blew it to smithereens."

Michelle Taylor says Dave was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, just two weeks before his tour of duty was to end.

The young single mother believes he died for a good cause.

"If it wasn't for Dave and the people like Dave who have served this country through many, many, many deployments, you know we just wouldn't have the freedom and security that we have today."

News Channel 8 reporter Jeff Patterson can be reached at (813) 221-5703.

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