Old warriors: Veteran realizes goal of nursing home for his fellow vets

OGDEN — It has been 17 years since Jeremy "Bear" Taylor retired from his military career as a naval aviator, where he rose to the rank of two-star rear admiral, commanded the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea and logged 200-plus dive-bombing missions over North Vietnam.

His obligation to the troops, however, is far from over.

"The first rule of an officer, the first order of business, is to take care of the troops," he said. "I've been fortunate to come up through the ranks, serve with a whole bunch of guys who took care of me. It doesn't stop when you retire. When you get out, an officer has a lifetime obligation to look out for the troops."

True to the nickname he carved out in the skies of combat, Bear Taylor has been a massive force in the caretaking of his fellow veterans, beating the bramble and the bushes, lumbering through the halls of the Utah Legislature and cornering lawmakers in his quest to get funding for a northern Utah nursing home for veterans.

Today, Taylor and the others who were part of the mighty force to turn hope and need into a building of bricks and steel for Utah's "old" warriors get their chance to celebrate. A number of Veterans Day ceremonies will mark this month's opening of the George E. Wahlen Ogden Veterans Home, including breaking the mold for the first Veterans Tribute Tower west of the Mississippi.

"We mapped out a strategy years ago, putting on more pressure for funding at the Disabled American Veterans offices in Salt Lake City, then a continuous pressure on the feds, on the state, on everybody," he said.

After a coalition of all the veterans' organizations got together, Taylor said, the mission reached "critical mass" and the politicians got on board — prompted, in part, after Taylor helped ferry veterans by the busload to Capitol Hill.

With a storied career spanning 36 years in naval aviation, 6,000 hours aboard 50 models of aircraft — including the F/A-18 — Taylor has the medals to back up his stories and the persona to illustrate why he earned his moniker.

As good buddy Terry Schow, head of the Utah Department of Veterans Affairs, puts it, Taylor is "not a shrinking violet when he has an opinion."

Taylor shared that recently with President Barack Obama, in a letter he had hand-delivered to the president by a retired general, inviting the nation's commander-in-chief to Ogden (Taylor's adopted hometown he calls the "city with a heart") to visit the veterans nursing home, tour Hill Air Force Base and make a number of stops.

"I feel so strongly about the veterans' programs here in the state that I think the president would do well to come out here and take a look at them," he said.