Almost 40 years after the injury that would eventually claim his life, a Vietnam veteran has his name added to the Wall

The Vietnam War has at last ended for the loved ones of Lt. Col. William L. Taylor, the Tampa Special Forces veteran whose name was engraved Tuesday on the Wall at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

This was almost 40 years after a North Vietnamese grenade blew his life apart, then nudged him, grudgingly, decade by decade, toward death in 2009.

When Taylor died of his injuries last year at 67, he left a widow and three children. One is 16 and is only now studying the Vietnam War in high school in Tampa. But Taylor's family has waited all these decades for the finality of the engraving at the Wall on Tuesday.

The engraving, "William L. Taylor," is now one of 58,267.

"His name just popped out of the stone," said his sister, Taylor Pontin of Silver Spring, Md.

"It was as though his name was waiting underneath."

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Taylor was called "Wild Bill" by fellow Special Forces vets, but "Bacon Legs" by his sister. His legs were severely burned in the grenade explosion. He liked the nickname Bacon Legs. He disliked sympathy. "He was not one to let an injury slow him down," Pontin said.

When he was wounded, it took more than a week for his family to find out. He had left instructions with other officers to notify them only if he died. He made the first phone call home himself.

It was bad. He had been hit with a large launcher type of grenade. Several South Vietnamese solders died, and another American lost an eye. Taylor was severely burned on both legs, had shrapnel embedded all over his body and suffered a bleeding head wound.

He required multiple skin grafts and months of rehabilitation. Doctors never could get all the shrapnel out.

He did not languish long. He learned to play guitar as he lay in bed. He fretted that he gained weight and would get stuck on the Special Forces "fat man list." As soon as he recovered, he took Ranger training.

Among his many decorations: Combat Infantry Badge, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Purple Heart with First Oak Leaf Cluster, Master Parachutist, Special Forces and Ranger Tabs.

He attended the opening ceremony for the Wall on Nov. 13, 1982.

His daughter, Jennifer, was 18 at the time. She went with him. Her dad stood by the Wall. He wore civilian clothes.

"There were thousands of people. The Mall was packed," said Jennifer Zurowsky. "My dad was touching the names. Vets came up, they said, 'You were there, weren't you?' They could tell, even in his civilian clothes. They asked him what unit and they said, 'Oh, the devils in Baggy Pants.' "

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Only decades later, after Taylor had raised Jennifer and her brother, Trent, then divorced and remarried and moved to Tampa and fathered William II, did he learn that, for him, the war never ended.

Taylor began to lose his memory.

A brain scan revealed shrapnel under his skull. A 2003 Mayo Clinic diagnosis confirmed that the shrapnel had caused dementia. He went into a VA hospital, then to a nursing home. He never came home again. A doctor explained that the old brain injury was like a crack in a windshield. Over time, it just got bigger.

His son William II was in the fourth grade.

Elaine Taylor wanted her husband's name on the Wall. He qualified because she could show that his death was a direct result of that grenade blast in 1970. His name was one of six added Tuesday.

The president of the memorial's foundation, Jan Scruggs, said names are added as close as possible to the date of the vet's casualty, "so these servicemen can remain in the company of those they served with." A total of 328 names have been added since the wall was dedicated.

All the family will attend a second, larger ceremony at the Wall on May 31. His widow says it's finally a way of letting go.

"The war has lasted a long time for us."

John Barry can be reached at 727-892-2258.