In Service and Sacrifice: The Life of PO Third Class George Almont Taylor, USNR

 

In Service and Sacrifice: The Life of

Petty Officer Third Class George Almont Taylor, 

United States Naval Reserve

 

A Historical Narrative

Prepared in Honor of His Sacrifice

Member, Improved Order of Red Men

Samoset Tribe No. 22, Vallejo, California

 

 

Smoke Signals #9

Dr. Mike Bortner, Historian

Samoset Tribe #22,

Vallejo, California

June 1, 2026

 

Petty Officer Third Class George Almont Taylor, U.S. Naval Reserve

TAYLOR / IN SERVICE AND SACRIFICE

 

I. A Man of Vallejo

 

George Almont Taylor was born on January 16, 1902, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was the son of Mrs. Emma B. Taylor, who by the time of the war was living in Fort Jones, Siskiyou County, California—a small ranching and mining community in the Scott Valley near the Oregon border. By the late 1930s, Taylor had made his way to Vallejo, California, drawn like so many men of his generation to the steady employment of the naval shipyard. He settled at 1017-B Capitol Street, Vallejo, Solano County, and embedded himself in the work life of a city that breathed naval history. When he registered for the Selective Service on February 14, 1942, the draft card described him as a white male, five feet nine and a half inches tall, weighing approximately 138 pounds, with brown eyes, black hair, and a ruddy complexion. He was thirty-nine years old. Situated on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay, Vallejo was home to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, the United States Navy’s oldest base on the Pacific Coast, established in 1854. For generations, Mare Island defined the city’s identity and economy, and it shaped the men who lived in its shadow. Taylor was one of them—a shipwright by trade, a Navy reservist by duty, and a member in good standing of Samoset Tribe No. 22 of the Improved Order of Red Men (I.O.R.M.).

 

Taylor was employed at the Mare Island Navy Yard, confirmed by two primary sources: the announcement of his marriage published in the Blue Lake Advocate on May 2, 1942, which states he “is employed in the Mare Island Navy Yard,” and his Selective Service registration card, on which he listed his employer as “U.S. Government” and his place of employment as “Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, Solano Co., Cal.” His occupation there as a shipwright placed him among a specialized class of craftsmen whose skills were invaluable to the wartime Navy. When the United States entered the Second World War following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, men like Taylor were among the first called upon. Their knowledge of wooden and steel hull construction, damage control, and vessel repair made them indispensable to amphibious operations. ²

 

Taylor enlisted or was activated into the United States Naval Reserve and received the rating of Carpenter’s Mate Third Class (CM3c), a petty officer rating that directly reflected his civilian expertise at Mare Island. His service number, 3771672, identifies him as a Naval Reserve enlistee from the Twelfth Naval District, which encompassed Northern California. ¹ On Monday, April 27, 1942—less than five months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and just ten weeks after registering for the draft—Taylor married Miss Bella Hilton, the youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Hilton of Arcata, California. The ceremony was performed by Judge Frank E. Niskey in his justice court in Eureka, with Mrs. Otto Burman and Kenneth Hilton, sister and brother of the bride, in attendance. The newlyweds returned to Taylor’s new home in Vallejo. It is worth noting that his February 1942 draft registration listed a Mrs. Lillian Taylor at the same Capitol Street address as his emergency contact—likely a relative, or other family member who had been sharing the household before the marriage. On March 23, 1943, Bella gave birth to a daughter—the couple’s first and, as it would prove, only child. Sixty-five days later, on May 27, 1943, George Taylor was killed in the Mediterranean. Whether he ever held his daughter is not known; given the pace of wartime deployments, it is possible he never saw her at all. She was left fatherless before she was three months old, and Bella Taylor was left a widow with an infant in the home George had built for them in Vallejo.

 

II. Community Life in Vallejo

 

Beyond the shipyard, Taylor was a member of Samoset Tribe No. 22 of the Improved Order of Red Men (I.O.R.M.), one of Vallejo’s most enduring fraternal lodges and an important fixture in the community’s life. Members gathered for fellowship, fun, mutual aid, and civic ceremony—attending each other’s weddings and funerals, supporting families in distress, and honoring those who served in the armed forces.³ When news reached the tribe that George Taylor had been killed in North Africa on May 27, 1943, his brothers in the lodge mourned him alongside his family. His name was placed on the Tribe’s World War Two Roll of Honor. Next to his name, a small gold star was added to reflect his ultimate sacrifice.

 

III. The Road to North Africa

 

By the spring of 1943, the North African campaign was drawing to a close. Allied forces had driven Axis troops back into Tunisia, and on May 13, 1943, Germany and Italy surrendered all forces in North Africa. The Allied command immediately turned to the next objective: the invasion of Sicily, planned for July. In the weeks that followed, the U.S. Navy positioned landing craft, repair personnel, and construction teams along the North African coast in preparation for the coming campaign. It was in this operational environment that Petty Officer Taylor was serving when he was killed on May 27, 1943.⁵

 

IV. Naval Service and Death in North Africa (May 27, 1943)

 

The exact circumstances of Taylor’s death on May 27, 1943, are not established by currently available public records. No U.S. Navy vessel is listed in official casualty records as lost on that date in the Mediterranean or North African theater. He may have died in a non-sinking incident—an accident, explosion, or combat event—aboard a vessel that survived, or at a shore installation or naval facility. His body was recovered and positively identified, which is why he rests in an individual marked grave rather than among the missing. The specific unit or vessel to which he was assigned at the time of his death can only be determined through his individual service jacket, held at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri. ⁶

 

V. Burial at the North Africa American Cemetery, Carthage, Tunisia

 

Because his remains were recovered and identified, George Almont Taylor was afforded the honor of a marked individual grave. He lies at Plot G, Row 3, Grave 4 of the North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial in Carthage, Tunisia, administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). The cemetery occupies a commanding hilltop position overlooking the ancient ruins of Carthage and the shimmering expanse of the Bay of Tunis.

 

The North Africa American Cemetery contains the remains of 2,841 American service members who gave their lives in the campaigns for North Africa and the Mediterranean. Each grave is marked by a white marble Latin cross or Star of David. The grounds, maintained in perpetuity by the ABMC, represent the United States government’s enduring commitment to honor those who died in its service and to provide a permanent, dignified resting place on foreign soil. ⁷

 

 

 

 

TAYLOR / IN SERVICE AND SACRIFICE

 

Notes

 

1. George Almont Taylor, Service Number 3771672, CM3c, USNR. Primary record: Fold3, “US, American Battle Monuments Commission, 1914–1950—George Almont Taylor,” Fold3.com, https://www.fold3.com/image/306132145/george-almont-taylor (accessed 2025). U.S. Naval Reserve service numbers in the 377 series were assigned to enlistees from the Twelfth Naval District (San Francisco Bay Area). Taylor’s date of birth, address, physical description, and employer are drawn from his World War II Draft Registration Card (D.S.S. Form 1, Revised 1-1-42), Serial No. T-830, Order No. T-13548, registered February 14, 1942, Local Board No. 2, Vallejo–Solano, California. The card is held in the collection of the registrant’s family.

 

2. “Arcata Girl and Vallejo Man Wed,” Blue Lake Advocate, May 2, 1942, vol. 55, no. 1. California Digital Newspaper Collection, UC Riverside, https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=BLA19420502.2.58 (accessed 2025). The article names the groom as “George Taylor of Vallejo,” identifies his mother as “Mrs. Emma B. Taylor of Fort Jones, Siskiyou county,” and states he “is employed in the Mare Island Navy Yard.” The bride is identified as “Miss Bella Hilton, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Hilton of Arcata.”

 

3. Birth announcement, Blue Lake Advocate, April 3, 1943. California Digital Newspaper Collection, UC Riverside, https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=BLA19430403.2.41 (accessed 2025). The notice reads: “Mr. and Mrs. George Taylor of Vallejo are parents of a daughter born March 23 in that city. Mrs. Taylor is the former Bella Hilton of Arcata.” Taylor was killed sixty-five days later, on May 27, 1943.

 

4. The Improved Order of Red Men traces its organizational lineage to the Sons of Liberty and related patriotic societies of the late eighteenth century. By the twentieth century it maintained thousands of local “tribes” across the United States. Samoset Tribe No. 22 was the Vallejo, California lodge. For the organization’s history, see: David T. Beito, From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890–1967 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), 1–30.

 

5. For the North African campaign and the Axis surrender in Tunisia, see: Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942–1943 (New York: Henry Holt, 2002), 515–20. The formal Axis capitulation occurred on May 13, 1943. For the logistical buildup preceding Operation Husky, see: Samuel Eliot Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, vol. 9, Sicily–Salerno–Anzio, January 1943–June 1944 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1954), 3–18.

 

6. On the assignment of naval Carpenter’s Mates to amphibious units in the Mediterranean, see: Morison, Sicily–Salerno–Anzio, 3–18. No U.S. Navy vessel is listed in official casualty records as lost on May 27, 1943, in the Mediterranean or North African theater; see: Naval History and Heritage Command, “Casualties: Navy and Coast Guard Ships of World War II,” https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/casualties-navy-and-coast-guard-ships.html (accessed 2025). Taylor’s individual service jacket, which would identify his unit and the circumstances of his death, is held at the National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, Missouri.

 

7. Taylor’s burial record—Plot G, Row 3, Grave 4, North Africa American Cemetery, Carthage, Tunisia—confirms that his remains were recovered and identified. American Battle Monuments Commission, “Burial Detail: George Almont Taylor,” published in Fold3, “US, American Battle Monuments Commission, 1914–1950,” https://www.fold3.com/image/306132145/george-almont-taylor (accessed 2025).

 

 

8. American Battle Monuments Commission, “North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial,” ABMC, https://www.abmc.gov/north-africa (accessed 2025). The cemetery contains 2,841 individual graves. Taylor’s interment at Plot G, Row 3, Grave 4 is confirmed in the ABMC burial record reproduced on Fold3.

 

 

TAYLOR / IN SERVICE AND SACRIFICE

 

Bibliography

 

Primary Sources

 

Taylor, George Almont. World War II Draft Registration Card. D.S.S. Form 1 (Revised 1-1-42). Serial No. T-830, Order No. T-13548. Local Board No. 2, Vallejo–Solano, California. Registered February 14, 1942. Private collection of the registrant’s family.

 

American Battle Monuments Commission. “Burial Detail: George Almont Taylor, CM3c, USNR, Plot G Row 3 Grave 4, North Africa American Cemetery, Carthage, Tunisia.” Reproduced in Fold3, “US, American Battle Monuments Commission, 1914–1950.” https://www.fold3.com/image/306132145/george-almont-taylor. Accessed 2025.

 

“Arcata Girl and Vallejo Man Wed.” Blue Lake Advocate, May 2, 1942, vol. 55, no. 1. California Digital Newspaper Collection, UC Riverside. https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=BLA19420502.2.58. Accessed 2025.

 

Birth announcement [Mr. and Mrs. George Taylor, daughter born March 23]. Blue Lake Advocate, April 3, 1943. California Digital Newspaper Collection, UC Riverside. https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=BLA19430403.2.41. Accessed 2025.

 

American Battle Monuments Commission. "North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial." ABMC. https://www.abmc.gov/north-africa. Accessed 2025.

 

Fold3. "US, American Battle Monuments Commission, 1914–1950—George Almont Taylor." Fold3.com. https://www.fold3.com/image/306132145/george-almont-taylor. Accessed 2025.

 

Historic Marker Database. "Vallejo War Memorial." HMDB.org. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=218054. Accessed 2025. [Lists “George Almont Taylor” among Vallejo’s World War II fallen.]

 

Military Hall of Honor. "PO3 George Almont Taylor, ID: 176712." MilitaryHallofHonor.com. https://militaryhallofhonor.com/honoree-record.php?id=176712. Accessed 2025.

 

Secondary Sources

 

Atkinson, Rick. An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942–1943. New York: Henry Holt, 2002.

 

Beito, David T. From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890–1967. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.

 

 

Morison, Samuel Eliot. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Vol. 9, Sicily–Salerno–Anzio, January 1943–June 1944. Boston: Little, Brown, 1954.