A North Ogden Veterans Affairs building will be renamed in honor of the town’s former mayor Brent Taylor, who was killed in Afghanistan in November in an apparent insider attack while serving in the Utah Army National Guard.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Rob Bishop introduced the bill, which passed both houses of Congress and went to President Donald Trump for approval earlier this month. Trump signed the bill Thursday, and the North Ogden outstation of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will now be called the Major Brent Taylor Vet Center Outstation.
“The naming of a building will never repay the debt our nation owes Mayor Taylor or his family, but it can stand as a humble reminder of the citizen soldier who lost his life in the service of others,” Bishop said in remarks about the bill.
Taylor was killed by a rogue Afghan security officer on Nov. 3, after taking a year leave as mayor to deploy for his second tour in Afghanistan. He’d previously served two tours in Iraq.
Throughout his deployment, Taylor posted on Facebook complimenting the Afghan soldiers he helped train.
He is survived by his wife, Jennie, and their seven children.
