17 Apr 2003 SSG Paul Floyd was my platoon sergeant in 1966 in Vietnam. On the night of his death on October 14, 1966 (two days before my 21st birthday) we were sent out on a night ambush. We were working in an area on the coast near Bong Son. Word came down from intelligence that an old schoolhouse in a village near us was being used by local VC as a meeting place at night. We were to enter the village right after nightfall and set up a ambush site on one of the trails going into the village. As soon as it got dark we started into the village towards the schoolhouse. I was walking point and Sergeant Floyd was next behind me. There were lights still burning in the huts and we could hear children talking because the villagers were not asleep yet. In the dark we saw a small figure cross the trail in front of us but because we had heard the villagers talking and because we did not anticipate the VC to be there that early, we thought it was a child. I stopped and Sergeant Floyd came up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder. He stepped around me and walked foward and confronted the figure, in Vietnamese, to come foward. Then there was a burst of gunfire that struck Sergeant Floyd. We jumped into a ditch along the trail and everone returned fire in all directions. That's when I saw Sergeant Floyd laying on the trail ahead and I jumped out of the ditch and crawled towards him and tried to relieve him. He had a pulse but I could not get him breathing again so I pulled him back to the ditch. The other guys said he was dead but I kept trying to get him breathing again. He died that night on that trail and it has haunted me ever since because the bullets that killed him were meant for me. They gave me a Bronze Star for trying to save him during the firefight but he is the one who deserved the medal, not me. Sergeant Floyd was a professional soldier who was older than the rest of us but he taught us how to be soldiers and like all the rest he did not deserve to die in Vietnam. You will never be forgotten! From a fellow soldier, Jim Taylor 1915 Eileen, Toledo, Ohio 43615 jtaylo17@ford.com

 

24 Sep 2004 This was my Father who I never really knew. I loved him dearly and feel better knowing that he died saving someone else. That tells me everything I need to know about this man My Father. From his daughter, Victoria Floyd dwinnell@bellsouth.net

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