Sunday, November 02, 2003

Tech honors former corps member killed in Iraq

By Kevin Miller
The Roanoke Times

The Corps of Cadets memorialized a recent classmate killed in Iraq during a solemn ceremony Nov. 1 attended by hundreds of corps alumni, active-duty military personnel and members of the university community.

Dressed in their starched blue-and-white uniforms, more than 700 corps members stood at attention as the parents of U.S. Army 1st Lt. Jeffrey J. Kaylor helped unveil their son's name on one of the eight pylons dedicated to the memory of corps members killed in action.

Kaylor, a 2001 Tech graduate, is the 418th corps member memorialized at Tech's War Memorial - and the first alumnus added in more than a decade.

"It's a great honor for Jeff and the family - hard-earned, but it means a lot," Kaylor's father, Mike Kaylor, said afterward. "I know the university meant a lot to my son and my daughter ... and to have my son's name up there forever, it's a humbling experience."

A native of Clifton, Va., Kaylor was an Army battalion commander in the Tech Corps of Cadets, which is a military school within the larger university. As a cadet and full-time soldier, Kaylor's work ethic and dedication allowed him to quickly climb the leadership rungs, according to several speakers at the ceremony.

He was killed in a grenade attack in early April while on reconnaissance in Iraq with the Army's C Battery, 39th Artillery Battalion. Kaylor was the first corps alumnus to be killed in action since two former members died during the first Persian Gulf War in 1991. Kaylor's name was inscribed below theirs.

The eight War Memorial pylons tower above the northern end of Tech's Drillfield, which is the geographic and figurative heart of the university campus.

The pylons, featured on the crest of the university's shield, each represent a different value: duty, honor, loyalty, leadership, brotherhood, service, sacrifice and "Ut Prosim," the university's motto meaning "That I may serve." Kaylor's name was inscribed on the Ut Prosim pylon--a fitting location for an alumnus who epitomized the motto, said Maj. Gen. Jerry Allen, commandant of cadets.

Following the unveiling, corps members brought the ceremony to a close with a rifle salute and the playing of taps and "Amazing Grace."

Also in attendance Saturday was Jenna Cosbey Kaylor, the slain soldier's widow. Jeffrey Kaylor and Jenna Cosbey met at Tech and both served in the Corps of Cadets. They married shortly after Cosbey graduated in 2002 and both were sent to Kuwait as part of the Army's war preparations.

After the ceremony, Jenna Kaylor was clearly proud of her late husband's service. "It's the first thing we learn when we come here" to Tech, she said.

A scholarship fund has been established in Kaylor's memory at his former high school in Clifton. Donations should be addressed to Jeffrey Kaylor Scholarship Fund, c/o Centerville High School, 6001 Union Mill Road, Clifton VA 20124.

Editor's note: A Virginia Tech scholarship has also been established: Jeffrey J. Kaylor '01 Memorial Emerging Leader Scholarship. Donations should be sent to the Kaylor Memorial Fund, University Development, 201 Pack Building (0336), Blacksburg, VA 24061, ATTN: Dave Spracher.