Their Story
Remembering Taylor Hoover.
Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, known to family and friends as Taylor, was from Utah and graduated from Hillcrest High School in 2008, where he played lineman for the Huskies. He was the oldest of three children and grew up playing football and hunting, camping, fishing and boating with his father. He decided he wanted to serve after the attacks of September 11, 2001, when he was 11 years old.
Taylor served in the Marine Corps for 11 years and was on his third deployment to Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, at Camp Pendleton, California.
Taylor was 31 when he died on August 26, 2021, as the result of an enemy attack while supporting non-combatant evacuation operations in Kabul, Afghanistan, during Operation Freedom's Sentinel. He was one of 13 U.S. service members lost that day. His father called him a born leader who loved his country and loved life, and a teddy bear off the football field. A lifelong friend remembered him as selfless and kind.
