Mac Taylor - Military Service

Military Service

Mac once said that he had wanted to serve his country more than anything else in the world. Even as a child, he dressed up in fatigues and pretended to be a soldier rather than a superhero. He served as a lieutenant in the 1st Battalion 8th Marines (known today as "The Beirut Battalion") in Beirut, and was injured in the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, from which he still bears a scar over his heart. A young Marine died in his arms from shrapnel wounds in the attack (episodes 224, "Charge of this Post;" 301, "People With Money"). The memory of it hit him hard, especially in the episode "Charge of this Post", after barely managing to save the life of his friend and colleague Don Flack after a bombing. The 1/8 also served in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. According to episode 224, "Charge of this Post," Mac was discharged in March 1992, so he probably also served in these operations in some capacity, but so far there hasn't been a mention of them.

Thanks to his Marine training, he is skilled in unarmed defense (episode 223, "Heroes") and seems to have an intimate knowledge of a wide range of weaponry, from bows (episode 214, "Stuck on You") through East Asian weaponry (episode 204, "Corporate Warriors") to the more everyday guns and knives. To Mac, the type of weapon used is as revealing as anything else at the scene of the crime.

Mac holds members of the armed forces in high esteem and to an even higher standard. He considers a uniform a "badge of honor", and his disgust with the killer in "Officer Blue" (episode 109) is all the deeper because of the murderer's military background; that a former member of the armed services would use his military training to take lives rather than protect lives obviously wounds him. As Detective Don Flack once said, "Once a Marine, always a Marine" (episode 223, "Heroes"). In the same episode, a murder victim turns out to be a Marine recently returned from Iraq, who was trying to deliver his dead comrade's watch to the man's fiancee; Mac takes it upon himself to complete the young corporal's mission, and succeeds.