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Training accident in Nevada claims Marine with W. Mich. roots

MARTIN, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - A Marine with West Michigan ties has been killed in a military training exercise.

A family friend says Lance Corporal Joshua Taylor was among 8 Marines killed Monday night when a mortar exploded during training in Nevada's High Desert.

He grew up in the Martin area.

Family friend Willie Mearn says he's known Josh Taylor since he was just a boy.

He says he learned what happened from Taylor's older sister on Tuesday morning.

Mearn says that Josh would call him Uncle Willie, but the last time he heard that in person was on a canoe trip on the Paw Paw River--when Josh was 12.

"That's pretty much the last time I saw him," Mearn said. "I go back and look at the pictures now, but he's grown up so much now."

Taylor would have turned 22 next month.

"He was a good kid," Mearn said. "He was a good soldier and everybody loved him."