Right out of high school, Clemente (Clem) Fiol started working in the prison system, first at Hillsborough Correctional, then the Florida State Prison. He met his wife, Karen, in jail (she wasn’t a prisoner, though—she worked as a nurse in the facility). After these stints, Fiol became a deputy for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO). He later transitioned to become an officer in the Plant City Police Department (PCPD) in 2011, and he retired in 2023.
Tom Taylor served on the Navy’s Underwater Demolition Team—the original frogmen that later became the Navy SEALS. He got out of the Navy after WWII, but reenlisted for the Korean War, then stayed in through Vietnam. He attained to the rank of Master Chief, “But I didn’t want it,” Taylor said.
“When I was working for the Plant City Police Department (PCPD), seven years ago I got called to go to Tom’s house because someone had stolen the wagon for connecting to his lawn tractor,” Fiol said. “He used it to get branches off of his property, and other stuff. So, I went to Tractor Supply Company at lunch time, bought him another wagon, and took it to him. Boy, he was thrilled to death. He was happy about that. Then I got to talking to him, and got to know him a little bit.”
Fiol began to check in on Taylor periodically to make sure he was doing okay. “I would see him—sometimes he would sit on his porch in a rocking chair. He had three flag poles he had put up. They were only about seven feet tall. He had American flag in the middle, a Navy SEAL flag on one side, and a POW flag on the other. Someone stole his POW flag and his Navy SEAL flag. He called to report it. I got on my phone on Amazon and ordered him a Navy SEAL flag, and a POW flag. But I thought if I put them back up on those seven-foot flagpoles, they were just going to come and steal them again. I happened to have, at my mother’s house, 20-foot long pipes used for chain-link fence rails. Fiol spray painted the poles, embedded them in concrete at Taylor’s house, and attached the flags. “They weren’t going to come and steal those unless they had a ladder,” Fiol added. “Since then, when one got torn or faded, I would get him a new flag. I also found out the Elks Lodge donates American flags to veterans. So, they came out and gave him an American flag and put it up.”
When Fiol retired he had time on his hands. “I would come out every week, sometimes two times a week and take Tom to Anna’s for breakfast, or Fred’s Market, take him to haircuts, and hearing-aid appointments. I would go grocery shopping, and make sure he was stocked up.” Representing the Elks Lodge, Judy Wise takes Taylor a meal on Wednesday, and set it up for Taylor, as a veteran, to get free Meals on Wheels deliveries on weekdays. This gives him a hot meal every day. “I mow his lawn because he can’t take care of that, do stuff for him, and help out,” Fiol said. “But he is very self-sufficient—doesn’t ask for a whole lot, and we have become friends.”
Taylor has served in three major wars. “What you go through is something else, I will tell you,” Taylor commented. At age 93, Taylor had some difficulty hearing questions, so Fiol filled in gaps for him. “He still has nightmares,” Fiol said. “Back then they didn’t know what PTSD was. He won’t talk to people about what he did. A couple of times he has talked to me about it. They saw a lot of negative. It’s not something you want to share. Not something that is fun to share. When we first got to the Veterans Lunch on Sunday, we sat up front while they were playing some things on the screen. He had a tear in his eye and he said, ‘It is things like this that remind me that there are a lot of guys that didn’t come back.’” At the event, Tangled Threads presented Taylor with a Quilt of Valor. The keynote speaker, and the US Navy each gave him challenge coins—custom-made coins for veterans.
“We live in a mean society,” Fiol commented. “Being a police officer, I got to see a lot of negative. One of the worst things I saw, other than with children as victims, was people that live by themselves and don’t have family.” PCPD would get a call that neighbors haven’t seen them for a couple of weeks, and when the officers go inside the home, an elderly person was often dead and decomposing.
When asked about Fiol’s friendship Taylor said, “It means a hell of a lot. It does. There is a lot of things he does for me nobody else would do. He takes care of things I couldn’t afford to do.”
“What has Tom’s friendship meant to me? A good friend—Tom is a good friend,” Fiol said. “Now that I have time, it’s kind of entertainment, because you spend time with this guy and you learn a lot. It makes you appreciate a lot of the things you have got. He’s pure and honest.”
“Do ever wonder how many veterans are out there that could be helped if we only knew about them?” Wise asked.