An Army first lieutenant and Cobra helicopter pilot who fought in the Vietnam War will receive the Medal of Honor from President Joe Biden.
Larry Taylor flew hundreds of missions and saved countless lives, but no rescue flight was as daring or as meaningful for Taylor as the one for which he will receive the U.S. Armed Forces’ highest military award.
Biden will honor Taylor at a ceremony next week, the White House said Friday.
On the night of June 18, 1968, Taylor took off in his helicopter gunship to rescue four men from a long-range reconnaissance team who were surrounded and in danger of being overrun by enemy troops.
He had to find a way to get them out or they wouldn’t make it.
PICTURED: Then-First Lieutenant Larry L. Taylor in his UH-1 “Huey” helicopter. Taylor served in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968 with D Troop (Air), 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry and 1st Infantry Division
Taylor flew over 2,000 combat missions in UH-1 and Cobra helicopters and in 1968 led a rescue mission to rescue a small group of soldiers trapped in a rice field by enemy troops
David Hill, one of the men Taylor rescued that night, said Taylor’s actions were what we now call “thinking outside the box.”
Hill and the three others were on a night mission to track the movement of enemy troops in a village near the Saigon River when they were found by North Vietnamese and Vietnamese troops.
A fierce firefight ensued and they soon ran out of ammunition. They radioed for help.
Taylor flew off in his attack helicopter and only a few minutes later reached the town northeast of what was then Saigon, which has since been renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
Taylor said the first problem in reaching the captured soldiers was poor visibility.
“It’s difficult to support you because I can’t see you and the bad guys.” “I’m afraid if I start dropping a few missiles out here, I’ll kill one of you all,” he recalled saying told them over the radio.
He asked the patrol team to send up some flares to mark their location in the dark.
Taylor and a pilot in an accompanying helicopter began firing their ships’ miniguns and air-launched missiles at the enemy, conducting low-altitude attacks and braving intense ground fire for about half an hour.
The two American helicopters attacked the enemy troops with all their rockets and almost 16,000 machine gun rounds.
First Lt. Larry Taylor sits in a UH-1 “Huey” helicopter in an undated photo. After completing flight training, Taylor was assigned to one of the Army’s first Cobra helicopter companies in Vietnam, where he served from August 1967 to August 1968
Capt. Larry L. Taylor and Ms. Toni Taylor. Taylor will become the youngest recipient of the military’s highest award for valor in combat when President Joe Biden presents the Vietnam veteran with the Medal of Honor on Tuesday, more than 55 years after his heroic actions
American troops in a military operation fighting Viet Cong during the Vietnam War in 1967
But with both helicopters almost out of ammunition and the enemy continuing to advance, Taylor examined the team’s planned escape route to a point near the river and concluded that the men would be overrun if they tried to go there reach.
He had something else to think about.
With fuel now running low and the reconnaissance team also nearly out of ammunition, Taylor instructed his wingman to fire the cartridges remaining in his minigun along the team’s eastern flank and then return to base camp while Taylor fired his remaining cartridges on the western flank .
He used the helicopter’s landing lights to distract the enemy, buying time for the patrol team to fly south and east to another intercept point he had identified.
Upon arrival, Taylor found herself under heavy enemy fire and great personal danger.
The four team members rushed toward the helicopter and clung to the outside – it only had two seats – and Taylor carried them to safety. He was on the ground for about 10 seconds.
“I ended up just flying after them and sitting on the ground,” Taylor, now 81, said in an interview.
American military operation at the height of the Vietnam War, when Marines faced the North Vietnamese Army near the DMZ that separated North and South Vietnam
General view of American soldiers walking through the jungle on Hill 875 near Dakto on November 29, 1967
Members of Co D, 2nd Bn, 35th Inf, 3rd Bde, 4th Inf Div, unload a CH-47A Chinook helicopter in the landing zone to conduct a helicopter combat attack in 1967
“They turned around and jumped onto the plane.” A couple sat on the skids. One was sitting on the rocket pods, and I don’t know where the other one was, but they hit the side of the ship twice, which meant they got fucked up. And that’s what we did!’
What Taylor did that night had never been attempted before, the Army said.
“I did my job. “I knew if I didn’t go and get them, they wouldn’t make it,” Taylor told Stripes.com.
Without Taylor’s unconventional thinking, Hill put her chances of survival at “absolutely zero.”
“His innovation was far beyond anyone’s expectations, as was his courage,” said Hill, the only member of the patrol team still living. “And that’s all, folks.
“Damn, we were dead,” Hill said. “The fate of the war had turned against us that night.”
“We found ourselves in a Custer-like situation,” Hill said, referring to Custer’s Last Stand, an 1876 American battle.
“We were finally able to break out because he led us to the weakest part of the enemy enclosure,” Hill explained.
Taylor made the plan practically on the fly.
“There’s nothing in the book about how to do it, and I think 90 percent of the helicopter ride in Vietnam was made up over time,” he said. “No one could criticize you because they couldn’t do it better than you and they didn’t know what you were doing anyway.”
Taylor said he flew hundreds of combat missions in UH-1 and Cobra helicopters during his year-long deployment to Vietnam. “We never lost a man,” he said.
“You just do whatever is expedient and do whatever you can to save the lives of the people you want to save,” he said.
According to the Army, Taylor was attacked by enemy fire at least 340 times and was forced to the ground five times.
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration of the United States Armed Forces and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen, Guardsmen and Coast Guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by gallantry
After more than six years of urging, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin agreed with the Army’s recommendation and forwarded Taylor’s file to Biden. Biden signed and called Taylor in July to tell him the news
He received numerous combat awards, including the Silver Star, a Bronze Star and two Distinguished Flying Crosses.
Taylor left Vietnam in August 1968, a few months after that flight.
He was discharged from active duty in August 1970 after attaining the rank of captain and was discharged from the Army Reserves in October 1973.
He later ran a roofing and sheet metal business in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He and his wife Toni live in Signal Mountain, Tennessee.
Hill said he and his supporters were astonished to learn, decades after that harrowing night, that Taylor had not been awarded a Medal of Honor.
Taylor had been awarded a Silver Star, one of the military’s highest honors for valor in combat, but to his supporters that medal represented a “failure by the Army or its commanders at the time to adequately recognize his bravery.” “We were determined to do so to change,” Hill said.
They wanted Taylor to receive a Medal of Honor, the military’s highest honor given to service members who go above and beyond the call of duty, often risking their lives through selfless bravery.
So the team delved into the process, gathering documents, testimony and other information, including asking Bob Corker, then the senator from Taylor’s home state, for help. A
After more than six years of urging, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin agreed with the Army’s recommendation and forwarded Taylor’s file to Biden.
Biden signed and called Taylor in July to tell him the news.