{"id":6882,"date":"2023-09-05T10:33:30","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T10:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/politics\/helicopter-pilot-to-receive-medal-of-honor-for-daring-rescue-during-vietnam-war\/"},"modified":"2023-09-05T10:33:31","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T10:33:31","slug":"helicopter-pilot-to-receive-medal-of-honor-for-daring-rescue-during-vietnam-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=6882","title":{"rendered":"Helicopter pilot to receive Medal of Honor for daring rescue during Vietnam War"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n It wasn\u2019t until after Army Capt. Larry Taylor had picked up four of his fellow soldiers during a raging firefight in Vietnam \u2013 the men clinging onto the outside of his helicopter, as there wasn\u2019t room inside \u2013 that he realized he had to figure out where to take them.\n <\/p>\n

\n It was June 18, 1968, and then-1st Lt. Taylor and his copilot had been called out in their AH-1G Cobra helicopter to rescue a four-man long-range reconnaissance patrol team who were pinned down by the enemy, with seemingly no way out.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMy copilot says, \u2018Sir, now that we\u2019ve got \u2018em, what the hell are we going to do with them?\u2019\u201d Taylor recounted to reporters last week. \u201cI said, I don\u2019t know, I didn\u2019t think that far ahead.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In a matter of moments, Taylor decided to drop them at a nearby water treatment plant where other Americans were waiting on the ground.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe took them down there and I landed, and I left my wide landing lights on and so the four of them ran out in front of the helicopter and then they turned around and lined up, all four of them, saluted, and then ran for the lights,\u201d Taylor said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Now, 55 years after that harrowing evening in Vietnam, Taylor will receive the Medal of Honor \u2013 the nation\u2019s highest military award \u2013 from President Joe Biden on Tuesday at the White House for his heroism.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cTaylor\u2019s conspicuous gallantry, his profound concern for his fellow soldiers, and his intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army,\u201d a White House news release said last week.\n <\/p>\n

\n But for Taylor, who received dozens of combat awards and flew over 2,000 combat missions during his time in the military, his actions that night in 1968 weren\u2019t anything particularly special.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI was doing my job,\u201d he said matter-of-factly. \u201cAnd I knew that if I didn\u2019t go down and get them, they wouldn\u2019t like it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u2018And the fight was on\u2019
\n<\/h2>\n

\n Taylor, born in Tennessee in 1942, joined the Army Reserve Officer Training Program while attending the University of Tennessee. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Reserve in June 1966, according to his biography, and joined the active-duty Army in August that year as an armor officer.\n <\/p>\n

\n It wasn\u2019t long before Taylor realized he\u2019d rather be an aviation officer than an armor officer \u2013 partly because of what was unfolding in Vietnam. If the option was between being on the ground, where troops were being bombarded with gunfire and mortars constantly, or in the sky with rockets and thousands of rounds of ammunition, the choice was clear.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou can kick some ass,\u201d Taylor said of being in the Cobra. \u201cSo, yeah, I\u2019d rather be an ass-kicker than to have my ass kicked.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Taylor\u2019s biography says that throughout his 2,000 combat missions in UH-1 and Cobra helicopters, he was forced down five times and engaged by enemy fire 340 times. He earned at least 50 combat decorations \u2013 by his count, around 60 \u2013 including 43 Air Medals, a Bronze Star, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, and the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Bronze Star.\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n David Hill, who was one of the soldiers Taylor rescued, explained that on the night of Taylor\u2019s heroic actions, he and his three teammates had been assigned an area reconnaissance mission. Typically, Hill said, they would have been inserted into the jungle by helicopter, but this was \u201can entirely flat rice paddy area.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Being dropped in by helicopter would have blown their mission, he said, so instead they walked. The goal was to observe any enemy troop movements, so when the evening was almost completely dark, Hill said they walked out of the wood line to set up their position. But before they could, they were surrounded by enemy troops.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe plan changed, and now was a matter of not escaping but having to fight it out right there,\u201d Hill said.\n <\/p>\n

\n As the four-man team was preparing to fight, they were simultaneously calling back to the forward operating base for help. The call went out for air support \u2013 and Taylor answered. Within two minutes, Hill said, Taylor and his co-pilot had strapped in and taken off, heading towards Hill and his men.\n <\/p>\n

\n Taylor explained that from his perspective, the night was so dark he wasn\u2019t sure he\u2019d be able to find the troops on the ground. He used his radio to coordinate the rescue, telling the men on the ground to drop flares to help guide him in. As soon as they popped the flares, Hill recalled, \u201call hell broke loose.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cObviously we gave away our position, but we knew we would be discovered at some point anyway because we were surrounded,\u201d Hill said. \u201cAnd the fight was on.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The White House announcement describes how Taylor and his wingman \u201cstrafed the enemy with mini-guns and aerial rockets,\u201d and \u201ccontinued to make low-level attack runs for the next 45 minutes.\u201d He learned that the rescue attempt by another helicopter had been canceled, according to the White House release, because \u201cit stood almost no chance of success.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n So Taylor decided to do it himself with his two-man Cobra helicopter \u2013 \u201ca feat that had never been accomplished or even attempted.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Taylor told reporters that as soon as a soldier on the ground radioed up that his helicopter was over their position, he \u201cplopped it on the ground.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI didn\u2019t have to tell them to get on,\u201d he said. But the helicopters size \u2013 a two-person aircraft \u2013 meant the soldiers would have to secure themselves to the outside.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI finally flew up behind them and sat down on the ground, and they turned around and jumped on the aircraft \u2013 a couple were sitting on the skids, one was sitting on the rocket pods, and I don\u2019t know where the other one was but they beat on the side of the ship twice, which meant, \u2018Haul ass,\u2019\u201d Taylor said. \u201cAnd we did.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In retrospect, Taylor said they were all coming up with what to do next on the fly. There\u2019s \u201cnothing in the book that says how to do that,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think about 90% of flying a helicopter in Vietnam was making it up as you go along,\u201d he said. \u201cNobody could criticize you because they couldn\u2019t do it any better than you did and they didn\u2019t know what you were doing anyway.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But it must have worked, he added, because throughout his thousands of combat missions, \u201cwe never lost a man.\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It wasn\u2019t until after Army Capt. Larry Taylor had picked up four of his fellow soldiers during a raging firefight in Vietnam \u2013 the men clinging onto the outside of his helicopter, as there wasn\u2019t room inside \u2013 that he realized he had to figure out where to take them. It was June 18, 1968, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"yoast_head":"\nHelicopter pilot to receive Medal of Honor for daring rescue during Vietnam War | Prosfunds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It wasn\u2019t until after Army Capt. 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