As an Army first lieutenant and Cobra helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War, Larry Taylor flew hundreds of missions and saved countless lives.
But no rescue flight was as daring, or as meaningful to Taylor, as the one for which he will receive the Medal of Honor from President Joe Biden.On the night of June 18, 1968, Taylor took off in his attack helicopter to rescue four men on a long-range reconnaissance team that had become surrounded and was in danger of being overrun by enemy troops. He had to figure out a way to get them out, otherwise "they wouldn't make it.
But with both helicopters nearly out of ammunition and the enemy continuing to advance, Taylor surveyed the team's intended escape route to a point near the river and concluded that the men would be overrun if they tried to get there.
Taylor said he flew hundreds of combat missions in UH-1 and Cobra helicopters during a year's deployment in Vietnam. "We never lost a man," he said. Taylor left Vietnam in August 1968, a couple months after that flight. He was released from active duty in August 1970, having attained the rank of captain, and was discharged from the Army Reserve in October 1973. He later ran a roofing and sheet metal company in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He and his wife, Toni, live in Signal Mountain, Tennessee.
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