President Joe Biden awards the Medal of Honor to Capt. Larry Taylor, an Army pilot from the Vietnam War who risked his life to rescue a reconnaissance team that was about to be overrun by the enemy, during a ceremony Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

By Todd South

The most recent Medal of Honor recipient died Sunday after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Capt. Larry Taylor, 81, waited 55 years before his piloting heroics that saved the lives of four men during the Vietnam War were recognized with the nation’s highest award for military valor.

President Joe Biden presented Taylor with the medal at the White House on Sept. 5, after a years-long effort by friends, fellow soldiers and officials to have his June 18, 1968 actions reviewed.

The president said in his remarks that when he called Taylor to inform him he would receive the medal, Taylor said, “I thought you had to do something to receive the Medal of Honor.”

“Well, Larry, you sure in hell did something, man. If you ask anyone here, I’m pretty sure they’d say something — you did something extraordinary,” Biden said at the ceremony.

Roger Donlon, the first American to receive the Medal of Honor for actions in the Vietnam War, died Thursday of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 89.

Army Sgt. David Hill led the effort to see Taylor recognized. Hill was one of the four soldiers saved by Taylor.

Hill and his three fellow soldiers were conducting a nighttime reconnaissance mission near the Saigon River in South Vietnam when multiple enemy platoons surrounded them. They were nearly out of ammunition after an intense firefight, and they prepared for what they believed was an imminent enemy attack.

In a whisper, they radioed for help and Taylor was on duty with Troop D (Air), 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry, 1st Infantry Division about 30 miles away.

Taylor rushed to his AH-1G Cobra helicopter with his co-pilot and two other soldiers in a separate Cobra.

Unable to spot the U.S. troops in the dark, Tayor told the men on the ground to alert him with a radio call when he was directly overhead. Once located, Taylor told them to mark their position with flares, which brought an intense wave of enemy fire on their position. As the ground troops fired their remaining ammunition, the two helicopters fired from above on the enemy.

With his ammunition, Taylor told the ground team to reposition their claymore and personnel mines toward the northeast and southeast. Taylor then made another pass over the enemy to distract them as the ground troops detonated their mines. These actions allowed the U.S. troops to reach an extraction point Taylor had identified.

Landing amide heavy enemy fire, Taylor’s helicopter was on the ground for about 10 seconds. With only two seats in the aircraft, the ground troops clung to the helicopter’s exterior skids and rocket launchers as Taylor flew them away to a nearby safe location. They hopped off the helicopter, ran to the front and saluted the pilot who’d saved them. That would be the last time they’d see each other for more than 30 years.

Within a few months after the rescue mission, Taylor would leave Vietnam. By the time he left active duty in 1970, Taylor had been promoted to captain. He flew about 1,200 combat missions, of which he estimated that 1,000 were supporting long-range recon patrols. Army information shows that Taylor’s helicopters took enemy fire on 340 of those missions and were forced down five times.

The Army later gave Taylor the Silver Star Medal, which Hill only learned about at a 1999 reunion. He thought Taylor deserved much more. He made two attempts over the next 20 years that failed to gain any traction.

But after finding new information not previously submitted, including interviews with the surviving soldiers, a third submission, made in 2021, proved successful.

Taylor grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and joined the Army Reserve Officer Training program at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He became an Army aviator in 1967 and deployed to Vietnam.

In addition to the Medal of Honor, Taylor was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses, and received the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Bronze Star, among other awards.

His remains will be buried at the Chattanooga National Cemetery, home to those of fellow Medal of Honor recipients Charles Coolidge and Desmond Doss, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.

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About Todd South

Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.

Here’s the Army Times link for the original article:

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2024/01/30/larry-taylor-most-recent-medal-of-honor-recipient-dies-at-age-81

Portions of an article within the February VFW magazine were also copied and included in this post

Read more about the actual rescue in an earlier post on this website: https://cherrieswriter.com/2021/05/08/this-cobra-pilot-deserves-the-medal-of-honor/

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