The White House says Joe Biden will award the Medal of Honor to a Vietnam war-era US army pilot who risked his life to rescue a reconnaissance team that was about to be overrun by the enemy.
The president will recognize Larry Taylor of Signal Mountain, Tennessee, at a ceremony on 5 September. The Medal of Honor is the American military’s highest decoration given to service members who go above and beyond the call of duty, often risking their lives through selfless acts of valor.
The army says that the then-first lieutenant flew his Cobra attack helicopter in the dark of night on 18 June 1968 to rescue the four men. Taylor landed under heavy enemy fire while the men scrambled to hold on to the chopper’s skids and rocket pads so he could whisk them to safety.
Of the mission, Taylor told the Associated Press in a report published Friday: “There’s nothing in the book that says how to do that and I think about 90% of flying a helicopter in Vietnam was making it up as you go along.
“Nobody could criticize you ‘cause they couldn’t do any better than you did 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 a year’s deployment in Vietnam. “We never lost a man,” he said.
“You just do whatever is expedient and do whatever to save the lives of the people you’re trying to rescue,” he said.
Taylor was engaged by enemy fire at least 340 times and was forced down five times, according to the army. He received scores of combat decorations, including the Silver Star, a Bronze Star and two Distinguished Flying Crosses.
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.
David Hill, one of the men Taylor saved, said he and supporters of Taylor 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 top honors for valor in combat. But to his supporters, that medal represented a “failure by the army to … adequately recognize his valor, his courage, his dedication” in Vietnam.
Hill and others dug into the process, gathering documentation, witness statements and additional information, including asking Bob Corker, then Taylor’s home state senator, for his help. After more than six years of pushing, defense secretary Lloyd Austin approved the army’s recommendation and forwarded Taylor’s file to Biden.
Biden signed off and called Taylor in July with the news.
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