Vietnam War pilot Larry Taylor, praised for his daring rescue, dies at 81

Larry L. Taylor, a helicopter pilot who pulled off a daring rescue of four U.S. Army rangers under enemy fire in the jungles of Vietnam 55 years ago, died Jan. 28 at his home in Signal Mountain, Tennessee, five months after his passing . belatedly received the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions. He was 81.

His death was confirmed by the Charles H. Coolidge National Medal of Honor Heritage Center in Chattanooga, just south of Signal Mountain, where Mr. Taylor was born and raised.

Mr. Taylor was commissioned a captain in 1971 after serving as a first lieutenant during his one year in Vietnam, 1967-68, and earned more than 50 awards for flying more than 2,000 combat missions in Cobra and UH-1 “Huey” helicopters. He was attacked 340 times by enemy fire and shot five times.

On June 18, 1968, Lieutenant Taylor was piloting one of two attack helicopters in support of a four-man long-range reconnaissance patrol in Binh Duong Province, northeast of Saigon, when the Rangers, trudging through a rice field on a moonless night, were surrounded. and is about to be overrun by about a hundred Viet Cong guerrillas. A rescue mission by two other helicopters was canceled because it seemed hopeless.

But Lieutenant Taylor, along with his co-pilot, Chief Warrant Officer James Ratliff, were determined to get the four soldiers out of the jungle – despite coming under enemy gunfire, and even though the plane was low on ammunition and fuel more. After shelling the Viet Cong and diverting them with his plane's landing lights, he ignored an order to return to base and gambled on a maneuver that the military said had never before been attempted with a two-seat Cobra, which only has seats for the pilot and co-pilot.

The helicopter landed in a remote spot 100 yards from the firefight, with Lt. Taylor giving the patrol just seconds to race to that spot. Once there, the Rangers climbed aboard the craft's skids and missile pods and clung to them as the helicopter flew away to a safe landing area. As they were dropped off on the ground, the Rangers saluted their rescuers and disappeared into the forest before returning safely to their base.

Lieutenant Taylor received the Silver Star for gallantry. One of the four Rangers, Sgt. David Hill lobbied through the military chain of command three times in the past two decades to have the White House upgrade that award to the Medal of Honor, the military's highest award for valor. On the third attempt, he received the support of Burwell B. Bell III, a retired four-star general. On September 5, 2023, President Biden presented the medal to Mr. Taylor during a ceremony at the White House.

Larry Lowe Taylor was born in Chattanooga on February 12, 1942, into a family steeped in military service. A great-great-grandfather fought in the Union Army during the Civil War, a great-uncle in World War I, and his uncles and his father, Robert Lee Taylor, in World War II. His father owned a roofing and sheet metal business, and his mother, Frances Taylor, managed the household.

Larry Taylor entered the Army's Reserve Officer Training Program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Reserve upon his graduation in June 1966. Two months later he joined the regular army.

Before joining, he was already certified as a pilot and trained and qualified as an Army aviator. As a member of D Troop (Air), First Squadron, Fourth Cavalry, First Infantry Division, he was assigned to pilot one of the first Bell AH-1G Cobra attack helicopters deployed on combat missions in Vietnam. When his helicopter landed after the rescue mission in June 1968, it was riddled with sixteen bullet holes.

He went on to serve in the Second Cavalry Regiment in West Germany and left active duty in 1971. He later took over his family's roofing and metal business.

He is survived by his wife, Tony (Bechtel) Taylor; two sons, Larry and Grady, from his first marriage to Dolly Caywood, which ended in divorce; his sister, Barbara T. Lemley; and five grandchildren.

At the White House ceremony, Mr. Taylor said he still relived the rescue every time people asked him, “What possessed you to do that?” His answer, he said, was always the same: “It had to be done.”

“I did my job,” he said Stars and stripes. “I knew if I didn't go get them, they wouldn't make it.” As he was often quoted, “We never leave a man behind.”