On September 5, 2023, Tennessee native and US Army veteran Larry Taylor was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Joe Biden. For many, it was a long-overdue recognition of Taylor’s bravery during the Vietnam War.
Taylor was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, during World War II, and attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he was a member of the Army ROTC. He graduated in 1966, receiving a commission in the US Army. In 1967, Taylor qualified as an Army aviator and deployed to Vietnam with D Troop (Air), 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry, 1st Infantry Division.
During his tour in Vietnam from August 1967 – August 1968, was one of the first to fly the Bell AH1-G Cobra attack helicopter in combat. The two-seater aircraft was used to support ground operations. On the night of June 18, Taylor flew his Cobra on a fire support mission of a four-man Long Range Patrol team.
On a mission to obtain intelligence on a Vietnamese village, the four men were surrounded by North Vietnamese soldiers. Taylor heard the urgency in the voices on the radio, desperately calling for help. Arriving on site, Taylor and his copilot provided fire support and radioed for a Huey to pick up the team. Running low on ammunition, Taylor became impatient as the situation became more dire on the ground, while calls for extraction were answered with orders to wait. Taylor decided the men would not die on his watch.
Taylor radioed he would rescue the four men but was told by command to stand down, despite the likelihood the men on the ground would soon be killed. Taylor worked with the patrol team to set up and detonate a distraction of claymore mines. As he fired his last rounds and set off massive explosions, Taylor brought his helicopter down to rescue the four men. Two held tight to the skids of the Cobra as the other two sat on rocket pods.
Taylor flew the men to safety, and for his bravery was awarded the Silver Star. In his one-year deployment to Vietnam, Taylor flew more than 2,700 missions, 1,200 of them combat missions in both the Cobra and Huey helicopters. Taylor became legendary in the US Army, but it was not until 2017 that the process to have Taylor’s Silver Star upgraded to a Medal of Honor began.
One of the men saved in that mission, Dave Hill, formed the group that took charge of collecting the information needed to upgrade Taylor’s award. Months of searching resulted in locating J.O. Ratliff, Taylor’s copilot that night. Despite a strong corroborating letter, the men’s first attempt to upgrade the Medal was denied. They then brought in General B. B. Bell, US Army (Ret.), and together, the group managed to secure a second review in 2021, which resulted in an upgrade to the Medal of Honor.
Taylor was presented the Medal of Honor in a ceremony at the White House. In his remarks, President Joe Biden said, “When duty called, Larry did everything…to answer. And because of that, he rewrote the fate of four families for generations to come.” Over the years at reunions, the children of those men who Taylor saved sought him out to thank him. His bravery that night had allowed their fathers to return home.
Taylor’s willingness to risk his own life to save the lives of four men he did not know is a wonderful example of the courage, commitment, and sacrifice so often seen in Medal of Honor actions. Speaking about that night’s mission, Taylor said, “I’d flown thousands of missions in Vietnam and saved countless lives. But none had meant so much to me as the four we saved that night, for life had never become so sweet as the night I became the angel of death … no man left behind.”
During his time in Vietnam, Taylor flew 2,000 missions, and in addition to the Silver Star, which was upgraded, was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses, a Bronze Star, and 43 Air Medals. After his tour in Vietnam, Taylor served with the US Army in Germany. Upon leaving active duty, Taylor ran a roofing and sheet metal company in Chattanooga. On January 28, 2024, Taylor passed away at his home in Signal Mountain, Tennessee after a battle with cancer. He was buried in the Chattanooga National Cemetery, nearby fellow Medal of Honor Recipients Charles Coolidge and Desmond Doss.
Kali Schick is Senior Historian for the National Medal of Honor Museum
