Medal of Honor awarded to Army pilot who performed daring helicopter rescue in Vietnam

President Biden awarded the Medal of Honor on Tuesday to a Vietnam War Army helicopter pilot who scrambled to perform a daring rescue of four soldiers surrounded by heavy enemy fire and facing almost certain death.

That heroism, more than 55 years ago by then-1st Lt. Larry Taylor landed him at the White House where he was awarded the nation’s highest military honor. Of the 40 million who served in the Army, only 3,500 soldiers have received the Medal of Honor.

In his remarks on Mr. Taylor’s exploits, the president underscored the Tennessee veteran’s humility. 

Mr. Biden said when he called Mr. Taylor to tell him he would be receiving the award, Mr. Taylor replied, “I thought you had to do something to receive the Medal of Honor.”

“Larry, you sure as hell did something, man,” Mr. Biden said. “If you ask anyone here, I’m pretty sure they would say you did something extraordinary.”

A host of military and political luminaries attended the ceremony, including Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dennis McDonough. The two Republican senators from Mr. Taylor’s home state — Sens. Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn — also attended.

Lt. Taylor and his copilot were providing cover fire on the night of June 18, 1968, in their two-seater Cobra helicopter for a surrounded four-man patrol trapped in the jungle below when they learned the rescue helicopter sent to pick the men up had been canceled because of the enemy fire.

Ordered back to base and running low on ammunition and fuel, the Army lieutenant instead decided he would try to rescue the patrol himself.

He directed his wingman to fire his remaining rounds along the patrol team’s eastern flank while he fired along its western flank using his Cobra’s landing lights to draw the enemy’s attention. 

While they were firing, the patrol team headed toward an extraction point picked by Mr. Taylor, who landed in the middle of the firefight and, in an unprecedented maneuver, had the four men clamber aboard the craft’s skids and rocket pods before flying them out to safety.

“He refused to give up, Refused to leave a fellow American behind, and refused to put his own life above the lives of others in need,” Mr. Biden said. 

“When duty called, Larry did everything he did to answer it. Because of that, he rewrote the fate of four families for generations to come,” the president said.

Mr. Taylor, born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1942, was discharged from active duty at the rank of captain in 1970.