Interview w/ LT. Larry Taylor (Cobra Pilot, Vietnam - Update: awarded MOH 2023)
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- Опубликовано: 24 авг 2024
- Interview w/ LT. Larry Taylor (Cobra Pilot, Vietnam - Update: awarded MOH 2023)
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With the 4-man LRRP team surrounded and out of ammo, LT. Taylor and his air support team were determined not to leave the patrol on the ground - regardless of the consequences.
Taylor stated that he and his Cobra team could not "sit helplessly by while the LRRPs got massacred."
Once the LRRP team was safely extracted and dropped off, LT. Taylor and co-pilot CW2 James Ratliff realized that they were dangerously low on fuel. As reported by Taylor, they had to “make a “25-minute flight on 20-minutes of fuel.”
Which, thankfully, they did.
For their actions that night, LT. Taylor, along with Elsner, Hill and Cohn (of the LRRPs patrol), were each awarded the Silver Star. Paddy received the Bronze Star (with "V" Device).
Today, LT. Taylor lives with his wife in Chattanooga, TN. He has been “enthusiastically recommended” to receive the Medal of Honor (pending) by surviving members of his unit and Army authorities. - - - UPDATED Aug. 8, 2013: Taylor is scheduled to receive the Medal of Honor at a ceremony (with the President, Members of Congress and Military VIPs in attendance - exact date TBD).
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Music: Freedom Sings Publishing
Featured Art: "The Cobra Extraction" - Commissioned by Dave Flores, Painting by Darrin Hostetter ©2015 - Special Thanks to Larry Taylor and family, Dave Hill, MOAA, the Medal of Honor Heritage Center and Library of Congress (DOD archives). Additional thanks to Allison Advising (The Standefer-Allison Insurance Group) for their support in the making of this video.
Thank you for your service, God bless you sir. Much respect. 🇺🇸🙏
These are the type of men and women who should be leading our country!
Last week I visited the grave of Alvin York, another Medal of Honor winner from Tennessee. They don't call this the Volunteer State for nothing. Congratulations to Captain Taylor.
So happy that his heroism in Vietnam has finally been recognized. I'm glad he lived long enough to be awarded the Medal of Honor. I know a lot of people were involved in his being recognized and all I can say is THANK YOU for your efforts. To Lt Taylor; you are an American hero.
This is what makes America great. Thanks for you service to your country and fellow service man.
Amazing history, PTL for your courage,heroism and love of America!Great job!
My close friend former Lt Sammy Lloyd at the age of 18 was an Army Aviator and flew the Cobra's in the 70's got shot down .
M.I.A. presumed dead along with his gunner that didn't make it .
Even had a funeral for him .
Much to our amazement he was released and is alive and well today.
My dad was Mr. Larrys Gunner / crew chief on the Huey, SGT William Tippins
That’s incredible! What a story. I’ll bet your dad has some unbelievable stories as well!
Legend.
@derektippens5029
My dad was one of the men he rescued on the night of June 18, 1968 Gerald W. Paddy from Maryville,TN I have great respect for Mr. Taylor because without him disobeying an order I would not be here it is about time they honor this man
Crew chiefs
Our country is blessed to have him as a true American hero. My Dad was in Vietnam in 1969 with the 101st Airborne. He always said the helicopter crews were the toughest. 10:41 10:41
1200 combat missions…let that sink in.
What brave and wonderful American troops. Thank you, Lt. Taylor.
This guy is just a damn American hero! God bless and Semper Fi!
Thank you for giving me and my daughter a free and peaceful life..We are greatful everyday for the opportunities men like you gave us with your service sacrifice and many there very lives..We live everyday with the love of God Country and the Veterans who gave us our freedom those in life and death..
THANK YOU SIR, GOD BLESS YOU ALL 🙏 WELCOME HOME 🙏
As I said in my prior comment this is nothing but WELL DESERVED! Congratulations and I don't think there is a big enough BZ for you. FLY NAVY!!!
You can't make this up, this is the stuff legends are made of. This guy deserves the Medal of Honor. Best Vietnam helicopter combat book I ever read was "Chickenhawk" by Robert Mason. To fly is heavenly, to hover divine rotary wing aviation there is simply no substitute. Thanks to all now serving, those who have, and those who will in the future. FLY NAVY!!!
Mr Mason was my first instructor in flight school. Lt. Thompson here is right on how it was. God Bless all Helicopter Pilots....more balls then brains. ...for sure. 204 guys in my class...203 volunteered for Vietnam.
@@LongRun65 Thanks for your service and a very much belated WELCOME HOME. I never met Mr. Mason but as a former rotary wing guy his book absolutely amazed me. I think I read it in one sitting as I couldn't put it down. There was also another Army Warrant pilot I knew when I worked at US Naval Test Pilot School. He had quite a bit of combat time in Huey's & Cobras in Nam. His name was Les Scott not sure if you know of him. FLY NAVY!!!
Guess what
Well deserved
Yer that is an amazing book
Wonderful to see! Thanks for you`r service sir!
Damn! I was a Huey Doorgunner/Crewchief in the Nam in '69/'70. We did some cool stuff but not that good!
A real American. No man left behind. 🤜🤜🇱🇷
Welcome home Mr. Taylor, and to your copilot and the 4 soldiers you rescued. May God bless you all.
That man had me on the edge of my seat with his incredible story! A real no-nonsense kind of guy. He ought to have got a Silver star for this.
He did. And now being upgraded to the Medal of Honor.
Did you watch the video? He points to and names all 40-some medals, including the **Silver Star**.
I think he did....a couple of them. He probably has many more stories, even juicier ones....but this type of guy doesn't do a lot of babbling about himself.
@@francesinez126 Ok, my bad lol
@@robertmaybeth3434 We all have those days. 🙂
Amazing, thank you for sharing, I'm British and admire the courage and bravery of all American Vietnam Vets.
Unbelievable courage these guys had! God bless all of our service men who risked everything for each other
I was a Huey and Cobra airframes mechanic in the Marine Corps, and when 2003 war in Iraq started we actually installed seat belts on the ammo bay doors so that if needed a Cobra could evacuate some troops in emergency situations like this. Who knows this event could be the reason why we did that.
There’s a picture on RUclips of I think the British did the same thing but with a Apache The US Air Force B1B pilot saw it and the crew took a foto of the Apache flying with two people outside
I saw a documentary several years ago which showed Israeli Cobras doing emergency extractions of recon elements under fire in Palestine
Troy: Right you are. I was one of the LRPs extracted by Larry Taylor. His ship also had the ammo bay doors available to sit on. However, the Cobra had only been introduced into our 1st Inf. Div a month before and there had not been any time to train we LRPs on the use of the ammo bay door as an emergency extraction seat and there was no time for Capt. Taylor to train us that night. He just said to "get on anywhere you can and I will get us out of here". So we did, and he did. Very much "field expedient", but it worked. Thank you for your astute comment.
@@davehill1411 Sir, thank you for your work to get Capt. Taylor's Medal of Honor approved. And thank you for your service in Vietnam.
@davehill1411 yeah I'm amazed by these pilots and their heroics but the balls on you guys to even be in that position in the first place and keep so calm under pressure. I think a most likely outcome is the pilot would follow his orders, not risk putting a brand new high tech price of hardware in a grounded position that risks it being captured and examined by the soviets. To be fair I'm guessing there would of been some higher ups filthy and would much rather you died.
And if they did just fly off and you were left to "escape and evade"? Sounds to me like you all would of fought to the last man.
Great story. They must have thought their time on this planet was up until the Cobra showed up. Thanks for you service LT Larry Taylor.
They should make a movie about the helicopter war in Vietnam with the cobras, loches, hueys, and medivac
If not a movie, then a proper and detailed documentary... cover every branch Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard (yes we were in Vietnam too), and covering every chopper.
I'll go as far as to say that a MUSEUM needs to be built (the Wall is great, but not enough). There's the WW1 Museum in Missouri. The National WW2 Museum in New Orleans, and other "displays" around the country like the USS Alabama, USS Texas, the Military museum at Camp Shelby Mississippi where you have a few items from the era, but that's it.
I couldn’t agree more.
I wonder how many times he said to his gunner "man, if we get shot down one more fuckin time, lol" 🤣🤣🤣
Fantastic!!!! I was stationed at Lai Khe with the 1st Infantry Division from March 1968 to March 1969 and I remember well this incident and the bravery these Cobra pilots displayed. As I recall, this was one of only two situations over there where a Cobra was used to extract troops. Hats off to LT Taylor, God bless you, sir!!!
Thank you Wayne for remembering this and for your own service in the "Big Red One". I was on Taylor's Cobra that night. You are right that this was the first such "Cobra extraction". Though a couple of downed pilots were subsequently extracted in similar manner (properly using the ammo bay door as seats), no other infantry teams, as far as I know, were similarly extracted. Larry Taylor was truly one of a kind.
Dave Hill
@@davehill1411 great to hear from you. God blessed me with a keen memory and this incident stuck with me. After reviewing the video again, I see you were a member of that LRRP team. The LRRP unit stationed at Lai Khe was situated right beside HHC, 1st Infantry Division. I believe the LRRPs shared the HHC mess hall with us. We may have eaten in close proximity to one another. I was assigned to G-1 for my entire tour. I recall pulling guard duty one night with two LRRPs when we were on a red alert. Fortunately, the night turned out to be event less, but I enjoyed some pretty good adventure stories of one of the LRRPs, I remember his last name was Maynard, could have been one of your buddies if you were in that unit. As I recall, the LRRP company at Lai Khe was our only LRRP unit in the division. I have all the respect in the world for the job you guys did. Thanks again for getting back to me. I salute you, LT Taylor, and all the guys on that mission.
@@waynejenkins6259 Yes. That LRP was Ron Maynard. Excellent soldier on a different team than ours. Yes. We used 1st Div. HQ mess. While I was in the unit, we were next to 701st Maintenance and across from the "Incoming Personnel" school for new arrivals at Lai Khe. As you probably now know, Capt. Taylor was finally awarded his rightful Medal of Honor on 5 Sept. 2023. Sadly, he passed away at 81, at end of January, 2024. Thanks for you taking me down memory lane with your note.
Dave Hill
Thanks for your reply@@davehill1411 I had not heard of him being awarded the Medal of Honor nor of his passing. We sure lost one of the good ones. I know you must have a tremendous amount of respect for this man, who laid it all on the line and without regard for his own well being, saved four lives that night in June 1968. I hope you are well for surely God had a mission in life for you and your fellow team members.
Ghostrider Don Here; Worked that AO with the 195th AHC the summer of 1968. What you did was the kind of thing that Army Aviators do in support of their ground troops. So that others may live. Welcome home sir.
Ghostrider: Thank you for your comments. We shared that same AO. Vietnam helicopter pilots and crewmen will always be my heroes. What a team of angels to have overhead of us. That sentiment is shared by every LRP, Ranger and "Line Infantryman" that I know. You folks spared no efforts and always showed great guts in supporting we "ground-pounders". Fortunately for me, Larry Taylor is one of them.
Dave Hill, Asst Team Leader, LRP team "Wildcat 2".
I said there is nowhere for them to escape too! Now stay off my radio! Just to let everyone know my Taylor will be rewarded the Medal Of Honor for his achievements!
Bless you sir for all your courage & saving life
Sure you have my utmost respect you are a true hero and you deserve to be treated as such may God bless you one of your Canadian friends
God bless you Sir. Thank you for your service and courage.
You Sir are a Hero in every sense of the word ! Thank You for your Service.
Respect for this man and his former crewmembers. Greetings from the Netherlands
greetings! thanks for watching!
Godbless you Saint Larry
.. the Holy Spirit loves you .. and loves all LRRPs .. a lot
Rick Auten LRRPS rip
This wonderful Crew saved the four man LRRP Team from certain death on two separate occasions in that one situation!
That their own command would abandon them to be overrun and massacred is nothing short of treacherous!
Their Cobra was truly the Angel Flight that night!
This Pilot is something very special.
Welcome Home.
Excellent work Thank you ❤TJ
"when i say blow em, you blow em and run like hell!" What a visual 😲 i salute you sir!
I'm happy to see this, and hopefully more of these (found this at random). Our Vietnam veterans deserve to be heard. Vietnam didn't have the "glamour" of WW2, but our service men and women, of all five branches are no less deserving of proper respect, recognition, and appreciation. Perhaps MORE... Those of us who served in the Desert Shield/Storm, and subsequent actions got "thank you for your service". These guys were ridiculed, called "baby killers" (though only maybe 2% of Americans even saw one over there), and were spat upon...
Virtual salute Lt. Taylor, and to every Vietnam veteran !
I might catch some hate for this & I don't give a shite. But I would really love to see a proper and professionally done Museum for the Vietnam war, and Korea too... There's the National WW1 Museum in Missouri. The National WW2 Museum (formerly the D Day museum) in New Orleans.Yes, there's the Wall in DC which is excellent, but I don't feel like it's enough. There were so many unique and historical aspects of it that many people are unaware of, i.e The Tunnels and the volunteer "tunnel rats", use of helicopters to fly troops to & from the battles, the Air Force Pararescumen, the Navy and Coast Guard on inland river patrols, (yes the US Coast Guard was there) and more. No, Vietnam didn't have the glamour of WW2, there were a couple of incidents in it, and violent protests against it, and you had those in other conflicts as far back as the Civil Wars. But it and those who served in it deserve the same recognition as all the others.
THANKS for your comment. Sorry for the late response. We have a small team that covers a lot of ground. Between email, social media and other messaging platforms, it's hard to keep up. YES, Larry Taylor's story is incredible (as is the man himself). It was a tough war for our country and especially for those who served. We can never forget their service and sacrifice. Larry is definitely worthy of the Medal of Honor! Stay tuned!
God Bless You Sir ...Service above Self.
1200 combat missions WOW!
In WW2, in the European theater, our bombers only had to complete 25...
This Man is a real HERO...👍
God bless you sir! Brave man
This great soldier passed away on January 28th 2024, may he rest in peace. Thank you for your service.
Sir you have all my respect. Thank you for your service to our great nation!
Thank you for the service to our country
Men such as this are miracles of survival. I knew a man who had survived 60 missions in a Lancaster Bomber and asked him if he would buy me a lottery ticket.
Thanks you Sir. You are a true HERO!
Mad respect Sir 🇺🇸💗
God bless you sir!!!
Respect, thank you for your service, Sir.
God Bless America.....
Larry you’re a Hero. Loved looking at the vitamin photos you had on the wall of your office at Lookout sheet metal.
REAL heroes!
This is a fantastic story - thanks for sharing it!
Thank you, sir and God bless! Welcome home!
I am proud of an American like you Sir!
1200 missions is another life time....I drop to one knee in awe...
He's definitely MOH material! -- thanks for the comment, Joey!
Should have received the Congressional Medal of Honor, thank you for your service
We agree! Such an incredible man!
His Medal of Honor ceremony is upcoming.
God bless him! All of them! Semper Fi!👍🇺🇸
It's amazing to me because I am very familiar with this story except it was from the perspective of a LRRP/Ranger from the war in Vietnam. In the late 80s through the 90s I was fascinated with books written by veterans documenting their experiences. I can't remember who the author was but I think it was either Rey Martinez or Gary Linderer who wrote the story which included all the division LRRPS and Rangers missions in Vietnam. GOD BLESS Captain Taylor and the 4 LRRPS/Rangers he rescued that night including their families who will forever share a bond.
Awesome job sir !!
Thank you sir
No man left behind. Thank You, Hero!
A US soldier NEVER left behind a US soldier. Only governments did it (1922 Expedition force in USSR and Vietnam 1973).
@@christopherneufelt8971 I'm a veteran of the Desert Storm era, and it always bothered me that some of ours were left behind as POWs in Vietnam, and that we have so many who are still listed as MIA...
@@baronedipiemonte3990 Good morning! I think the worst is when political desicions retain their status well after the war, and none of the normal people speaks about them. Take care soldier and be prepared to defend only what YOU love, the war now is at home.
Bless you Larry.
Respect!
Well that answers a question that I have on occasion pondered. Could, and did a Cobra pick up people in desperate need of extraction during the Vietnam War?
I had wondered the same,in general, saw a documentary several years ago which showed the Israeli Air Force extract ground recon troops with Cobras standing on the skids and holding hand rails & latches.
Great American hero. Best of the best.
God bless and thank you for serving your never forgotten 🙏
Thank you sir for your service and bravery!
Nice job sir. 👍
Now that's a story!
I'll say it.... "Heroes"...!!!!!
This is a stone cold hero.
remarkable...
Wonderful. Thank you.
He's the real deal!
He deserves a medal of honor for sure that took guts what they did
His Medal of Honor ceremony is upcoming.
Congressional Medal of Honor upgrade: awesome news !
1200 missions
Wow 😮
Congratulations on the Medal of Honor!
AWSOME
AWESOME
Bravery and clear, tactical thinking under severe stress. CPT Taylor should have made General. His kind of valor and leadership would have saved many American lives. Salute!! I was flying with a CW2 Vietnam veteran one night. He said “I was shit burner once” I said “WHAT?” He had flown with an authoritarian captain who didn’t know what he was doing. Joe told the CO that he didn’t want to fly with that captain again. CO told him that he would fly with whoever he was told to fly with. Joe said “I’d rather burn shit than fly with him”. The CO said “Ok”. It only lasted one day though. They needed aviators and Joe was good. 😄
To commenter who wrote "more ball than brains," I say, "Guts, yeah. But also BRAINS, BRAINS, BRAINS." As a civilian watching this video, as well as yesterday's MOH ceremony at the White House, I marvel at the quick-thinking, tactical wizardry displayed by this American hero. To figure out where, in that dark and dense jungle, "with no moon, no stars, the only illumination being the Cobra's control panel," to figure out the location of the Viet Cong village, the position of the stranded LRRPs, and the nearest safe zone; to understand maps and coordinates; to calculate, under fire, the angle and altitude necessary to strafe the enemy, as well identify a safe landing spot -- for a mere 10 seconds -- from which to pick up his mates; to calculate, in the heat of the moment, the amount of fuel available vs. the fuel necessary for a challenging rescue.... That all takes BRAINS. Yes, I realize they train for this. But you don't pass training on "balls" alone. Courage, loyalty, conviction, and BRAINS. I salute you, Capt. Larry Taylor
Astonishing
GREAT GREAT GREAT video THANK YOU
"Semper-Fi Sir"
Awesome
Semper Fidelis 🦅🌎⚓ 3/3/3 I .owe my life to a sky pilot and a roving patrol of 101st Airborne cavalry , You've never lived until you've flew in a Cobra 🐍 attack Helicopter ♥️‼️
Cool, the real story👍
Parabéns pela medalha de honra recebida hoje, nada mais que o reconhecimento pela bravura no cumprimento do dever....
I note from his map that this occurred in or near Kien Hoa Province. I spent a year in that Province assigned to MACV ‘70-71.
Awesome story. Would love to hear more.
Thanks for listening
As we say in the UK…..’what a geezer’
Respect
Remarkable man/men
absolutely!
You have to love war story's from a vet or a mother or father. Of seeing there life passed before there eye as a child pull's a crazy stunt and walks out unhurt.
Thanks to crazy acts people came home
great guy
I WAS A GRUNT IN VIETNAM 70-71 ...AS AN E-3/E4 I MADE A WHOPPING $2 , 850...THATS ACCORDING TO MY SOCIAL SECURITY WORK HISTORY....
Glad you made it back to tell us ! One vet to another, a very very late Thanks for your service!