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The White House announced Friday that a former Vietnam Cobra pilot would be awarded the Medal of Honor next week for his actions rescuing four GIs during a firefight on June 18, 1968. Think about that a little – he managed to get four guys from imminent danger using a two-seater attack chopper with no passenger capacity. Huh?<\/p>\n
On the night of June 18, 1968, Taylor took off in his attack helicopter to rescue four men on a long-range reconnaissance team that had become surrounded and was in danger of being overrun by enemy troops. He had to figure out a way to get them out, otherwise \u201cthey wouldn’t make it.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Hill, one of the men Taylor saved that night, said Taylor’s actions were what \u201cwe now call thinking outside the box.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hill and the three others were on a night mission to track the movement of enemy troops in a village near the Saigon River when they were found by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops. An intense firefight ensued and soon they were running out of ammunition. They radioed for help.<\/p>\n
Taylor and a pilot in an accompanying helicopter started firing their ships’ Miniguns and aerial rockets at the enemy, making low-level attack runs and braving intense ground fire for about half an hour.<\/p>\n
But with both helicopters nearly out of ammunition and the enemy continuing to advance, Taylor surveyed the team’s intended escape route to a point near the river and concluded that the men would be overrun if they tried to get there.<\/p>\n
Taylor directed his wingman to fire the rounds left in his Minigun along the team’s eastern flank and then head back to base camp, while Taylor fired his remaining rounds on the western flank. He used the helicopter’s landing lights to distract the enemy, buying time for the patrol team to head south and east toward a different extraction point he had identified.<\/p>\n
The four team members rushed toward the helicopter and clung to the exterior \u2014 it only had two seats \u2014 and Taylor whisked them away to safety. He was on the ground for about 10 seconds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI finally just flew up behind them and sat down on the ground,\u201d Taylor said during a telephone interview this week. \u201cThey turned around and jumped on the aircraft. A couple were sitting on the skids. One was sitting on the rocket pods, and I don’t know where the other one was, but they beat on the side of the ship twice, which meant haul a- -. And we did!”<\/p>\n
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. AP<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Hard to believe a Cobra could lift two crew, four riders, and those gigantic…<\/p>\n
Can’t help but compare his three-row rack with the North-Korean general look it seems the kids have nowadays….by the time they do one overseas tour they list to port from the weight of all the bling. Mr. Taylor reminds me of the old paratroop soldier’s joke about “Only four jumps? Where did you\u00a0 jump?” “Sicily, Salerno, Normandy, and Holland”.<\/p>\n
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