Fort Riley Public Affairs Office release
FORT RILEY, Kansas - The 1st Infantry Division conducted a street renaming ceremony to commemorate the heroic actions of Capt. Larry L. Taylor, a veteran of the First Division awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Vietnam War, on Fort Riley, Nov. 1, 2024.
The ceremony to commemorate Taylor’s heroism during the Vietnam War took place at the corner where the formerly named Smoky Hill Road and Marshall Drive meet on post.
“This is a tremendous honor for a tremendous pilot,” said Sgt. (Ret.) Dave Hill, a veteran of the 1st Infantry Division, rescued by Taylor in the Vietnam War. “As long as we remember him in events like this, Larry is still here.”
The newly named Taylor Road is another reminder of the 1st Infantry Division’s dedication to honoring the legacy of Soldiers of the Big Red One.
On June 18, 1968, at approximately 9 p.m., a horn sounded, and the pilots raced to get their helicopters enroute to a rice paddy near a village south of Ap Go Cong, Bình Dương Province of the Republic of Vietnam. After learning that the coordinates led to a four-man long-range reconnaissance patrol team whom the enemy had outnumbered and surrounded, Taylor had to think fast. He told his co-pilot to fire his last bullets along the east side of the patrol group then go back to base. Taylor used the helicopter’s lights to conceal the patrol group as they fled for safety.
Flying into the enemy, in his helicopter designed for two, he rescued four additional people on its landing gear - a feat never attempted before.