06 July 2004 Michael was my younger brother who fell in love with flying while we were in high school. Michael obtained his private pilot's license while we were in high school. He went on to college to the University of Colorado. After only two years of college he quit and joined the Army to fly helicopters because of his love of flying. He had from what I understand only five days left of his tour of duty in Vietnam when his craft went down in Saigon. He was there from 1968 - 1969 I believe in unit 105 AC 120 AHC. I still don't know what caused him to go down. I have heard three different stories to this date. Anybody out there that might have known CW2 Michael George Taylor from El Paso, Texas, I sure would like to hear from you. I can be reached at steptex@hotmail.com. God bless you, my brother, I will see you soon. Stephen Taylor steptex@hotmail.com

 

A Note from The Virtual Wall Six men died when UH-1H tail number 66-17042 had an engine failure shortly after take-off from the "Hotel-3" heliport just south of Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon. The aircraft had climbed to about 400 feet when the engine failed; although the pilot initiated an autorotation the aircraft had too little altitude and airspeed to safely autorotate to landing. Instead, the aircraft broke up on ground impact, with the cabin section continuing in motion for some 130 feet before coming to rest and burning. There were two survivors. The dead were Aircrew, 120th Avn Co: CWO Michael G. Taylor, El Paso, TX, pilot WO Dale A. Yateman, Lynnwood, WA, copilot SP4 Barry L. Golden, Ferguson, MO, door gunner SP4 Philip C. Stafford, Camarillo, CA, crew chief Passengers: SP5 Terry W. Dickerhoff, Plymouth, IN, HHC, 1st Avn Bde SP5 Rex E. Rader, Bend, OR, 120th Avn Co The above account is derived from the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots' Association database of helicopter incidents.

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