Caroline Colvin’s grandfather served in the military in the Vietnam War, but he has never talked much about it.
So it was “eye-opening,” she said, when she listened to a Vietnam veteran talk openly and in frightening detail about the heroics of Capt. Larry Taylor, a Chattanooga native and helicopter pilot who rescued four soldiers trapped by heavy enemy fire in a rice paddy in 1968.
Caroline Colvin
Colvin, a senior in communication and Spanish at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, turned that powerful tale into “The Road to the Medal”—a story that led to her selection as one of the Top 10 winners in the 2023-2024 Hearst Journalism Awards for Feature Writing. She was the first UTC student to earn a writing honor in the prestigious competition.
Veteran Dave Hill told Colvin how he and three other soldiers clung to the helicopter’s rocket pods and landing skids after Taylor dropped down to ground level and, 10 seconds later, lifted the men 1,500 feet straight up.
“I can’t imagine how traumatic that is. So that was different for me because I don’t hear people talk about it very often,” Colvin said.
“The Road to the Medal” ranked seventh among 152 stories submitted by students from 82 journalism schools nationwide.
“Stories should be memorable for their reporting, crafting, creativity and economy of expression,” according to the Hearst Journalism Awards website.
“The Road to the Medal” was made as a project in Rising Rock, a UTC course where students create journalism pieces that combine writing, audio and visual components. For her story, Colvin interviewed Hill, who spoke in great detail about the terror he felt before being rescued through Taylor’s bravery.
“Her writing paints a vivid picture of this rescue. She came back with a story fit for a movie set,” said Billy Weeks, creator and director of Rising Rock. “Her winning story is an amazing accomplishment.”
For the video that accompanied Colvin’s story, Taylor Carmody, a senior in communication, interviewed Mike Holden, another soldier rescued by Taylor.
Colvin, who also is editor-in-chief of the University Echo, the student newspaper at UTC, said her conversation with Hill struck a journalistic chord inside her.
“As I heard him talking, I realized, ‘Wow, this is a really important story,’” recalled Colvin, “and it makes you think: How many other people have stories like that that we just don’t know about?”
After years of work by Hill and others, Taylor was awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor for his bravery, the highest honor in the U.S. Armed Forces. He received his Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony on Sept. 5, 2023, and was honored six days later with a parade in Chattanooga.
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