Benavidez had a total of 37 separate bullet, bayonet, and shrapnel wounds from the six hour fight with the enemy battalion.
He was evacuated to the base camp, examined, and thought to be dead.
He couldn’t open his eyes because of the amount of blood that had dried over them. He couldn’t talk, because he had been hit in the mouth with a rifle butt and his jaws were locked.
As he was being placed in a body bag among the other dead, he was suddenly recognized by a friend who called for help. A doctor came and examined him but believed Benavidez was dead.
The doctor was zipping up the body bag when Benavidez managed to spit in his face, alerting the doctor that he was alive.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“I was wheeled into the operating room and as I was being lifted to my operating table, I saw this nurse on her hands and knees, crying, yelling, asking God .......
‘Why do you do this to these men? Why?’ ”
[still in Viet Nam]
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. [on medivac airplane flight to Japan]
“ ‘You’re not going to die on me, Benavidez,’ this nurse kept yelling at me. ‘I’m going to pinch you every time you close your eyes. I’m gonna pinch you. I’m gonna pinch you.’
“Boy, she kept pinching me.
“When I got to Japan, and they wheeled me into the operating room, they disrobed me, I remember the doctor—I heard him say, ‘What in the world happened to you?’
“I had blue spots, red spots all over me. And I said, ‘That lady kept pinching me up there.’ ”
.....................................................
Medal of Honor recommendation
In 1973, after more detailed accounts became available, Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel Ralph R. Drake insisted that Benavidez receive the Medal of Honor. By then, however, the time limit on the medal had expired.
An appeal to Congress resulted in an exemption for Benavidez, but the Army Decorations Board denied him an upgrade of his Distinguished Service Cross to the Medal of Honor.
The Army board required an eyewitness account from someone present during the action, and Benavidez believed that there were no living witnesses of the “Six Hours in Hell.”
US Army retirement
In August 1976, Benavidez retired from the United States Army as a master sergeant.
Medal of Honor
In 1980, Brian O’Connor, the former radioman of Benavidez’s Special Forces team in Vietnam, provided a ten-page report of the encounter on May 2, 1968. O’Connor had been severely wounded (Benavidez had believed him dead), and he was evacuated to the United States before his superiors could fully debrief him. O’Connor had been living in the Fiji Islands and was on holiday in Australia when he read a newspaper account of Benavidez from an El Campo newspaper. The story had been picked up by the international press and reprinted in Australia. O’Connor immediately contacted Benevidez and submitted his report, confirming the accounts provided by others, and serving as the necessary eyewitness.
Benavidez’s Distinguished Service Cross accordingly was upgraded to the Medal of Honor.
....................................................
On February 24, 1981, President Ronald Reagan presented Roy P. Benavidez with the Medal of Honor. Reagan said, “If the story of his heroism were a movie script, you would not believe it”. He then read the official award citation. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Army Master Sgt. Roy P. Benavidez (center) and President Ronald Reagan at his Medal of Honor presentation ceremony in 1981. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/Roy_Benavidez_MOH_ceremony.jpg/553px-Roy_Benavidez_MOH_ceremony.jpg
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
BENAVIDEZ, ROY P.
Rank and organization: Master Sergeant. Organization: Detachment B-56, 5th Special Forces Group, Republic of Vietnam Place and date: West of Loc Ninh on May 2, 1968 Entered service at: Houston, Texas June 1955 Born: August 5, 1935, DeWitt County, Cuero, Texas.
Master Sergeant (then Staff Sergeant) Roy P. BENAVIDEZ United States Army, distinguished himself by a series of daring and extremely valorous actions on 2 May 1968 while assigned to Detachment B56, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, Republic of Vietnam.
On the morning of 2 May 1968, a 12-man Special Forces Reconnaissance Team was inserted by helicopters of the 240th Assault Helicopter Company in a dense jungle area west of Loc Ninh, Vietnam to gather intelligence information about confirmed large-scale enemy activity.
This area was controlled and routinely patrolled by the North Vietnamese Army. After a short period of time on the ground, the team met heavy enemy resistance, and requested emergency extraction. Three helicopters attempted extraction, but were unable to land due to intense enemy small arms and anti-aircraft fire.
Sergeant BENAVIDEZ was at the Forward Operating Base in Loc Ninh monitoring the operation by radio when these helicopters, of the 240th Assault Helicopter Company, returned to off-load wounded crew members and to assess aircraft damage. Sergeant Benavidez voluntarily boarded a returning aircraft to assist in another extraction attempt.
Realizing that all the team members were either dead or wounded and unable to move to the pickup zone, he directed the aircraft to a nearby clearing where he jumped from the hovering helicopter, and ran approximately 75 meters under withering small arms fire to the crippled team.
Prior to reaching the team’s position he was wounded in his right leg, face, and head. Despite these painful injuries, he took charge, repositioning the team members and directing their fire to facilitate the landing of an extraction aircraft, and the loading of wounded and dead team members. He then threw smoke canisters to direct the aircraft to the team’s position.
Despite his severe wounds and under intense enemy fire, he carried and dragged half of the wounded team members to the awaiting aircraft. He then provided protective fire by running alongside the aircraft as it moved to pick up the remaining team members. As the enemy’s fire intensified, he hurried to recover the body and classified documents on the dead team leader.
When he reached the leader’s body, Sergeant BENAVIDEZ was severely wounded by small arms fire in the abdomen and grenade fragments in his back. At nearly the same moment, the aircraft pilot was mortally wounded, and his helicopter crashed.
Although in extremely critical condition due to his multiple wounds, Sergeant Benavidez secured the classified documents and made his way back to the wreckage, where he aided the wounded out of the overturned aircraft, and gathered the stunned survivors into a defensive perimeter. Under increasing enemy automatic weapons and grenade fire, he moved around the perimeter distributing water and ammunition to his weary men, reinstilling in them a will to live and fight.
Facing a buildup of enemy opposition with a beleaguered team, Sergeant BENAVIDEZ mustered his strength, began calling in tactical air strikes and directed the fire from supporting gunships to suppress the enemy’s fire and so permit another extraction attempt.
He was wounded again in his thigh by small arms fire while administering first aid to a wounded team member just before another extraction helicopter was able to land. His indomitable spirit kept him going as he began to ferry his comrades to the craft.
On his second trip with the wounded, he was clubbed from behind by an enemy soldier. In the ensuing hand-to-hand combat, he sustained additional bayonet wounds to his head and both arms before killing his adversary. He then continued under devastating fire to carry the wounded to the helicopter.
Upon reaching the aircraft, he spotted and killed two enemy soldiers who were rushing the craft from an angle that prevented the aircraft door gunner from firing upon them. With little strength remaining, he made one last trip to the perimeter to ensure that all classified material had been collected or destroyed, and to bring in the remaining wounded. Only then, in extremely serious condition from numerous wounds and loss of blood, did he allow himself to be pulled into the extraction aircraft.
Sergeant BENAVIDEZS’ gallant choice to voluntarily join his comrades who were in critical straits, to expose himself constantly to withering enemy fire, and his refusal to be stopped despite numerous severe wounds, saved the lives of at least eight men.
His fearless personal leadership, tenacious devotion to duty, and extremely valorous actions in the face of overwhelming odds were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service, and reflect the utmost credit on him and the United States Army.
http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/3229/benavidez-roy-p.php ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
President Ronald Reagan speech at Medal of Honor Ceremony for MSG Roy Benavidez
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oUtJxE4sjs From O:OO—5:10 on the Video
From SAME VIDEO 1991 speech by Benavidez— start at 14:30 on the Video
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Master Sergeant. BENAVIDEZ, ROY P.
• Born: August 5, 1935, Cuero, TX
• Died: November 29, 1998, San Antonio Military Medical Center, San Antonio, TX
Place of burial Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery
Allegiance United States of America
Service/branch United States Army
Years of service 1952–1976
Rank Master Sergeant
Unit 5th Special Forces Group
Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACVSOG)
Battles/wars Vietnam War
Awards ————
Medal of Honor
Purple Heart (5)
Defense Meritorious Service Medal
Meritorious Service Medal
Army Commendation Medal
Combat Infantryman Badge
Texas Legislative Medal of Honor
(partial list)
LTC Drake was the CO of Project Sigma (Detachment B-56) not far outside of Saigon close to the Viet military academy. O’Connor had been on the ground as he was one of the two USSF on the recon team Roy went in to assist. Sigma had the sharpest S-1 personnel officer I ever met in the Army. He was a 1965 West Point grad. Sadly he died last year in April.
That’s a wow.
5.56mm
