Roy Benavídez

Roy Benavídez

Raúl "Roy" Pérez Benavídez (born August 5, 1935 in Lindenau near Cuero , DeWitt County , Texas , † November 29, 1998 in San Antonio , Bexar County , Texas) was an American soldier of the Assistance Command, Vietnam - Studies and Observation Group (MACV-SOG) , which was awarded the Medal of Honor , the highest honor for bravery of the US armed forces, for a service during the Vietnam War .

Life

Benavídez was half Mexican and half Yaqui Indian. He lost his parents to tuberculosis at an early age and then grew up with relatives in El Campo . In 1952, when he was 17, he joined the Texas National Guard and joined the regular army in 1955 . After completing his training in 1959, he was transferred to the 82nd Airborne Division. In June 1959 he married his girlfriend and had three children with her.

In 1964 he was relocated to South Vietnam as a consultant to the ARVN . While on patrol there, he stepped on a land mine and was seriously wounded. He was taken to the United States where he was treated for months at Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Sam Houston .

In July 1966 he was able to leave the hospital and began special training with the MACV-SOG in Fort Bragg . He was assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group as a " Green Beret " and was deployed again in Vietnam from January 1968.

In 1976 he resigned from the army and lived with his family in El Campo, Texas until his death in 1998.

Use that led to the Medal of Honor

On the morning of May 2, 1968, a twelve-man Special Forces reconnaissance unit was deployed at Lộc Ninh in the Bình Phước province , near the Cambodian border in south Vietnam, to confirm large-scale movements of the NVA in the area. The unit consisted of three US soldiers from "Detachment B-56", Sergeant First Class Leroy Wright, Staff Sergeant Lloyd Mousseau and Specialist 4 Brian O'Connor, as well as two South Vietnamese officers acting as interpreters and seven locals from the Civilian Irregular Defense Group ( CIDG).

In the early afternoon the unit was spotted and attacked by numerically superior enemy forces. An emergency evacuation by helicopter had to be aborted unsuccessfully due to the heavy defensive fire.

Benavídez had followed the action by radio from the Forward Operating Base in Lộc Ninh and got into one of the returned helicopters to take part in a new rescue attempt. Near the oppressed unit, he jumped unarmed over a clearing from the still hovering helicopter and ran through enemy fire over open terrain to the oppressed unit, where he was wounded for the first time. He took command of the soldiers who were still alive, assigned positions and coordinated the defensive fire, whereupon a helicopter managed to touch down in the clearing. Benavídez managed to drag half of the wounded to the helicopter and to recover the secret documents and radio codes in close combat and despite further injuries under the heaviest enemy fire.

In the meantime, however, the helicopter has been shot down and the pilot killed. Benavídez, who had meanwhile armed himself with the rifle of a fallen North Vietnamese, was able to form a new line of defense with the remaining survivors and call for air support. When another helicopter dared to land, Benavídez again helped to load the wounded, and he was also involved in a man-to-man fight with the enemy . After killing three NVA soldiers and loading all of the wounded into the helicopter, he ran to the positions again and made sure that the enemy would no longer get any sensitive documents or equipment. Only now did he get himself into a helicopter and let himself be flown out.

Effects

Benavídez suffered seven gunshot wounds, a broken jaw from a blow with a rifle butt and stab wounds from a bayonet on both arms, and hand grenade fragments had to be removed from his head, face, shoulders, back, buttocks, legs and feet. Shortly after his rescue, he lost consciousness due to his blood loss, which, together with his numerous visible injuries, led to the fact that he was initially declared dead and placed in a body bag before a doctor found any signs of life. It was about a year before he could leave the hospital.

Six of the B56 detachment soldiers were killed, including Leroy Wright and Lloyd Mousseau. Both were posthumously honored with the Distinguished Service Cross , the second highest military valor award in the United States. Benavídez was able to save eight of the twelve soldiers, but two of them later died from their injuries.

Honors

Since his unit commander was convinced that Benavídez would not survive his wounds, he also proposed him for the Distinguished Service Cross in order to present him with an award before his death. Because the Medal of Honor often requires extensive reports and months of research before the US Congress approves an award. Benavídez received the Distinguished Service Cross from General William Westmoreland , the commander in chief of the US armed forces in Vietnam.

US Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, Roy Benavídez and US President Ronald Reagan during the Medal of Honor award ceremony in 1981

It was not until his former commanding officer learned of his recovery and the full extent of his commitment became known that President Ronald Reagan personally awarded him the Medal of Honor in 1981.

In addition to the two highest awards of the US armed forces, he also received the South Vietnamese Anh-Dung Boi-Tinh (Vietnam Cross of Gallantry; awarded for heroic behavior in the fight against the enemy), four times the Purple Heart , seven Army Good Conduct Medals (one for three years of honorable and loyal service) and the Texas Legislative Medal of Honor (the highest military honor in the state of Texas).

Further honors

• Honorary degree from the New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI)
• Elected Texan of the Year 1981
• In 1993 he presented Martha Raye with the Medal of Freedom awarded by US President Bill Clinton
• Issued a special postage stamp with his image by the United States Postal Service
• Received the Lifetime Achievement Award from St. Mary's University in San Antonio
• Introduction of a GI Joe action figure modeled after him
• Erecting a memorial in Indianapolis
• Honorary grave at Fort Sam Houston Cemetery
• In 2003 the Navy put the transport ship USNS Benavidez (T-AKR-306) named after him into service

In addition, a city park in Colorado Springs (Colorado), a conference room of the United States Military Academy in West Point (New York) and several schools, military buildings and military training areas in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kentucky and North Carolina were named after him.

literature

• The Three Wars of Roy Benavidez (1986)
• The Last Medal of Honor (1991)
• Medal of Honor: A Vietnam Warrior's Story (1995)

Web links

• Wright's team
• Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez
• Hispanic Americans in the USArmy
• Video of the award ceremony and speech in 1991