An amazing story of a true American hero:

An amazing story of a true American hero:

  On February 24, 1981, President Ronald Reagan presented Roy P. Benavidez with the Medal of Honor.  President Reagan turned to the press and said, "If the story of his heroism were a movie script, you would not believe it".  MSG Benavidez came very close to not receiving this award.  In order to receive the MOH, the Army board requires an eye witness to the act of heroism.  MSG Benavidez believed there were no living witnesses of the "Six Hours of Hell".  Sergeant BENAVIDEZ was wounded 38 times.  

  Unbeknownst to Benavidez, there was a living witness, who would later provide the eyewitness account necessary:  Brian O'Connor, the former radio man of Benavidez's Special Forces team in Vietnam.  O'Connor had bee 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 when, in 1980, he was on holiday in Australia.  During his holiday, O,Connor read a newspaper account of Benavidez from an El Campo newspaper, which had been picked up by the international press and reprinted in Australia.  O'Connor immediately contacted Benavidez and submitted a ten-page report of the encounter, 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.

 MSG Benavidez's award reads as follows:  

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 the helicopters returned to off-load the wounded.  Sergeant BENAVIDEZ voluntarily boarded a returning helicopter 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 a medevac helicopter.  The helicopter receive heavy fire and Sergeant BENAVIDEZ 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 of the Team Leader and classified documents.

When he reached the Team 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 commander was mortally wounded and the 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, reinstalling in them the will to live and fight.  Facing a buildup of enemy opposition with a beleaguered team, Sergeant BENAVIDEZ mustered his strength and began calling in tactical airstrikes and directing the fire from supporting gunships to suppress the enemy's fire and 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 aircraft.  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 wounds to his head and arms before killing the enemy soldier.

Sergeant BENAVIDEZ then made one last trip around the perimeter to ensure all wounded were aboard and all classified material was accounted for.  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 BENAVIDEZ gallant choice to join voluntarily 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.