Extensions of Remarks

4404 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS March 13, 1981 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS THE CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL those angels of mercy who gave their President Reagan will present the medal OF HONOR lives. to Benavidez on Tuesday in a ceremony at But they were behind the lines. the Pentagon. He will leave El Campo, about 60 miles southwest of Houston, today HON. LARRY McDONALD They were not, as they were when we for Washington with his wife and three chil OF GEORGIA mobilized soldiers in Korea, after the dren. Benavidez, who was retired in 1976 as tree cutting incident, next to the IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES a result of combat-related injuries, will be combat soldier in the frontlines. It was the first to be awarded the Medal of Honor Friday, March 13, 1981 there that things went very poorly due during the Reagan administration. e Mr. McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, I to the fact that combat soldiers were Some old Army friends of Benavidez had have been getting quite a bit of flak so busy protecting lady soldiers, that persisted in trying to get him the award. lately because of my stand opposing their mission became impaired. They finally found O'Connor living in a the assignment of women to the mili And so it was back on February 24 of remote part of the Fiji Islands. tary academies. Quite recently, the this year, that Sgt. Roy Benavidez was According to the citation accompanying rewarded for his gallantry. It was a the award, on the morning of May 2, 1968, a significance of that stand was brought 12-man Special Forces reconnaissance team home to me when a Special Forces mixture of faith in God and love of was ferried by helicopters into an area that Green Beret Sgt. Brian O'Connor, fell ow man that prompted his action, was routinely patroled by North Vietnamese stopped by my office for a visit. Brian and the less heralded self-sacrifice of soldiers to gather intelligence about enemy is now medically retired from the Brian O'Connor. They were the center activity. Soon after they landed, the team Green Berets in the Fiji Islands. It is of heroism and gallantry on that day, came under heavy enemy fire. thanks to him that Sgt. Roy Bena as others were, who also served. They Three helicopters were called in to rescue were there as men, so their female the team but were unable to land due to vides recently became President Rea enemy small-arms and antiaircraft fire. Ben gan's first recipient of the Nation's counterparts, as has always been the case down through the ages, the avidez, then a staff sergeant, was at an oper highest award for valor-The Congres ations base in Loe Ninh monitoring the op sional Medal of Honor. center of love back home • • • while eration when the helicopters returned. Probably the extent of Brian O'Con brave men served, and died. He voluntarily boarded a returning heli nor's own story will never be told. The story of Roy P. Benavidez and copter to aid in still another rescue attempt. However, it does not take much to Brian O'Connor, by Mary Barrineau Realizing that all of the team members note the pain and suffering this man of the Dallas Times Herald, as carried were either dead or wounded and unable to endures carrying shrapnel in his knees in the February 22, 1981, edition of move to a new pickup zone, Benavidez for the rest of his life. I wonder how the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and Adver jumped from the hovering aircraft and ran tiser follows: about 50 yards under small-arms fire to the many parents today would want their team. daughters to suffer so. TEXAN To RECEIVE MEDAL-13 YEARS LATE "I just made the sign of the cross and This is only part of the story. There DALLAS.-When some Army veterans con jumped into the helicopter and then made were Green Beret camps that for up to tacted Brian O'Connor, last year at his the sign of the cross and jumped out," Ben 7 months of the year were underwater home in the Fiji Islands to ask about the avidez said last week. "I guess it was just a man who had saved his life 13 years ago in gut feeling. I guess the good Lord just said in the delta region of South Vietnam. Vietnam, O'Connor couldn't believe the Rats and other vermin ran over the today is your day." Despite being wounded man was alive. in the leg, face and head, he took charge bodies of these men in the middle of "Last time I saw him, he was floating in and directed the rescue effort, throwing the night. But these men, known by his own blood," said O'Connor. smoke canisters to direct the helicopter to the immortal designation as America's O'Connor didn't want to talk about that the team's position. He then provided pro best, did not falter. Out they came horrible day, May 2, 1968, when he and 11 tective fire by running alongside the air from such desolate outposts to inter other reconnaissance-team members were craft as it moved to pick up the remaining trapped by heavy enemy fire in a dense team members. dict the terrorist Vietcong, so innocent jungle near Loe Ninh. villagers, women and children, would The veterans gave him an El Campo, Tex., As enemy fire increased, Benavidez hur not become the innocent slaughtered. phone number. ried, to recover the dead team leader's body To suffer such privations; to be en O'Connor called the number and found and his classified documents. When he gaged in mortal combat; to be wound himself speaking to retired Army Master reached the body, Benavidez was wounded Sgt. Roy P. Benavidez, who saved the lives severely in the abdomen by small-arms fire ed eight times as Sergeant Benavidez and in the back by grenade fragments. was in one battle; this is not the job of of O'Connor and at least seven other men that day. At nearly the same moment, the helicop an American or any other woman. Benavidez had thought that O'Connor ter pilot was mortally wounded and his craft As a former Navy doctor and physi was dead and O'Connor had thought that crashed. cian, I know the abilities and limita Benavidez was dead. Although by now in extremely serious tions of women better than the aver "We spent $100 or $150 on the phone call condition, Benavidez made his way back to age person. And yet the flak does not before we were even able to say anything," the wreckage, helped the wounded out and cease, simply because I . do now want, said Benavidez as he recalled his conversa gathered them into a defensive perimeter. and have introduced legislation, that tion with O'Connor. " It was just a little With enemy automatic weapons and gre bitty squeak coming out of our throats." nade fire increasing, he moved around the women do not belong at our service O'Connor's testimony resulted in the perimeter distributing water and ammuni academies. The purpose of the acade awarding of the Medal of Honor, the na tion to the weary men and urging them to mies is to train individuals for combat. tion's highest military decoration, to Bena fight. Benavidez then began calling in tacti Whether air, ground, or sea, that is videz for "extremely valorous actions in the cal air strikes and directing the fire of sur the job of a man. face of overwhelming odds." rounding gunships. This does not in any way degrade Benavidez, now 45, was awarded the mili While administering first aid to a wound the role of women in the military. We tary's second highest honor, the Distin ed team member, he was wounded again in guished Service Cross, in 1968. He had been the thigh just as another rescue helicopter know those brave girls in indian white rejected for the Medal of Honor by the landed. Benavidez continued to aid in the who gave their lives as nurses for the Joint Chiefs of Staff because of insufficient rescue, carrying the wounded men to the wounded, when the enemy chose to evidence to make a decision. But with aircraft. make the red cross of mercy the target O'Connor's testimony, the Joint Chiefs ap On his second trip with the wounded, he of their mortars or artillery. God bless proved the award last summer. was clubbed from behind by an enemy sol- e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by the Member on the floor. March 13, 1981 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 4405 dier. In the ensuing hand-to-hand combat, REMARKS BY DAVID HALBERSTAM This paper was presented at a joint he suffered more wounds on his head and First, this is absolutely the most extraor public hearing of the committees for arms before killing his adversary. dinary political meeting that I've ever been foreign affairs and for defense of the Upon reaching the aircraft, Benavidez to, because Allard Lowenstein is here on Second Chamber <Lower House) of the spotted and killed two enemy soldiers who time. were rushing the helicopter from an angle Dutch Parliament on March 6, 1981. I, like many others, take pleasure from Although the views expressed were his that prevented the door gunner from firing the diversity of us here tonight-a sense of at them. the resurgence, the resilience of the kinds of own, Mr.

Load more