Roy P. Benavidez Was Born in Texas to a Mexican-American Father and a Yaqui Indian Mother. by the Time He Was 7 Years Old, Both Parents Had Died of Tuberculosis
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Roy P. Benavidez was born in Texas to a Mexican-American father and a Yaqui Indian mother. By the time he was 7 years old, both parents had died of tuberculosis. His grandfather, uncle and aunt raised him. Benavidez had a hard life growing up. In order to support his family, he shined shoes, labored on farms and worked at a tire shop. There was little time to attend school. During the Korean War he enlisted in the Texas Army National Guard but didn't see any action, yet. He completed training as a parachutist and was assigned to the famous 82nd Airborne Division. Benavidez qualified for the elite Special Forces and in 1965 was sent to Vietnam as an advisor to the South Vietnamese Army. During a patrol he stepped on a mine, which severely wounded his legs and was evacuated to the United States. Doctors told Benavidez that he would never be able to walk again. However, he demonstrated unbelievable willpower in the attempt to redevelop his ability to walk. He began unsanctioned and excruciating nightly training. Against doctor's orders he got out of bed and would crawl to a wall, propping and pushing himself up against the wall unaided. In July 1966, after over a year of hospitalization, Benavidez walked out of the hospital together with his wife Hilaria Coy Benavidez to whom he was married since 1959. He revealed to her that he is determined to return to combat in Vietnam and indeed redeployed to the war two years later. On 2 May 1968, a 1000-man strong enemy battalion surrounded a small Special Forces team of 12 soldiers. Staff Sergeant Benavidez, monitoring the radio at Forward Operating Base in Loc Ninh, heard the team's request for immediate extraction. Three helicopters tasked for the rescue aborted their flight due to wounded crewmembers and aircraft damage caused by intense anti- aircraft fire. Sergeant Benavidez voluntarily boarded a helicopter for another extraction attempt. He directed the pilot to a nearby clearing in the jungle where he jumped from the hovering helicopter and ran under withering small arms fire to the already crippled team. He was wounded in his right leg, face, and head but ignored these injuries. He took charge, directed the team members’ fire to facilitate the landing of a helicopter. He carried and dragged half of the wounded soldiers to the newly arrived aircraft. He then provided protective fire by running alongside the helicopter as it moved across the clearing to pick up the remaining Special Forces Operators. He came across the body of the dead team leader and recovered classified documents but was shot in the abdomen and grenade fragments hit his back. At nearly the same moment, the aircraft pilot was mortally wounded and crashed. Although he himself was in an extremely critical condition, Sergeant Benavidez assisted 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 a will to live and fight. Sergeant Benavidez called in air strikes and directed gunship fire. He was wounded again in his thigh while administering first aid to a fellow soldier just before another Medevac helicopter was able to land. He began to ferry his comrades to the craft but was clubbed from behind by an enemy soldier. In the ensuing hand-to-hand combat involving bayonets, he sustained additional wounds to his head and arms before killing his adversary. Upon reaching the aircraft, he spotted and killed two enemies who approached the helicopter from an angle that prevented the door gunner from firing upon them. With little strength remaining, he made one last trip to the perimeter to ensure that all remaining wounded were collected and classified material destroyed. Only then he boarded the Medevac. In his extremely serious condition he was evacuated to the base camp, examined by a doctor and delcared dead. He was about to zip up the body bag when Benavidez had only enough strength to spit the doctor in the face, alerting him that the Sergeant was still alive. Benavidez had a total of 37 separate bullet, bayonet and shrapnel wounds from the six-hour fight with the enemy. His fearless personal leadership, tenacious devotion to duty, and valorous actions saved the lives of at least eight men. He received the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism. In 1973, Lieutenant Colonel Ralph R. Drake insisted that Benavidez should receive the Medal of Honor but the Army Decorations Board denied him an upgrade. Specialist 4 Brian O'Connor, the former radioman of Benavidez's Special Forces team in Vietnam, provided a ten-page report of the encounter where O'Connor himself had been severely wounded. In 1980, Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez finally received the Medal of Honor. Four years earlier, he retired from the United States Army. He died 29 November 1998 at the age of 63. His body was escorted to the Church where he had married, where his three children were married, and where he attended Mass every Sunday. Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez was buried with full military honors at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas. .