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Express-News: Top Stories
Legislature honors Vietnam
War hero Roy P. Benavidez
By Sig Christenson
San Antonio Express-News
05/03/2001
AUSTIN — Army Master Sgt. Roy P.
Benavidez always did his duty.
"Dad would be humbled, but he
wouldn't accept this award for himself personally," Noel Benavidez said of
the honor presented posthumously to his father, Army Master Sgt. Roy P.
Benavidez.
Photos by John Davenport/Express-News
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Medal of Honor,
Texas paid tribute to Benavidez's selfless act.
In a rare hourlong joint session Wednesday, the House and Senate
gave the late Benavidez the Texas Legislative Medal of Honor, making
him the first Hispanic and only third veteran from the Lone Star
State to receive the honor.
The last joint session was held Feb. 16, 1999, in observance of
Military Appreciation Day.
"We use the word hero sometimes lightly," Gov. Rick Perry said in an
interview before addressing the session. "But there's only one word
to describe Roy Benavidez, and it is appropriate to use the word
hero. He was a great man."
Thirty-three years to the day he saved eight fellow Special Forces
soldiers in the jungles of Cambodia, an action that earned him the
Though Benavidez died nearly three years ago at age 63 in San
Antonio, his memory was celebrated by family, friends and fellow
soldiers who gathered in the House as lawmakers watched his wife,
Hilaria, receive the medal from Perry. |
| "Dad would be humbled, but he wouldn't accept this
award for himself personally," said Noel Benavidez, his
28-year-old son. "He would accept it for those heroes who
fought and died alongside of him that day." |
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A procession of speakers then paid
tribute to Benavidez, who also was posthumously given a Presidential Unit
Citation for his service as a member of the small Studies and Observations
Group.
The elite group worked in Cambodia and Laos during the Vietnam War and was
so secretive its members wore no U.S. markings and used weapons made
outside the United States. Credited with forcing North Vietnam to post
50,000 troops in the region, it wasn't acknowledged by the government
until last year.
"Dad would be humbled, but he wouldn't accept this award for himself
personally," said Noel Benavidez, his 28-year-old son. "He would accept it
for those heroes who fought and died alongside of him that day."
"He probably would say that he couldn't believe it," Hilaria Benavidez
said. "But I'm sure he's very happy."
Benavidez died at Brooke Army Medical Center on Nov. 29, 1998, 30 years
after enduring a battle he described as "six hours of hell."
A North Vietnamese regiment surrounded a dozen soldiers from his unit
during a secret mission to Cambodia on May 2, 1968. Three helicopters
trying to save the men came under heavy fire and were unable to land.
Benavidez suffered wounds to the right leg, face and head while charging
through heavy enemy fire to reach the helicopter. He repositioned soldiers
so they could give cover to the helicopters, then carried the wounded to
nearby aircraft.
As the fight raged, Benavidez retrieved secret papers, then gathered
wounded troops from a downed aircraft and set up a defense perimeter. He
called in airstrikes, directed fire from helicopters buzzing over the
battlefield and, though injured himself, gave first aid to wounded fellow
troops.
"Because of his selfless acts, the lives of eight American soldiers were
saved and miraculously, despite being wounded more than 40 times, Roy
Benavidez endured," Perry told those in the crowded chamber.
"He endured another 30 years, 30 years in which he lived with a punctured
lung, 30 years he lived with two pieces of shrapnel lodged (near) his
heart."
Retired Sgt. Maj. Benito Guerrero, an old friend, said Benavidez began to
reach out to young people after receiving the Medal of Honor on Feb. 24,
1981, from President Reagan, who urged him to be an example to others.
Over the years Benavidez urged kids to stay in school and stay off drugs.
"Until failing health stopped him only a few months before he died, he was
still going about the business of saving lives," said Chris Barbee, editor
and owner of a newspaper in El Campo, where Benavidez lived most of his
life.
House Speaker Pete Laney chuckled as he thought of a meeting years ago
with Benavidez, who was "tougher than nails but (had) a good heart."
"If you went into an alley, you'd want him with you," Laney said with a
smile.
The Navy last fall said it would name the seventh in a class of large,
medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off sealift ships in his honor. It will
christen the USNS Benavidez on July 21 in New Orleans.
A $14 million special operations complex was dedicated two years ago in
his honor at Fort Bragg, N.C. The 42,124-square-foot complex is used to
deploy combat service and health units to Special Operations units.
Benavidez follows Lt. Jack Knight and James Marion Logan in receiving the
Texas Legislative Medal of Honor. Though a law creating the medal took
effect in 1963, the first one was given to Logan, of Kilgore, in 1997.
Rep. Miguel D. Wise, D-Weslaco, and Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso,
spearheaded the drive to give the award to Benavidez.
"I was getting chills this morning as they were reading the citation,"
said Rep. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, who joined the Marines as a
private and left in 1989 as an officer. "I was trying to imagine as he
went through that day, and I just couldn't imagine. But obviously he did
it because he loved his fellow soldiers."
sigc@express-news.net
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