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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.
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| "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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