Raul Perez "Roy" Benavidez

Braved six hours of enemy fire to save his wounded comrades.

Raul Perez Benavidez, known as Roy, was born near Cuero, Texas, on 5 August 1935. Of Mexican-American and Yaqui ancestry, he lost both parents in childhood and grew up with relatives in El Campo. He left school to help support his family through agricultural work and joined the Texas Army National Guard in 1952. In 1955 he entered the Regular Army, later serving with the 82nd Airborne Division.

During a Vietnam advisory tour in 1965, a land mine severely injured his spine and left him unable to walk. Facing medical discharge, he undertook a determined rehabilitation programme and returned to duty. He completed Special Forces training in 1967 and deployed again in January 1968 with the 5th Special Forces Group.

On 2 May 1968, Staff Sergeant Benavidez learned that a twelve-man reconnaissance team was surrounded west of Loc Ninh, across the border in Cambodia. He volunteered for a helicopter rescue attempt. Jumping from the aircraft with a medical bag, he ran through enemy fire and was wounded before reaching the team. He reorganized the survivors, gave first aid and helped carry casualties to helicopters. When one helicopter crashed, he freed its occupants and rebuilt their defensive perimeter. Despite further gunshot and fragmentation wounds, he coordinated supporting fire, recovered classified documents and continued loading the wounded. Attacked by an enemy soldier, he fought him off and persisted until the remaining survivors had been evacuated. His actions over approximately six hours saved at least eight men.

After another prolonged recovery, Benavidez continued serving, including assignments at Fort Riley and Fort Sam Houston. He retired as a master sergeant in 1976 and returned to El Campo with his family. Initially awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for the rescue, he received the Medal of Honor from President Ronald Reagan at the Pentagon on 24 February 1981 after additional eyewitness testimony supported the upgrade.

In retirement, Benavidez became a speaker and mentor, urging young people to pursue education and avoid gangs. He also campaigned to preserve disability benefits for veterans and wrote about his experiences. He died in San Antonio on 29 November 1998, aged sixty-three, and was buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. In 2001, Texas posthumously awarded him its Legislative Medal of Honor.

Texas awarded him its Legislative Medal of Honor posthumously in 2001. This state honour is recorded separately from his federal Army decorations.

Official Medal of Honor citation:

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, March 3, 1863, has awarded in the name of the Congress the Medal of Honor to Master Sergeant Roy P. Benavidez, United States Army, Retired, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty:

On May 2, 1968, Master Sergeant (then Staff Sergeant) Roy P. Benavidez distinguished himself by a series of daring and extremely valorous actions while assigned to Detachment B-56, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, Republic of Vietnam. On the morning of May 2, 1968, a 12-man Special Forces Reconnaissance Team was inserted by helicopters 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 these helicopters returned to off-load wounded crewmembers and to assess aircraft damage.

Sergeant Benavidez voluntarily boarded a returning aircraft 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 an extraction aircraft, and the loading of wounded and dead team members. He then threw smoke cannisters to direct the aircraft to the team's position. Despite his severe wounds and under intense enemy fire, he carried and dragged half of the wounded team members to the awaiting aircraft.

He then 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 and the classified documents on the dead team leader. 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 pilot was mortally wounded, and his 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, reinstilling in them a will to live and fight.

Facing a build-up of enemy opposition with a beleagured team, Sergeant Benavidez mustered his strength, and began calling in tactical air strikes and directing the fire from supporting gunships, to suppress the enemy's fire and so 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 craft. 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 his adversary. He then continued under devastating fire to carry the wounded to the helicopter.

Upon reaching the aircraft, he spotted and killed two enemy soldiers who were rushing the craft from an angle that prevented the aircraft door gunner from firing upon them. With little strength remaining, he made one last trip to the perimeter to ensure that all classified material had been collected or destroyed, and to bring in the remaining wounded. 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.