Roy Benavidez

American soldier

• Born: August 5, 1935
• Birthplace: Lindenau, Texas
• Died: November 29, 1998
• Place of death: San Antonio, Texas

Raised in poverty in Texas, Benavidez dropped out of school and eventually joined the U.S. Army, in which, as a member of Special Forces, he displayed such heroism in battle against North Vietnamese soldiers on May 2, 1968, that, years later, he received the Medal of Honor.

Early Life

On August 5, 1935, Raul Perez Benavidez (rah-EWL PEH-rehz beh-nah-VEE-dehz) was born in Lindenau, near Cuero, Texas.

His father, Salvador Benavidez, Jr., was a sharecropper descended from a Hispanic supporter of Texas in its war for independence from Mexico. Teresa Perez, Raul’s mother, was a Yaqui Indian born in Mexico, and older members of the Benavidez family objected to her because they considered Yaquis barbarians.

When her husband died in 1937, Teresa moved with Raul and his younger brother to nearby Cuero, where she worked as a housemaid but died when Raul was seven. Upon her death, he and his brother went to El Campo, Texas, to live with their paternal grandfather, their uncle Nicholas Benavidez, and other relatives. In El Campo, where persons who looked Mexican were subject to discrimination, Raul retained his habit of fighting at almost any provocation, but he also heard from his uncle that his behavior should honor the Benavidez name, and he learned to work hard to help support the family. His work included harvesting sugar beets in northern Colorado and cotton in western Texas, and his work-related absences from school put him so far behind that he dropped out in 1950. He returned to El Campo, where he worked at a tire store under the Reverend Art Haddock’s benevolent supervision, and at the age of seventeen he joined the Texas National Guard.

Life’s Work

Benavidez began his full-time military career by volunteering for the U.S. Army in 1955, and he soon changed his first name to Roy. In the fall of that year, he shipped out to South Korea and later served in Germany. Back in El Campo, he married Hilaria Coy in 1959. The devoted couple eventually had three children.

Later in 1959, Benavidez entered airborne training and, completing the course despite his short stature, served in the United States until he went overseas in December, 1965, as an adviser to the South Vietnamese army. In Vietnam, an exploding landmine traumatized his spinal cord. The prognosis was that he would never walk again, but, putting himself through painful rehabilitation, Benavidez not only avoided discharge from the Army but also eventually entered Special Forces.

As a Green Beret, Staff Sergeant Benavidez returned to Vietnam in January, 1968. On this tour, his Army comrades gave him the radio code name in which he took pride—Tango Mike Mike, or That Mean Mexican. On May 2, 1968, Benavidez was at Loc Ninh when three of his Special Forces friends, along with nine anticommunist Vietnamese guerillas, encountered hundreds of North Vietnamese across the nearby Cambodian border and found themselves trapped. When Benavidez heard of the situation, he volunteered to helicopter to the scene, where for six hours he fought off the enemy, tended to the wounded, retrieved classified documents, and suffered so many wounds that, upon rescue, he seemed dead. However, after a long recuperation, Benavidez continued his military service until disability led to his retirement, at the rank of master sergeant, in 1976.

Before his retirement, he heard that he had been recommended for the Medal of Honor, a higher award than the Distinguished Service Cross, which he had received in September, 1968. Three obstacles, however, blocked him from receiving the Medal of Honor: There did not seem to be enough surviving eyewitnesses of his actions in Cambodia; the recommendation had not been submitted in time; and the battle had taken place in a country where U.S. troops were not supposed to be fighting. However, Benavidez and his supporters eventually overcame those obstacles, and he received the Medal of Honor from President Ronald Reagan on February 24, 1981.

A popular speaker during his retirement, Benavidez won a figurative battle in 1983 against the Social Security Administration, which he believed had treated him unjustly by questioning whether he was truly disabled. Inevitably, however, Benavidez lost his battle against declining health. Afflicted by diabetes, which had cost him a leg, he died in San Antonio on November 29, 1998, with shrapnel still near his heart.

Significance

Benavidez was proud to be an Army veteran and proud of the Green Berets who had fought with him, including those who had died on May 2, 1968. Knowing that a lack of formal education had hampered him, he encouraged youths to take school seriously, stay out of gangs, and fight only for just causes. Through the upgrading of his Distinguished Service Cross to the Medal of Honor, Congress and the Department of Defense cleared the way for other U.S. servicemen, living or dead, who should have received the highest military decoration in America for their valor in the Vietnam War. It was to America that Roy Benavidez, of Mexican and Yaqui ancestry, gave his allegiance.

Bibliography

Benavidez, Roy, with John R. Craig. Medal of Honor: A Vietnam Warrior’s Story. Washington, D.C.: Brassey’s, 1995. Autobiography in which Benavidez initially describes his ancestry and subsequently gives details of his youth, military career, and retirement.

Benavidez, Roy, and Oscar Griffin. The Three Wars of Roy Benavidez. New York: Pocket Books, 1988. Dramatic stories of events from Benavidez’s Army and retirement years, with references to other biographical events.

Bohrer, David. America’s Special Forces. St. Paul, Minn.: Zenith Press, 2002. Richly illustrated account of Army Special Forces, along with the Army Rangers, Navy Seals, Marine Force Reconnaissance, and Air Force Special Operations.

Farinacci, Donald J. Last Full Measure of Devotion: A Tribute to America’s Heroes of the Vietnam War. Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, 2007. Brief history of the war as a frame for narratives of extraordinary heroism, including the battle for which Benavidez won the Medal of Honor.

McCain, John, with Mark Salter. Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life. New York: Random House, 2004. Collection of inspirational stories, including an account of Benavidez’s actions on May 2, 1968, with a meditation on his courage.