Title: Roy Benavidez,a true hero Source:
[None] URL Source:[None] Published:Sep 3, 2010 Author:Big Geek Daddy Post Date:2010-09-03 09:58:05 by sneakypete Keywords:None Views:14272 Comments:35
http://www.mishalov.com/Benavidez.html
Poster Comment:
This action happened in Cambodia,not South Viet Nam. Roy was assigned to MACV-SOG's CCS. All the operations were classified as Top Secret and everybody went in wearing sterile clothing with no US insignia or patches,and with no dog tags or ID cards. Our weapons were even sterile,with the serial numbers having been reported as stolen if US weapons,or never logged into the army system if foreign. Not that this makes any difference in this case because Roy went in armed with only a Bowie Knife. I know there has been a lot of talk about John McCain being a hero. Here is a REAL hero.
I served with one MOH winner during my peace time service in Germany. He was our Bn S-3 and our COL/0-6 Brigade Cdr didn't like him. The MOH winner sported a mustache and that might have been one reason. I don't know. I was just a butter bar.
His name was Sprayberry.
I remember Benavidez being awarded the MOH by Reagan.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Capt. Sprayberry, Armor, U.S. Army, distinguished himself by exceptional bravery while serving as executive officer of Company D.
His company commander and a great number of the men were wounded and separated from the main body of the company. A daylight attempt to rescue them was driven back by the well entrenched enemy's heavy fire. Capt. Sprayberry then organized and led a volunteer night patrol to eliminate the intervening enemy bunkers and to relieve the surrounded element.
The patrol soon began receiving enemy machinegun fire. Capt. Sprayberry quickly moved the men to protective cover and without regard for his own safety, crawled within close range of the bunker from which the fire was coming. He silenced the machinegun with a hand grenade. Identifying several l-man enemy positions nearby, Capt. Sprayberry immediately attacked them with the rest of his grenades. He crawled back for more grenades and when 2 grenades were thrown at his men from a position to the front, Capt. Sprayberry, without hesitation, again exposed himself and charged the enemy-held bunker killing its occupants with a grenade.
Placing 2 men to cover his advance, he crawled forward and neutralized 3 more bunkers with grenades. Immediately thereafter, Capt. Sprayberry was surprised by an enemy soldier who charged from a concealed position. He killed the soldier with his pistol and with continuing disregard for the danger neutralized another enemy emplacement.
Capt. Sprayberry then established radio contact with the isolated men, directing them toward his position. When the 2 elements made contact he organized his men into litter parties to evacuate the wounded. As the evacuation was nearing completion, he observed an enemy machinegun position which he silenced with a grenade. Capt. Sprayberry returned to the rescue party, established security, and moved to friendly lines with the wounded. This rescue operation, which lasted approximately 7½ hours, saved the lives of many of his fellow soldiers.
Capt. Sprayberry personally killed 12 enemy soldiers, eliminated 2 machineguns, and destroyed numerous enemy bunkers. Capt. Sprayberry's indomitable spirit and gallant action at great personal risk to his life are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.[1]
James M. "Mike" Sprayberry (born April 24, 1947) was a United States Army officer and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in the Vietnam War.
He was really a low key guy. I remember one minor incident with him.
He had SDO - staff duty officer one weekend night - patrolling the downtown German night clubs to make sure GIs were behaving. He saw me at one of the hot spots and thought I shouldn't be there because I was an officer (in civvies). He was probably correct. I think there was a stabbing there later that night. That's what I remember.
Other than that, he was just a regular Joe, smoking cigarettes, minding his own business.
He didn't chew me out but somehow he made his point.
Other than that, he was just a regular Joe, smoking cigarettes, minding his own business.
I've met a few guys who've been to the abyss...there's something about them that, as you say, is a constant non-verbal expression of something that will always tell you where you are with them. It's as if they have a lightening fast method of observing, calculating and displaying...all without appearing to do any of that.
I don't know. That may be a confusing description because, as you observed, it was always an unspoken poiint being made but communicated none the less. I'm sorry if I can't describe it.
I grew up around WWII vets who'd "stormed the beach" and to whom my father paid great deference to, even tho some of them were nasty old drunks and mean to us kids. As I saw some of the older part of my generation come home one way or another from the RVN, I came to understand what my father, who was a vet, was doing - even if I wasn't there my self.
I've met a few guys who've been to the abyss...there's something about them that, as you say, is a constant non-verbal expression of something that will always tell you where you are with them. It's as if they have a lightening fast method of observing, calculating and displaying...all without appearing to do any of that.
I don't know. That may be a confusing description....
They have no self-doubt. They are absolutely self-assured and have no need to prove anything to anybody. Maybe because they have proven themselves TO themselves. Or at least that is my theory.
Take them out of uniform and away from a military setting and you would never even suspect they had done any of the things they have done. All you would notice would be a man that seemed to be very self-confident and happy. Which makes sense when you think about it because a self-confident man doesn't have very much to make him unhappy on a personal level.
I have known and served with several MoH winners. The one thing that stood out most about them is that they were all almost always smiling and happy. Oh,they could get steamed if somebody screwed up,but their general outlook was every positive and they tended to prefer laughter over being morose or being mad.
When I as a kid, there was a guy who was, for lack of a better description, a degenerate gambler who lived across the street and a couple houses over with his WWI vet dad. He would send us kids to the store for six packs of Pepsi and he'd give us a fin or a sawbuck, sometimes, rarely a twenty. The money would be wrapped around a slip of paper with 3 numbers on it [of course, he told us to not look at the paper but we did anyway.]
AS you know, in 1965 a six pack of Pepsi cost about 49 cents +12 cents bottle deposit and 2 cents tax. He would tell us to keep the 35 cents change and then give the rest of the change along with the slip of paper to the butcher - the store was actually run by two brothers who ran also ran a bookmaking operation there. Sometimes the butcher would tell us that he had an "envelope" for, geez. his name escapes me now. His dad's name was "Cy" which, for years, I thought was "Sigh". I think his name was Jack but maybe because their last name was Bauer.
Anyway, the guy was a WWII hero and my father treated him as if he were a God. Dad always reminded me that he was a hero and that I should be polite and if he needed someone to go to the store for him then, goddammit, go to the store for him. It really struck me as odd because my father absolutely loathed lazy people and this guy was, I thought, lazy. Turns out it was probably PTSD.
There was one night where he got really drunk and I guess his dad got scared and he came over and got my dad. My dad went over and I remember at some point seeing them both come out of the house, and Jack shaking my Dad's hand and patting him on the shoulder. He came home, told Sigh it was okay to go home and everything was okay.
I remember thinking that night that my dad was my hero.
Sometimes the butcher would tell us that he had an "envelope" for, geez. his name escapes me now. His dad's name was "Cy" which, for years, I thought was "Sigh". I think his name was Jack but maybe because their last name was Bauer.
