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:14266 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 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.
Sounds like most of my uncles, a total of 12. They seemed to hate kids, even their own.
For the WWI's who were forced to go 'over the top', it had to be the worst. I used to hear them screaming in the night with nightmares about that. One guy said he did it five times and all the rest on the unit said he was a hero. No treatment for PTSD in those days either.
My grandfather was WWI vet...there's a book somewhere that was written about his Company...Keytone 28 I think it was...have book at home. There's a picture of him @ 24 in it [he was born in 1893]...
He was mustard gassed, dung bombed - yea, the Germand threw shit, in fact, both sides did it's how they kept their trenches clean... and something got grief for at LP by, Big Meanie, I think...he was wounded and was given a ride back to the front in a Jeep that was giving Churchill a tour of the conditions.
First he gave me grief for use of the term "Jeep" which he incorrectly claimed didn't exist in WWI and then for the Churchill story when he incorrectly claimed that Churchill had nothing to do with WWI.
He was mustard gassed, dung bombed - yea, the Germand threw shit, in fact, both sides did it's how they kept their trenches clean... and something got grief for at LP by, Big Meanie, I think...he was wounded and was given a ride back to the front in a Jeep that was giving Churchill a tour of the conditions.
We had a few that had been gassed, but were still ticking into their seventies. It's funny... one would start singing an old WWI tune and pretty soon the rest on the unit (it was barracks style in those days) would follow along, and when they stopped most would be crying. I never saw any of that from the WWII's or Korean War guys that followed. It was remodeled into semi private rooms in the mid nineties which permanently destroyed that type of comradery.
My grandma hated it when he would go to his monthly canasta games at the Americn Legion. He'd come home drunk and depressed and often sang himself to sleep.
Weird the flood of childhood memories this thread has evoked.
