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:14279 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.
My God, Roy Benavidez was THE definition of "HERO." Glad Reagan stepped in. RR was right; You couldn't make this up. Not even the Rambo character does as much...and with so little. At 4:11 I'm thinking this ain't ending well...and then there's Benavidez spitting from within his body-bag. WHOA.
It's just so damn depressing to have the man endure only to have the gubmint bust his chops over medical bennies and ignore his past heroics and sacrifice. Is it because he was assigned to a TS detail?
RB waits 13 years for a medal, while Kerry gets....how many Silver Stars for scratching his ass? Even Fraudie McCain is Audie Murphy compared to Kerry.
As an aside, nobody can challenge your balls (or sanity) Pete for doing what you guys had done. Not like you could quit whenever you'd had enough, either.
Q: Did there seem to be an inordinate number of Indian-Americans and Mex-Americans on covert ops like this?
It's just so damn depressing to have the man endure only to have the gubmint bust his chops over medical bennies and ignore his past heroics and sacrifice. Is it because he was assigned to a TS detail?
Yes. In the early days of SOG we even had some guys that were wounded pretty badly not being able to get medical retirement or service-connected VA benefits because "we didn't have troops in Cambodia or Laos". Same thing with valor awards. They were hard to get for a couple of reasons. One was that was a hard group to impress enough to get put in for something,and the other was the citation had to be carefully worded to make it look like it was a part of a action that took place in VN.
Plus,it was hard to make a awards panel for Silver Star and higher awards understand how dangerous SOG operations were because you were behind enemy lines and cut off from getting any help. Bob Howard was put in for a Medal of Honor on THREE separate occasions before he finally got one.
Another problem for the really big gongs was that a special review board of regular army officers at higher command had to approve them,and the regular army hated Special Forces and thought we got too many awards.
And sometimes there were just no logical explanation for not awarding the MoH to a worth recipient. Rocky Versace,who was held as a POW inside VN,just got his MoH award for his conduct as a POW a couple of years ago,and I THINK it was 1966 when he was executed. AND....,unlike Colonel Bud Day,he had at least two former POW's who witnessed his heroics pushing for him to get one from the time they escaped (Nick Rowe) or were released as POW's. Nick Rowe was assassinated by communist Muslim guerrillas in the Philippines and never got to see Rocky get what he deserved. Read the citation below based on WITNESS TESTIMONY and give me just ONE rational reason it took him decades to get his award. I honest to God can't read it without getting teary-eyed,and I have read it dozens of times.
I can understand how there might have been a slight hold up on special service operatives' bennies, but major, long-standing hold ups I can't understand. We would think fail-safe logistical precautions would have addressed benefits for guys who "weren't there." The ignorance and indifference of the higher-ups is stunning. Btw, I had no idea regular army hated SOGs. Chyeah, well maybe their dangerous assignments justified the medals?
These days, many Special Forces seemed to have been subbed out as "Private Contractors." It's about time medals as compensation are replaced by a lotta CASH and a contract, eh? ;-) Better late than never, Pete.
Regarding Versace:
It took the last 38 years for several former prisoners of war to press at least four administrations to get their fellow captive Army Capt. Rocky Versace a Medal of Honor, an award that many of his supporters argue he was denied in Vietnam.
Shameful...
His story is beyond amazing as well. Those who know the story of Versace and acknowledge his honor and courage is MUCH better than a medal given from gubmintal bureaucrats who really don't GAS. Who really needs them to validate the Courage & Honor of those who lived it?? It reminds me of the Wizard of Oz's ceremonial "validation" of giving a heart, diploma, medal to the Tin Man, Lion, and Scarecrow.
I can understand how there might have been a slight hold up on special service operatives' bennies, but major, long-standing hold ups I can't understand.We would think fail-safe logistical precautions would have addressed benefits for guys who "weren't there."
It was Top Secret. They didn't know about it. The FACT is we weren't even wearing US uniforms,dog tags,or carrying a US Army ID card. If captured we were not protected by the Geneva Convention,and they could legally execute us at will without any sort of trial as spies. As far as that goes,they didn't even have any obligation to report us as being captured. To this very day not a single SOG member that went MIA has ever been released or had their remains turned over by the communist Vietnamese. Nor have they admitted to having ever captured any of us.
The ignorance and indifference of the higher-ups is stunning.
They didn't know because they didn't have a right to know. How can you blame them for that? It ain't like we weren't warned about this because we were.
Btw, I had no idea regular army hated SOGs.
They didn't. They thought we were clerks. SOG was originally called the Special Operations Group,but that desigination was quickly changed to Studies and Observations Group. The regular army DID hate Special Forces,though. They still do.
BTW,Special Forces is not and was not SOG. True,most of the on the ground and planning operational people were SF guys,but there were also Navy Seals running a few SOG missions in the Delta and off-shore in the north,and there were a BUNCH of US Army aviators and even a few USMC aviators flying us in and out of the jungle.
SOG was a Special Operations direct action unit. Special Forces had and has a more traditional training mission.
In other words,even though MOST SOG ground operations people were Special Forces people ,not all Special Forces people worked SOG operations.
BTW,there were even a few volunteers from conventional airborne units like the 173rd Abn Bge that volunteered for SOG missions that never spent a single day in Special Forces before they arrived at one of the FOB's. SOG had such a high casualty rate (supposedly 50% some years) that we had trouble keeping enough healthy people to keep the recon teams and hatchet force platoons manned. Some worked out real well,but most only ran one mission and quit. Some didn't even run one mission. They quit the day they hit recon company and the map was unveiled revealing the area of operation and they were told they would be out there on their own. They didn't know this when they volunteered.
Chyeah, well maybe their dangerous assignments justified the medals?
Well,*I* think so,but I may be a bit biased.
BTW,I would like to add the conventional Army helicopter forces that provided us with air transport and tactical air cover in that group,as well as the US Air Force A1 pilots. These guys really put it all on the line to pull us out of hot spots,and unlike us they weren't volunteers. Or most of them weren't,anyhow. I have no doubt some of them volunteered to fly us and support us,but others were just typical soldiers doing their jobs.
These days, many Special Forces seemed to have been subbed out as "Private Contractors
I have no problem whatsoever with a SF guy pulling his 20 and then going to work with a contractor for the big bucks. Good for them! I do have a problem with the posers that are SF for one enlistment in order to get that on their DD-214 so they can get out and use that training to get a big paying job with some big city SWAT team or as a contractor employee.
Hell,Billy Waugh retired out of SF (he supposedly led the very first SOG recon mission into Laos,and he did lead the first Bright Light team into North Viet Nam to rescue a shot down Navy pilot.)and went to work for the CIA. He is the guy that caught the terrorist called Carlos,the Jackal,and set him up for arrest by the French after Clinton refused Billy permission to kill him on the spot. Billy was close enough to the villa where Carlos was staying that he took photos of the arrest and his crying wife leaving the villa. Billy was also still running around in the mountains in Afghanistan was he was in her early 70's,tracking down and killing Taliban.
Those who know the story of Versace and acknowledge his honor and courage is MUCH better than a medal given from gubmintal bureaucrats who really don't GAS. Who really needs them to validate the Courage & Honor of those who lived it??
Well,I am just one of many who are VERY grateful that his mother was still alive to receive it in his name. It doesn't replace a lost son,but at least it is something to say he was there and he was important and is missed by all.
