[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 213 (Wednesday, December 16, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7535-S7536]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        HONORING COMMAND SERGEANT MAJOR BENNIE G. ADKINS (RET.)

  Mr. JONES. Mr. President, it is with sadness and humility that I ask 
this body to pause for a moment to remember and honor a great American 
and a citizen of my home State, CSM Bennie G. Adkins, who died of 
complications related to the COVID-19 virus on April 17, 2020. He was 
laid to rest with full military honors this morning after a funeral 
service in the chapel at Arlington National Cemetery.
  Command Sergeant Major Adkins, known to friends and family as 
``Bennie,'' received the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony on 
September 15, 2014, for acts of heroism during the Vietnam war. 
Although Bennie was recommended for the Medal of Honor at the time, he 
was instead given the next highest award, the Distinguished Service 
Cross. In 2002, the Army began reviewing Distinguished Service Cross 
awards for possible upgrades, and finally, 48 years later, President 
Obama bestowed a well-deserved Medal of Honor upon Bennie Adkins.
  As we know, the Medal of Honor is the Nation's highest medal for 
valor in combat. According to a statute passed in 1918, the President 
is authorized to present this award to ``each person who, while an 
officer or enlisted man of the Army, shall hereafter, in action 
involving actual conflict with an enemy, distinguish himself 
conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life 
above and beyond the call of duty.'' Other legislation authorizes the 
award within the other military departments as well.
  In the history of this country, the Medal of Honor has been awarded 
to 3,507 individuals. Fewer than 70 of those recipients are still alive 
today.
  I point this out because I believe that when these heroes leave 
Active Duty and come home to live among us in our communities, their 
very presence in our midst lifts us all up. They inspire and embolden 
countless other acts of courage and sacrifice, both great and small, 
many of which we have seen in the recent weeks and months our Nation 
and our world have been battling the very virus that took Bennie 
Adkins' life.
  So it is with gratitude and a deep sense of loss that we remember 
this extraordinary man.
  The facts of the events that led to Bennie Adkins' recognition bear 
mention. However, as President Obama said when presenting Bennie with 
the Medal, ``I have to be honest, in a battle and daring escape that 
lasted four days, Bennie performed so many acts of bravery we actually 
don't have time to talk about all of them.'' I will, therefore, attempt 
to summarize, combining information from the citation that accompanied 
the award, media accounts of the events, and quotes from Bennie's 
memoir.
  When Camp A Shau was attacked by a large Viet Cong force early on 
March 9, 1966, then-Sergeant First Class Adkins rushed through intense 
hostile fire to man a mortar position. Although wounded himself by 
incoming fire, Bennie briefly relinquished his mortar to a comrade and 
ran through exploding mortar rounds in order to drag several wounded 
Americans to safety. During the battle, Bennie later recalled, bullets 
hit and killed one man he was carrying on his back. At another point, 
Adkins, a former baseball catcher, caught a North Vietnamese hand 
grenade in midair and flung it back at the enemy.
  Over the course of 4 days, Bennie repeatedly exposed himself to 
hostile fire while rescuing and helping evacuate his fellow soldiers, 
retrieving additional munitions, and repelling repeated waves of 
attacking enemy soldiers. Bennie suffered 18 wounds--including to an 
eye and his torso--but managed to kill an estimated 135 to 175 enemy 
troops.
  Because of his efforts to carry a wounded soldier to an extraction 
point rather than leave him behind, Bennie and his group were unable to 
reach the last evacuation helicopter. Running extremely low on 
ammunition, he returned to the mortar pit, gathered additional 
ammunition, and ran through intense fire back to the communications 
bunker. After being ordered to evacuate the camp, Adkins and the 
remaining small group destroyed all signal equipment and classified 
documents, then fought their way out of the camp and into the jungle, 
where they evaded the pursuing North Vietnamese Army for 2 days.
  Their escape was aided by the sawed-off shotgun Bennie carried as a 
sidearm and by the unexpected intervention of an Indonesian tiger. 
Trapped in the jungle, the group's radio damaged in the battle, Adkins 
managed to rig his shotgun as an antenna, enabling him to communicate 
their location to friendly forces. As the group endured a second night 
in the jungle waiting for help to arrive, the tiger, which had been 
hunting nearby, frightened off the enemy, giving Adkins and the others 
an opportunity to create a makeshift landing pad for a rescue 
helicopter the next morning.
  The Medal of Honor citation concludes, ``Sergeant First Class Adkins' 
extraordinary heroism in close combat against a numerically superior 
hostile force was in keeping with the highest traditions of the 
military service and reflects great credit upon himself, his unit, and 
the United States Army.''
  Extraordinary indeed.
  Remarkable as those details are, the facts of Bennie's postservice 
life are equally worthy of note.
  Bennie and his wife Mary were married for more than 60 years--until 
she passed away in 2019. They don't give medals for that, but I know 
from observing my own parents' 60-plus years together that, no matter 
who the couple are, that kind of dedication, loyalty, and commitment 
are special.
  After 20 years of service in the Army, Bennie retired and went back 
to school. He earned three degrees from Troy University--a bachelor's 
in finance and two master's degrees--and opened his own accounting firm 
in Auburn. Then, Bennie began deploying his

[[Page S7536]]

charisma, his wit, his way with people, and his resources to help 
others pursue their goals through education.
  For several years, Bennie taught night classes at Alabama's Southern 
Union Junior College and Auburn University, as well as GED classes at 
the local jail. Later, he established The Bennie Adkins Foundation, 
which to date has provided about 50 educational scholarships to 
noncommissioned Special Forces officers.
  Bennie's dedication to the service of his country and to his fellow 
Americans never waned. For many years he traveled extensively, in what 
he described as his fourth career, ``trying to instill patriotism in 
our young people.'' And according to President Obama in 2014, ``the 
first thing you need to know is when Bennie and I met in the Oval 
Office, he asked if he could sign back up. His lovely wife was not 
amused.''
  I know that for Bennie's family and his community, this is a loss 
impossible to describe or to measure. My wife Louise joins me in 
sending our sincerest condolences to Bennie's daughter Mary Ann Adkins 
Blake (David), to his sons Michael Adkins (Christine), and Keith Adkins 
(Jaime), and to his many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
  To paraphrase his Medal of Honor citation, Bennie Adkins' 
extraordinary life reflects great credit upon himself, his family, and 
his country. May he rest in peace, and may God bless the United States 
of America.

                          ____________________