[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 24774-24775]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           GREEN BERET AND MEDAL OF HONOR HERO ROY BENAVIDEZ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, America is about people. Who we are and what we 
are is because of the people who have come to America. They are 
individuals who have lived and died and influenced the rest of us 
because of their tenacious spirit and determination.
  Mr. Speaker, I am a history fan. I love American history especially, 
and Texas history, not the history of dates and movements, but the 
history of the lives of individual Americans who made a difference.
  Roy Benavidez was one of those Americans. Roy Benavidez was born in 
South Texas in a small town called Cuero, August 5, 1935. He was the 
son of a sharecropper. He was an orphan and he had mixed blood of Yaqui 
Indian and Hispanic. He was raised by his uncle after he lost his 
family and he dropped out of school in the seventh grade. He didn't see 
the need for an education at that time.
  He was a migrant farm worker. He worked all over Texas and as far as 
Colorado in the sugar beet fields and the cotton fields. He decided to 
join the

[[Page 24775]]

United States Army in 1955, and he joined in Houston, Texas. He was in 
love with his hometown sweetheart, Lala Coy. So while he was away in 
Germany on active duty, he asked a local priest, his grandfather and 
his uncle if they would go to Lala's father and ask permission for Roy 
to marry her, and he agreed. Mr. Speaker, you have to appreciate that 
old school that marry this way.
  While he was in the Army, however, he was in a lot of trouble, even 
though he was a member of the Military Police. So he finally joined the 
Special Forces training at Fort Bragg and reached the rank of staff 
sergeant and went to Vietnam as a Green Beret.
  But on May 2, 1962, his life changed and the lives of many Americans 
changed. It is a story that is almost unbelievable. On the morning of 
May 2, 1968, a 12-man Special Forces team was inserted in Cambodia to 
observe a large-scale North Vietnamese troop movement, and they were 
discovered by the enemy.
  Most of the team members were close friends of Roy Benavidez, who was 
the forward operating officer in Loc Ninh, Vietnam. Three helicopters 
were sent to rescue this 12-man team, but they were unable to land 
because of the heavy enemy concentration. When a second attempt was 
made to reach the stranded team, Benavidez jumped onboard one of the 
helicopters, armed only with a Bowie knife.
  As the helicopters reached the landing zone, Benavidez realized the 
team members were likely too severely wounded to move to the 
helicopters. So by himself he ran through heavy small arms fire to the 
wounded soldiers. He was wounded himself in the leg, the face, and the 
head in the process.
  He reorganized the team and signaled the helicopters to land. But 
despite his injuries, Benavidez was able to carry off half of the 
wounded men to the helicopters. He then collected the classified 
documents held by the now dead team leader. As he completed this task, 
he was wounded by an exploding grenade in the back and shot in the 
stomach. At that moment, the waiting helicopter's pilot was also 
mortally wounded, and that helicopter crashed.
  He ran to collect the stunned crash survivors and form a perimeter. 
He directed air support, ordered another extraction attempt and was 
wounded again when shot in the thigh. At this point he was losing so 
much blood from his face wounds that his vision became blocked. 
Finally, another helicopter landed and as Benavidez carried a wounded 
friend to it, he was clubbed in the head with a rifle butt by an enemy 
soldier. That soldier bayonetted Benavidez twice.
  Mr. Speaker, Benavidez was wounded in that one battle 37 times; seven 
gunshot wounds, he had mortar in his back, and two bayonet wounds. He 
was taken for dead and left for dead and zipped up in a body bag, but 
right before they zipped the bag up, he spit in the doctor's face, 
letting the doctor know he was yet alive.
  He later recovered. He received the Distinguished Service Cross and 
then many years later Ronald Reagan presented him with the 
Congressional Medal of Honor. President Reagan stated that if this were 
a movie, no one would believe it because of the heroic deed of Roy 
Benavidez.
  Mr. Speaker, after he retired from the military, Roy Benavidez went 
around America talking about the importance of an education, since he 
only went to the seventh grade. He talked to young gang members, he 
talked to youth, telling them to stay in school and get an education.
  He was a remarkable individual. A Navy ship has been named after him, 
several elementary schools in Texas have been named after Roy 
Benavidez, and even a toy company has issued a Roy Benavidez GI Joe 
action figure.
  Mr. Speaker, as we celebrate and honor Hispanic Heritage Month, one 
of those great Hispanic Americans was Roy Benavidez, a Texas hero, an 
American hero, a war hero that loved America and, as he said, got to 
live the American Dream the way that he wanted.
  And that's just the way it is.

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