[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 10]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 14681]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             ROY BENAVIDEZ

                                 ______
                                 

                              HON. TED POE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 20, 2012

  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, America is about people. Who we are 
and what we are is because of the people who have come to America. We 
have always been and will always be a nation of immigrants. They are 
individuals who have lived and died and influenced the rest of us 
because of their tenacious spirit and determination.
  Roy Benavidez was one of those Americans. He 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 lost his family at a young age and dropped out of 
school in the 7th 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.
  In 1955 he decided to join the United States Army, and he joined in 
Houston, Texas. He was in love with his hometown sweetheart, Lala Coy. 
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. 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 where 
he reached the rank of staff sergeant and went to Vietnam as a Green 
Beret. But on May 2, 1962, his life changed forever. 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 he ran by himself through heavy small arms 
fire to the wounded soldiers. He was wounded 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 shrapnel 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.
  As we prepare to 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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