One Man "Bright Light Team"   Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez voluntarily joined the crew of a helicopter in a desperate attempt to rescue a twelve man recon team surrounded and under attack by hundreds of NVA soldiers in Cambodia.  Before Benavidez arrived at their location he learned that six of the men were dead and the all the others were wounded.

The pilot,  Larry McKibben of the 240th Assault Helicopter Company couldn't land until the escorting gunships had suppressed the extremely heavy enemy fire, but Roy could see that the team needed reinforcements on the ground immediately. Roy persuaded McKibben to make a low pass over a clearing near the team so that he could jump alone to the aid of the team.  As he crouched in the door preparing to jump Roy crossed himself and clutched the medical kit and prayed.  His only weapon was a knife on his hip.

Leap of Faith.   Roy Benavidez's leap from the low flying helicopter to join six wounded men surrounded by hundreds of enemy was but the first of many acts of valor that Roy Benavidez performed that day.  He landed safely, rolling in the PLF - parachute landing fall - that he had trained so often to do, and quickly ran to the team's position some 75 meters away.  Before reaching the team he was hit several times by rifle or machinegun fire and shrapnel. 

Relieving Mousseau.  Benavidez's description of the scene that he found when he joined the team is chilling.  His friend Leroy Wright was dead and Mousseau and O'Connor were both wounded:

 "I found Mousseau first, and even though I knew the team was in trouble, I was shocked by what I saw.  Mousseau had taken a round in the eye and in the shoulder.  His right eye had been blown out of its socket, and his eyeball was hanging down on his cheek.  He had dragged himself to a tree and propped himself up against it, running out of energy.  But he was a good soldier, and he could still fire his weapon. He was determined to keep going.  The CIDG were in what seemed to be a pool of blood, but everyone seemed to be patched up as well as could be expected." (From: Medal of Honor by Benavidez with Craig).

Roy quickly took charge of the survivors, reorganizing their defense, contacting the helicopters to return for another extraction attempt, and calling in air strikes.   Larry McKibben was now able to land and Roy almost had all the survivors loaded into the helicopter when McKibben was suddenly hit by enemy fire.   The hovering helicopter crashed into the treeline, killing McKibben and his crew chief Nelson Fournier.

Before the battle was over Roy had been wounded over thirty-seven times, but  he was still on his feet when it ended. He succeeded in saving eight lives - six members of Wright's team, and two survivors from Larry McKibben's helicopter.  For this he was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1981 by President Reagan.

The amazing valor of Roy Benavidez is vividly described in the terse words of the official Medal of Honor Citation MOH Citation.  Extensive information about Benavidez and his brothers in arms in the action of May 2, 1968  may be found  in three biographies:
 

• The Last Medal of Honor.  Pete Billac.  Swan Publishing, Houston. 1990.

• The Three Wars of Roy Benavidez, Roy P. Benavidez and Oscar Griffin.  Coronal Publishing Company, San Antonio.  1986.

• Medal of Honor - One Man's Journey From Poverty and Prejudice. Roy P. Benavidez with John R. Craig.  Brassey's, Washington. 1995.

In the future additional information about the Benavidez MOH incident will be published here on these web pages as part of the Benavidez Virtual Memorial project.  If you would like to be notified of updates, please leave a request on the contact us page:  Contact Us