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MISSION COMPROMISED!
The Mission
Leroy Wright's twelve man
special operations recon team inserted secretly by helicopter into
Northern Cambodia about 60 miles NW of Saigon. His mission was to capture
a North Vietnamese Army truck and return with the truck to Vietnam
with a load of supplies as physical proof to the world press that the Viet
Cong and North Vietnamese Army were being supplied through Cambodia.
All Quiet
Unfortunately Wright's team was
landed in the midst of a large force of NVA regulars who deployed in great
depth around their landing zone. They had flown over much of the
enemy force on their way in, but the enemy did not fire a shot as the
American helicopters passed overhead. At first all was
quiet and it seemed that the enemy was unaware of the position of their
landing. The team began moving toward its primary objective, but soon they were compromised!
Two NVA soldiers discovered their point team. Lloyd Mousseau, assistant
team leader and one of the CIDG killed these men silently with their
knives but one of the NVA got off a shot, alerting the other NVA in the
vicinity.
Wright requested permission for extraction, as was the standard
procedure when a team is discovered by the enemy, but amazingly he was
ordered to continue the mission by his superiors back in Vietnam.
After some discussion on the radio with his commander Wright agreed to
continue the mission and once again moved towards his objective.
Soon he encountered a patrol of about 12 NVA soldiers and in a brief but
noisy fight his team wiped out the NVA patrol without any casualties to
his team. Now his situation was critical and once again he called by radio for emergency
extraction as he rushed the team to the planned pickup zone - a large
crescent shaped clearing in the forest about one hundred meters long.
Shot out of the zone
At the pickup zone Wright
encountered disaster. The approaching extraction helicopters were
shot up before they reached his position. The six helicopters had
begun to receive heavy fire five miles from the pickup point, and one of
the escorting helicopter gunships was shot down. One of the transport
slicks was severely hit also, wounding two crewmen, one mortally.
Only one lone slick made an approach to the pick up zone, and it was
misdirected by its C&C aircraft to land in a pickup zone that was
controlled by enemy troops. Leroy Wright watched from about
100 meters away in horror as an NVA stepped into the landing zone and
directed the helicopter with hand signals to a landing spot, and it's
doom. Wright's only recourse was to open fire immediately on the NVA
beside the helicopter. Fortunately the slick escaped this trap, but
now the enemy knew exactly where Wright and his team were, and they
attacked him in force. Soon hundreds of NVA troops surrounded
Wright's position and they became locked in a fierce fire fight.
 Wright
rolls onto grenade saving
teammates.
Wright moved about his beleaguered team encouraging them and
repositioning them to defend the extraction landing zone. While
redeploying one group of his men he was hit by enemy fire and lost the
use of his legs. Then two enemy grenades fell between Wright and his teammates, endangering them all. Wright
threw one grenade back at the enemy but only had time to roll his body
onto the second grenade before it exploded lifting him into the air as if
kicked by a giant foot. Wright survived this explosion and fought on
for a time firing his weapon until he was killed by a shot in his head.
With Wright's death, assistant team leader Lloyd Mousseau took over
command of the team and together with radio operator Brian O'Connor, they
begin to call in fixed wing air strikes to stop the horde of enemy that
was now moving to surround them.
Roy Benavidez - One Man "Bright
Light Team"
Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez
was assigned to support duties at the camp from which Wright's team had
been launched. Over the radio he heard that the team was surrounded by
hundreds of NVA, six team members were dead and the six survivors were all
wounded. He heard the distress calls of the shot up and crashing
helicopters that had been on the failed first extraction attempt.
Benavidez was a close friend of Leroy Wright and felt that he owed his
life to Wright from an earlier incident in which Wright took great
personal risk to save him. It may have been thoughts of this that inspired
Benavidez to rush to join the second rescue effort by the already battered
helicopter flight from the 240th Assault Helicopter Company.
Unfortunately, when Benavidez arrived at the scene his friend Leroy Wright
had already been killed.
Benavidez ultimately received the Medal of Honor for his actions on that
day. He never spoke of the incident without praising the valor of those
who were there. He particularly praised Wright's valor and leadership of
the team.
Leroy Wright - Medal of Honor?
Leroy Wright gave his life
unselfishly in a desperate attempt to protect several team mates who
happened to be indigenous mountain tribesmen and an ARVN interpreter, from
the blast of a grenade. Some have asked why Wright was not awarded the
Medal of Honor for this particular self sacrificial act. The officials
writing his citation for the Distinguished Service Cross were apparently
not aware that Wright sacrificed himself on the enemy grenade! Brian O'Connor
was the only surviving American witness to Wright's act of self sacrifice.
His
eyewitness account did not come to official attention until many years
after the event.
Valor Remembered plans to
memorialize Leroy Wright for his part in the Benavidez Medal of Honor
event, both by creating artworks representing him, and also by
collecting and preserving the individual histories associated with his
military service. To do justice to this project we need more information
about Leroy Wright. He left a widow Heja and two sons, Dorian and
Darryl who we wish to communicate with them if they can be located, and if
they are willing.
O'CONNOR'S REPORT
 Years
after the rescue of his team on May 2, 1968, O'Connor provided to the Army a ten
page typed account of the events of his patrol. This report was the key
evidence that induced the Army to award the Medal of Honor to Roy Benavidez.
He had been severely
injured and was apparently evacuated from Vietnam before his superiors could
fully debrief him on
the mission. O'Connor only learned that Benavidez was alive
by chance - he saw a newspaper story about Roy Benavidez, published by Roy's
home town paper in El Campo, Texas. The story had been picked up by the
international press and found its way to Australia and thence to O'Connor
who was living in the Fiji Islands. When O'Connor saw the story he
was amazed to learn that Roy Benavidez had survived his wounds. He picked
up the telephone and called his old friend.
Shortly thereafter he submitted his account,
confirming the witness reports that had already been accumulated by others,
providing the one ingredient that had been missing - an American eyewitness on
the ground. Soon thereafter Roy Benavidez's Medal of Honor was presented.
 All
published accounts of the ground action prior to Roy Benavidez joining the
team have been based primarily upon O'Connor's statement. His account of
Benavidez's action confirmed the reports of others and provided crucial new
information.
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