On May 2, 1968, in an outpost near the Cambodian border, Sergeant Benavidez listened to his
short-wave radio as the voice of a terrified American, part of a 12-man patrol that had been
completely surrounded by a North Vietnamese battalion, pleaded to be rescued. Armed with
only a knife, Benavidez immediately jumped into a helicopter and took off with a three man crew
to rescue his trapped comrades.
When they arrived at the fighting, the enemy was too numerous for the helicopter to immediately
evacuate the surrounded soldiers. It had to land seventy-five yards away from their position.
After making the sign of the cross, Sergeant Benavidez jumped out of the helicopter as it hovered
ten feet above the ground, and began to run toward his comrades carrying his knife and a medic bag.
He was shot almost immediately, but he got up and kept moving. An exploding grenade knocked him
down again, shrapnel tearing into his face. He got up and kept moving. Reaching the Americans’
position, he found four men dead, and all the others badly wounded. He armed himself with an enemy
rifle, and began to treat the wounded, distribute ammunition and call in air strikes. He was shot again.
He then ordered the helicopter to come in closer as he dragged the dead and wounded aboard. After
he got all of the wounded aboard, he ran back to retrieve classified documents from the body of a
fallen soldier. He was shot in the stomach, and grenade fragments cut into his back. He got up and
kept moving, and he made it back to the helicopter.
But the pilot was shot and the helicopter crashed. Benavidez pulled the wounded from the wreckage
and radioed for air strikes and another helicopter. He kept fighting until air support arrived. He was
shot several more times before a second helicopter landed. As he was carrying a wounded man toward
it, a North Vietnamese soldier clubbed him with his rifle and stabbed him with a bayonet. Sergeant
Benavidez fought him to death, hand to hand. After rescuing three more of his comrades, he was
finally flown with them to safety.
Bleeding profusely, his intestines spilling from his stomach wounds, and completely immobile, a
doctor thought him to be dead. Roy was placed in a body bag, before the doctor discovered he was
still alive. (When Roy Benavidez spat on his face)
Miraculously, he survived, but spent a year in hospitals recovering from seven serious gunshot
wounds, twenty-eight shrapnel wounds, and bayonet wounds in both arms.