Ted Poe: “Master Sergeant Roy Benavides was born in south Texas on a ranch on August 5, 1935. He was a sharecropper's son, and he…”

“Master Sergeant Roy Benavides was born in south Texas on a ranch on August 5, 1935. He was a sharecropper's son, and he barely knew his parents. He was orphaned when he was young, and he and his brother went to live with an uncle in El Campo, Texas. Roy was a quiet kid and spent most of his time in the sugar cane and cotton fields of south Texas working. He only finished the eighth grade, and his classmates made fun of him because of the way he talked. He joined the Army at the age of 19 and became an Army of One. On his first combat tour in Vietnam, he stepped on a land mine. Doctors were not sure he would be able to keep his leg, but he recovered and went on to become one of those legendary Green Berets. During his second tour in Vietnam, in the early morning hours of May 2, 1968, Roy Benavides was monitoring a radio, listening to a 12-man unit on patrol. Three Green Berets and nine Montagnard tribesmen were dropped off into the dark, dense jungle west of Lok Nenh, Vietnam. The jungle they were dropped in was infested with the substantial force of the well-trained North Vietnamese Army. As quickly as they disembarked the Army helicopter, the American unit was surrounded by a large force of Vietnamese regulars. It was immediately clear to them that the mission had been given incorrect intelligence on the strength of the enemy. Three helicopters were ordered to evacuate the overrun and overwhelmed American troops.…”