Real American Rambo:
This Texas Native Went On A One-Man Rampage
To Save His Comrades During the Vietnam War





MSG Raul Perez "Roy" Benevidez aka Tango Mike Mike
(Source: SOFREP)



Who wouldn't know Sylvester Stallone's box-office hit, Rambo?
John Rambo was a soldier of the U.S. Army who fought in the Vietnam War, and
he was a member of the elites task force, the Green Beret. Rambo was so iconic
that he became a legend.

In real life, Americans indeed had a Rambo. He was Master Sergeant Raul Perez "Roy" Benevidez
aka Tango Mike Mike. A member of Green Beret and a Veteran who fought in the
Vietnam War, not once, but twice. His gallantry seemed second to none when he
sacrificed himself, went on a one-man rampage to save his comrades, and ensure
classified information won't get into the hands of the enemy.

If only his life turned into a Hollywood film, John Rambo would definitely look
like a second-rate hero.


Early life in Texas


Benavidez was born in Lindenau near Cuero, Texas in DeWitt County in August 5, 1935.
He is a descendant of Benavides, Texas, and was the son of a Mexican farmer,
Salvador Benavidez, Jr., and a Yaqui Indian mother, Teresa Perez.

Benevidez became an orphan at an early age. His father died of tuberculosis when he was two.
Five years later, his mother passed away with the same disease.

Benevidez and his younger brother, Roger, moved to El Campo, where their grandfather,
uncle, and aunt raised them along with eight cousins.

Growing up, life had been rough for Benevidez. He attended school sporadically, but whenever
he was present at classes, he only experienced bullying. He was then an easy target among
his peers because of his mixed heritage and skin color. 

He started working as well at a young age; he shined shoes at the local bus station,
labored on farms in California and Washington, and at a tire shop in El Campo.
At the age of 15, he dropped out to work full-time to help support the family.

By 1952, Benevidez was enlisted to the Texas Army National Guard during the Korean War.
In June 1955, he got transferred to the U.S. Army. By 1959, he completed Airborne training
and was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

At Fort Bragg, he began training for the elite Army Special Forces. He later became a member
of the 5th Special Forces Group; and the Studies and Observations Group (SOG).


Deployment in Vietnam



U.S. Army Roy Benevidez
(Source: arsof-history)



Benevidez was sent to South Vietnam in 1965 as an advisor to an Army of the
Republic of Vietnam infantry regiment. He was assigned for a classified mission
alone to gather pieces of evidence to prove that the North Vietnamese Army (NVA)
was posing as Vietcong.

He disguised himself as a Vietcong guerilla; he patrolled a narrow trail when he
stepped on a landmine. Eventually, a Marine squad found him lying on the ground.
They initially thought it was a booby trap, but they were surprised to see he’s not
Asian but Hispanic when they flipped him over. Thus, Benevidez was wearing
U.S. Army dog tags. The marines took him to the hospital and later sent him
home to Texas.



Shattered Physique, Feisty Soul


Benevidez spent two months unconscious at Fort Sam Houston; when he woke up and
got recovered, his doctors told him that he would never walk again. His spine has been
damaged, and his brain had rattled in his skull.

Despite his severe condition, Benevidez begged the doctors not to recommend him to be
discharged from the Army because the Army was his life. Determined to get back in shape,
Roy got up from his bed night after night, dragging himself to the wall and putting some
weight on his legs. Even though his doctors didn’t advise this, he pushed himself with the
support of other patients, who were mostly paralyzed. 

For weeks, he endured excruciating pain, ongoing further in the distance than before.
Even his doctors were surprised by his remarkable progress. After over a year of hospitalization,
Benevidez was discharged from the hospital in 1966, but not in the military. He was, however,
assigned to do desk jobs, but Benevidez knew he was meant for the battlefield.

When he got back to Fort Bragg, Benevidez exercised relentlessly. This time he was aiming
for the elite U.S. Army task force – the Green Berets. With his unwavering willpower, Benevidez
got qualified and was assigned to detachment B56,
5th Special Forces Group Airborne, 1st Special Forces.

In January 1968, Benevidez was back in Vietnam as a Staff Sergeant with a codename:
Tango Mike Mike.




Tango Mike Mike, ca. 1968
(Source: The Veteran Site)



The Six-Hours in Hell

On May 2, 1968, when Benevidez was off duty and attending church, his mind was fixed on
the panicking radio chatter from the frontlines in Nihn Binh, Vietnam, near the Cambodian
border. The 12-man Special Forces reconnaissance was surrounded by an NVA infantry
battalion of about 1,000 men.

The team included Benevidez's closest friends, Sergeant First Class Leroy Wright,
Staff Sergeant Lloyd Musso, Specialist Four Mountain O'Connor, and other nine
Montanna Yard Tribesmen who were part of the Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG)
program. Everyone in the unit was either killed or severely injured in earlier fighting.
The three of the helicopters sent to rescue them had been unable to extract them due
to heavy enemy fire.

When the helicopters returned to the U.S. camp, they were riddled with bullets.
One of them was hit several times and even died in Benevidez's arms. He immediately
jumped onto one of the choppers, quickly volunteered to rescue his friends. He even
forgot his gun and armed himself only with a bowie knife and a medical bag. As they
approached the extraction zone, he realized his friends might have been gravely injured
that they would not be able to run the distance to the chopper.

The NVA's also fired the chopper. And the pilot, Larry McKibben, had to zigzag in the air
to dodge the bullets. When Benevidez got his timing, he jumped out of the chopper with
his knife and bag. He ran through the jungle straight to his wounded comrades, who were
still under heavy fire. His leg got hit, but he went on.

Benevidez found one of the CIDGs, who were then continuously firing behind a tree,
even though his right eyeball was shot out and already hanging down his cheek.
The CIDGs were in the pool of blood, but they were trying their best to fire back. Roy
dragged them one by one into a defensive position to direct their fire properly at the enemy.
While they were shooting, Roy was giving them morphine.

From a distance, Benevidez saw O'Connor and a CIDG interpreter. He signaled them to
move over to him, but the gunfire was intense. Benevidez got another shot, this time
in his thigh. He quickly reacted by throwing the green smoke for the pilot to pick them
up. Those men who could move managed to get into the chopper while Roy took cover.

He suppressed the treeline with an AK-47 he had picked up to cover O'Conner and the
interpreter who crawled towards the chopper.

Afterward, Benevidez looked for Leroy Wright. Unfortunately, he got killed. However,
the intel documents were with him, and that information could not get into the enemy's
hands. Benevidez dragged Wright's body to the chopper, but he got shot again in the
stomach, and his back was hit by shrapnel from a nearby grenade knocking him out.

When he awoke, he was forced to leave his friend's dead body.




Vietnam War Memoir
(Source: CFR Org.)



Another disaster happened; the chopper was destroyed, and the pilot got killed. Five of
the men on board, including Musso, O'Conner, and the interpreter, survived. Benevidez
pulled them out from the burning chopper. He gave them another shot of morphine and
set up a perimeter around the crash site.

Airforce F-100 came to the rescue as they bombarded the NVAs from above. But when
they ran out of fuel, the enemy machine guns fired again. Benevidez gave O'Conner his
third morphine injection, and while doing it, he got shot again in the leg. By this time,
they were now surrounded by the enemy; it was easy to conclude that moment could
have been their end.

Fortunately, a helicopter finally came to their rescue. Benevidez and the rescue team
carried and dragged the wounded men onto the helicopter, but the landing zone was
still being fired upon by the NVAs.

Benevidez's vision started to get blurry as blood was already covering his eyesight.
But it didn't hinder him from saving his comrades. When he was about to get Musso,
an NVA bunted his head and jaw with a rifle and slashed his arm with a bayonet.
He shouted to O'Conner to shoot, but he was too drugged to react properly.

Benevidez pulled his bowie knife and stabbed the NVA soldier until he was dead.
He then dragged Musso after and killed another two NVAs by extensively firing an M16.
He made one last trip to the interpreter and destroyed all classified materials.
Only after that, he allowed the others to pull him up onto the helicopter.

Benevidez was the last American soldier to leave the battlefield.



After Hell



During the journey back to the camp, Benevidez was holding his stomach throughout
the flight as his intestines were already out. At the base camp, all men were examined.
It shows that Benevidez even carried three NVAs onto the helicopter as he believed these
three saw the classified documents.

Later, when all the deceased were checked, he was thought to be dead as well. He was
placed in a body bag like the others who didn't make it. He was suddenly recognized by
a friend who called for help. A doctor came and examined him but believed he was dead.

When the doctor was about to zip up the body bag, Benavidez mustered all his last energy
and spat in the doctor's face. The doctor then reacted, "I think he'll make it."

Benavidez had a total of 37 wounds from the six-hour fight with the enemy battalion.
He was then evacuated and sent back to Fort Sam Houston's Brooke Army Medical Center,
where he eventually recovered. He received the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary
heroism and four Purple Hearts. In 1969, he was assigned to Fort Riley, Kansas, and
Fort Sam Houston, Texas, in 1972 until retirement.




Staff Sergeant Roy Benevidez recovered from his 37 wounds, ca. 1968
(Source: Warhistory)



Highest Honor for an American Hero

In 1973, after more detailed accounts became available, Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel
Ralph R. Drake insisted that Benavidez receive the Medal of Honor. By then, however, the
time limit on the medal had expired. An appeal to Congress resulted in an exemption for
Benavidez, but the Army Decorations Board denied him an upgrade of his
Distinguished Service Cross to the Medal of Honor.

The Army board required an eyewitness account from someone present during the action.
Benavidez believed that there were no living witnesses of the "Six Hours in Hell."

Fortunately, in 1980, O'Conner, who lived in Fiji for a long time, wrote a ten-page report
about Benevidez's gallantry.

On February 24, 1981, President Ronald Reagan presented Master Sergeant Roy P. Benavidez
his Medal of Honor.



U.S. President Ronald Raegan presented the
Medal of Honor to MSG Benevidez
(Source: United States Army)



" Sergeant BENAVIDEZ's gallant choice to join voluntarily his comrades who
were in critical straits, to expose himself constantly to withering enemy fire,
and his refusal to be stopped despite numerous severe wounds, saved the lives
of at least eight men. His fearless personal leadership, tenacious devotion to duty,
and extremely valorous actions in the face of overwhelming odds were in keeping
with the highest traditions of the military service, and reflect the utmost credit on
him and the United States Army." - Medal of Honor Citation


Benavidez died on November 29, 1998, because of respiratory failure and diabetes.
He was buried with full military honors at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.




Veteran Soldier MSG Raul Perez "Roy" Benevidez
(Source: SF GATE)

Quote:"You have never lived 'till you almost die.
And it is us, Veterans, that pray for peace.
Most of all, especially the wounded, because
we have to suffer the wounds of war." -

MSG Roy Benevidez, 1991 speech