Medal of Honor

When President Ronald Reagan presented Roy Perez Benavidez with his decoration of purity in 1981, the President told the media that if someone had compose a fictional story with a hero like Benavidez, no be would bring forth believed it. And, in fact, in his autobiography medallion of Honor One Mans Journey from P overty and Prejudice, the story Benavidez tells is the obstruct that movies are made of. Benavidez was an orphan in s discloseh Texas, a half-breed Indian and Hispanic in an era when neither was acceptable.He dropped out of school before notwithstanding making it to high school, but as a staff sergeant in the Army during the conflict in Vietnam he moreoverd eight other manpower and prevented classified docu ments from falling into the hands of the enemy. (Vietnam state of war medal of Honor Recipient) In essence, Benavidez is a original Ameri rat triumph story. He was born to migrant bring out workers and received the highest commendation that the United Stat es offers for courageousness in conflict. However, it may shake up been Benavidez neer say die attitude that did more(prenominal) to establish his po modelive contributions to American indian lodge than his war record.As the medevac chopper come the wounded were examined one by one. module Sergeant Benavidez could only hear what was passing play on around him. He had over thirty seven puncture wounds. His intestines were exposed. He could not see as his eye were caked in blood and unable to open. neither could he speak, his jaw broken, club buns by a North Vietnamese rifle. But he knew what was happening, and it was the scariest moment of his life, even more so than the earlier events of the day. He lay in a form bag, bathed in his stimulate blood. Jerry Cottingham, a friend screamed Thats Benavidez. Get a doc.When the doctor arrived he determined his hand on Roys chest to odour for a heartbeat. He pronounced him deathlike. The atomic number 101 shook his head. Theres nothing I can do for him. As the doctor circle over to zip up the body bag. Benavidez did the only thing he could regard of to let the doctor know that he was alive. He spit in the doctors face. The strike doctor reversed Roys condition from dead to He wont make it, but well search on. (Rouse) These were the wounds that Benavidez received the day he save eight men and won a Medal of Honor, but the reality is this was not the first time he had been sternly wounded in Vietnam.Four years earlier, in 1964, Benavidez was hit with shrapnel from a land encephalon and doctors verbalise he would not ascertain. They said he would never walk again. They were wrong. In an exerpt from his book, Benavidez explains, Night after iniquity, I bailed out of bed, crawled for the wall at the head of my bed and pulled myself up. I pushed the darkstands ahead with my arms, pressed my feet against the blue-pencilting tile floor, and dragged my dead body along until my arms were under me again . Then Id range all over again. Finally, I was woful about devil tiles at a time. . .I had learned that if I got knocked down, I had to induct up and keep fighting until I knocked my opponent down, and he didnt get up. both dark I got knocked down. Every night I got back up again. . . The chafe was like nothing I could have ever dreamed about. Every night it would suck the sweat and tears from my body and my soul. Every day I would go back to that little chapel and sit alone and specify my soul. I went finished all the stages of blaming God, acc use, doubting, and arguing, but he never deserted me. Hed never let me relinquish that chapel until I was ready to afflict again.After chapel, I went to physical therapy to try to restore the rest of my body for my nightly battle. In therapy Id sit with the guys with no legs, or the true paraplegics, and learn how to live in the chair. I was not a good student. I wouldnt give in to the chair. At night I was beginning to win my bat tle, and I wasnt going to let the therapists convince me that it was a lost cause. (Vietnam Medal of Honor) That intensity level of spirit is perhaps the most perdurable contribution Benavidez made to his country. Years later, as he lay dying, Benavidez had the same attitude.With two pieces of shrapnel still in his heart and a collapsed lung and diabetes, he reportedly said quitters never win and winners never quit, in his decease interview, saying that he wanted to recover so he could continue on the job(p) as a motivational speaker. (Mishalov) other of Benavidezs lasting contributions to the country came in the form of his activism after winning the Medal of Honor. During the Reagan Administration, Social Security attempted to cut his disability benefits, saying that the disabled war hero should find work.Though he regretted using his Medal for political purposes, he wore it as he testified to a Congressional military commission regarding the unfairness of their Social Secur ity budget cuts (Mishalov). Benavidezs contribution are numerous, found mostly around his attitude of try, try again. He has an elementary school named for him and the U. S. dark blue named a ship in his pay back, a rare occurrence for the Navy to honor a member of another branching of the service. But Benavidez set all the honors and adulation aside, saying that he did not cipher himself a hero for his actions the day he won the Medal of Honor.The heroes, he said, were the men who lost their lives for their country. His actions were simply his duty. (Mishalov). Benavidez died of diabetes-related complications in November, 1998. workings Cited Mishalov, Neil. Medal of Honor Roy P. Benavidez June 14, 2007. Rouse, Ed. Roy P. Benavidez , June 14, 2007. Vietnam War Medal of Honor Recipient http//www. medalofhonor. com/RoyBenavidez. htm, June 14, 2007.