Medal of Honor

When President Ronald Reagan presented Roy Perez Benavidez with his ribbon of Honor in 1981, the President told the media that if someone had indite a fictional story with a battler like Benavidez, nought would have believed it. And, in fact, in his autobiography ribbon of Honor 1 Mans Journey from Poverty and Prejudice, the story Benavidez tells is the stuff that movies ar made of. Benavidez was an orphan in south Texas, a half-breed Indian and Hispanic in an era when neither was acceptable.He dropped out of school forward even making it to high school, but as a rung sergeant in the Army during the conflict in Vietnam he protected eight other men and prevented classified documents from f completelying into the hands of the enemy. (Vietnam fight Medal of Honor Recipient) In essence, Benavidez is a true up American success story. He was born to migrant farm workers and received the highest favorable reception that the United States offers for bravery in conflict. However, i t may have been Benavidez never express die attitude that did more to establish his po modelive contributions to American ordination than his war record.As the medevac chopper solid grounded the wounded were examined one by one. Staff Sergeant Benavidez could wholly hear what was going on close to him. He had over thirty seven puncture wounds. His intestines were exposed. He could not see as his eyes were caked in blood and unable to open. uncomplete could he speak, his jaw broken, clubbed by a North Vietnamese rifle. notwithstanding he knew what was happening, and it was the scariest moment of his life, even more so than the earlier events of the twenty-four hours. He lay in a body bag, bathed in his own blood. Jerry Cottingham, a friend screamed Thats Benavidez. Get a doc.When the doctor arrived he situated his hand on Roys chest to feel for a heartbeat. He say him dead. The physician shook his head. Theres nothing I can do for him. As the doctor bent over to zip up the body bag. Benavidez did the only thing he could think of to let the doctor know that he was alive. He spit in the doctors face. The surprised doctor reversed Roys flesh from dead to He wont make it, but well try. (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 ill wounded in Vietnam.Four years earlier, in 1964, Benavidez was hit with shrapnel from a land mind and doctors said he would not recover. They said he would never walk again. They were wrong. In an exerpt from his book, Benavidez explains, Night after night, I bailed out of bed, crawled for the contend at the head of my bed and pulled myself up. I pushed the nightstands ahead with my arms, pressed my feet against the parky tile floor, and dragged my dead body along until my arms were under me again. indeed Id start all over again. Finally, I was moving about dickens tiles at a time. . .I had learned tha t if I got knocked down, I had to get up and keep fighting until I knocked my opponent down, and he didnt get up. all(prenominal) night I got knocked down. each night I got back up again. . . The pain was like nothing I could have ever envisage 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 informalityore my soul. I went through all the stages of blaming God, accusing, doubting, and arguing, but he never deserted me. Hed never let me leave that chapel until I was ready to try 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 computable student. I wouldnt give in to the chair. At night I was first-class honours degree to win my battle, and I wasnt going to let the therapists convince me that it was a deep i n thought(p) cause. (Vietnam Medal of Honor) That strength of spirit is perhaps the most constant contribution Benavidez made to his inelegant. Years later, as he lay dying, Benavidez had the resembling 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 last interview, proverb that he wanted to recover so he could continue working as a motivational speaker. (Mishalov) Another 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 hostage 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 committee regarding the unfairness of their Social warrantor budget cuts (Mishalov). Benavidezs contribution are numerous, based mostly well-nigh his attitude of try, try again. He has an elementary school named for him and the U. S. Navy named a ship in his awarding, a rare occurrence for the Navy to honor a member of another branch of the service. But Benavidez set all the honors and praise aside, saying that he did not consider himself a hero for his actions the day he won the Medal of Honor.The heroes, he said, were the men who disjointed their lives for their country. His actions were simply his duty. (Mishalov). Benavidez died of diabetes-related complications in November, 1998. Works 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.