Funny military memes, B.S., and shotgun club!

You know.

 

FYI These are not my pictures.

 

Chuck Norris bleeds Roy Benavidez.

 

I see your Benavidez and raise you 5 Navy Crosses

 

I like Chesty too, but bruh..

Pure fucking willpower right there.

 

Touché

 

I mean should we start renaming bases? Nah. Is he a badass? Yeah. It's not like there's a Camp Puller anywhere .. nor really, should there be.

 

Speaking of Roy...he's the Homepage Hero (internal VA intraweb when you first open a browser) this morning. Great write-up:

Unstoppable



Fighting almost to the death on a Cambodian border mission that didn’t officially exist, Army Staff Sgt. Roy Benavidez became one of the most iconic figures of the Vietnam War.

The son of a Mexican sharecropper and a Yaqui Native American, Benavidez’ life started out rough, enduring much racism in his life because of his mixed heritage.

His parents died at an early age. He and his brother were adopted by an aunt and uncle. He ended up dropping out of school.

“I dropped out of school and I ran away from home. I’m not proud of that,” he shared in a 1991 speech.

I needed to learn a skill. I needed an education. My adoptive father would tell me, ‘Son, an education and a diploma is the key to success. Bad habits and bad company will ruin you.’”

Military life was life changing
Benavidez ended up in the Texas National Guard and then the regular Army. Then he heard about Airborne School. Thrilled to jump out of planes, he got in.

“The darn recruiters never told me what the training was like. For every mistake that you make, you do pushups.”

He did a lot of pushups. But persevered. So much so he joined Special Forces.

What should have been the end
His first stint in Vietnam was in 1965, where he sustained what should’ve been a career ending injury.

“I stepped on a mine. I was paralyzed from the waist down. I was declared never to walk again.”

But while doctors were compiling his medical discharge papers, he would slip out of bed at night and crawl to a wall using his elbows and chin.

“My back would just be killing me and I’d be crying. But I get to the wall and I set myself against [it] and I’d back myself up…and I’d stand there — like Kaw-Liga, the Indian. I’d stand and move my toes, right and left…every single chance I got.”

He wanted to go back to Vietnam.

“Nine months later, here comes my medical discharge papers. And I told the doctor, ‘Doctor, look what I can do.’ He said, ‘Sergeant, I’m sorry. Even if you can stand up, you’ll never be able to walk.’

“I jumped out of bed and I stood up right before him. My back was hurting, aching, and I was crying. And I moved just a little bit. The doctor says, “Benavidez, if you walk out of this room, I’ll tear these papers up.”

He walked out with a limp, but out he walked.

After intense therapy back in the states, he was able to run 5-10 miles a day, do 50 to 100 pushups and made three parachute jumps in one day.

Benavidez was ready to go back to Vietnam.

A secret mission
He went back as the “bellyman” for a 12-person Special Forces team. The bellyman was responsible for protecting the crew and scooping up injured comrades from danger zones.

The mission: capture an enemy soldier or vehicle to prove that the Ho Chi Minh Trail — used to move Vietcong soldiers and supplies — meandered into neutral Cambodia.

American law at the time specifically prohibited extending the Vietnam War into neutral Cambodia.

American forces hoped to establish the need to go after Vietcong troops using this route to avoid attention.

The team ended up at a major enemy headquarters encampment holding hundreds of soldiers. A fierce battle ensued, and all members of the U.S. team were injured or killed, as was Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Wright, the team leader.

As Benavidez carried Wright’s body to the evacuation helicopter along with other injured team members, he was struck by several bullets. The pilot got the flight in the air, but it was soon brought down by enemy fire. The pilot was killed, and Benavidez and eight others were left to mount a defense.

Benavidez organized a perimeter, called in airstrikes, located rifles and bullets and doled out morphine. Another evacuation helicopter appeared; they loaded the injured men onto the plane. As Benavidez carried a wounded man to the waiting helicopter, an enemy soldier attacked him, shattering his jaw with a rifle butt, and slashing him with his bayonet.

Severely injured, Benavidez got to a rifle and killed the attacker — and two more who were trying to disable the helicopter.

One more run
The helicopter was about to take off when the pilot learned one of the interpreters was still on the ground. Benavidez left the aircraft, one arm holding in his intestines, and retrieved the interpreter, sustaining even more injuries.

When the helicopter finally took off, six hours after the original attack started, Benavidez had 30 injuries and half a lung left. He spent over a year in recovery.

Recognition…but not immediately
Benavidez received the Distinguished Service Cross but not the Medal of Honor. Officials didn’t want to recognize the team’s entry into Cambodia.

Some accounts say he was so mauled his commanding officer didn’t think he would live long enough to receive the Medal of Honor. He nominated him for the Distinguished Service Cross instead, because the lesser award would take less time to process.

Some think officials didn’t want to recognize the team’s entry into Cambodia.

Over a decade later in 1980, after testimony from survivors to Benavidez’ actions that bordered “on the realm of humanly possible,” President Ronald Reagan presented Benavidez the Medal of Honor.

Benavidez died in 1998. He is buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.

In one of the many speeches Benavidez gave after service, he answered an often-asked question.

“I’m asked hundreds of times: ’Would you do it over again?’ In my 25 years in the military, I feel like I’ve been overpaid for the service to my country. There will never be enough paper to print the money nor enough gold in Fort Knox for me to have to keep from doing what I did.”

“I’m proud to be an American.”

__________________________
Quotes from speech delivered in 1991, the Million Dollar Round Table Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Photo courtesy of U.S. Army.

 

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