Vietnam War Medals of Honor: Above and Beyond the Call

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Sergeant Benavidez received the Distinguished Service Cross, America’s second-highest award for valor, in 1968. In 1973, after more detailed accounts of what had happened became available, Special Forces mission commander Lt. Col. Ralph R. Drake insisted that Benavidez receive the Medal of Honor. By then, however, the time limit for bestowing a medal had expired. An appeal to Congress by a Texas congressman and a U.S. Army representative created an exemption in this case.

At the Pentagon on February 24, 1981, President Ronald Reagan draped the Medal of Honor around Roy Benavidez’s neck and said, ‘Sergeant Benavidez, a nation grateful to you, and to all your comrades living and dead, awards you its highest symbol of gratitude for service above and beyond the call of duty.’

As diverse as Medal of Honor recipients are, there are nonetheless recurring themes that characterize them all. They speak of the power of leadership, of the significance of particular circumstances that led them to undertake valorous actions, of becoming absolutely committed to a course of action and of faith in something or someone greater than themselves. All of us should take pride in their heroism. The soldiers who fought and died in Vietnam deserve no less.

A retired political science professor, Joe Zentner is a frequent visitor to the Congressional Medal of Honor Museum located on the hangar deck of USS Yorktown in Charleston (S.C.) Harbor. Suggestions for further reading: Vietnam Medal of Honor Heroes, by Edward F. Murphy (Ballantine); And Brave Men, Too, and Valor, by Timothy S. Lowry (Berkeley).

This article was originally published in the June 1998 issue of Vietnam magazine.

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Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Conflicts, People, Vietnam War

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