On this Memorial Day, we honor the brave souls who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. While Master Sergeant Raul Perez “Roy” Benavidez is not among the fallen, his life was defined by their memory. Some call him the real-life Rambo.
Though Roy Benavidez survived the battlefield, he endured wounds so grave that many believed he wouldn’t make it. And yet, he lived. He lived to tell the stories of those who didn’t return. He lived to ensure the sacrifices made on foreign soil were not forgotten at home. And he lived to remind us all that patriotism doesn’t look one way. It also looks like a barefoot kid from Cuero, Texas, who grew up poor, orphaned, and proud.
Meet the Invincible Roy Benavidez
Born in 1935 to a Mexican American family in a small Texas town, Benavidez was no stranger to adversity. By age seven, he had lost both parents. As a child, he shined shoes, picked cotton, and sold tacos on street corners. At 15, he dropped out of school to help support his family.
He carried that unbreakable work ethic into the military, first serving in the Texas National Guard, then transitioning to active duty with the U.S. Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division. Later, as a Green Beret, Benavidez was deployed to Vietnam.
After stepping on a landmine during his first tour, doctors told him he’d never walk again. But Roy Benavidez wasn’t one to accept limits—not from poverty, not from injury, and certainly not from fate. Six months later, he walked out of the hospital and returned to duty.
Armed Only With a Knife
On May 2, 1968, in a harrowing six-hour battle in the Vietnamese jungle, Benavidez performed what President Ronald Reagan would later describe as “a story no one would believe if it were a movie.” Armed with only a knife and sheer determination, Benavidez charged into enemy fire to rescue a 12-man Special Forces team.
Shot, stabbed, beaten, and blasted by grenade shrapnel, he carried wounded soldiers to safety again and again. He shielded them with his body. He refused to stop fighting, even after being presumed dead and zipped into a body bag.
Legend has it, he spit on the medic to prove he was still alive. His daughter, Yvette Benavidez Garcia, calls it “the luckiest shot he ever made.”
The Man Behind the Medal
Benavidez was eventually awarded the Medal of Honor in 1981. But as his daughter points out, he never called it something he “won.”
“My dad was quick to correct that. He’d say, ‘I didn’t win anything—I earned it,’” Benavidez Garcia tells Nuestro Stories. “We still correct people when they say that.”
Off the battlefield, Roy Benavidez was a father, a man of deep faith, and a proud Mexican American who loved Freddy Fender and Hank Williams, and never wavered in his devotion to his community.
Despite his service, he returned to a country that didn’t always celebrate him. He endured discrimination, racism, and the invisible wounds of PTSD, long before those wounds had a name.
“He went through mental torture reliving the moments in combat because he was so committed to helping others,” says Yvette. “But he never once complained about the hate he received. His motto was always: ‘Don’t worry about it. You’re OK. The world’s wrong.’”
Latino, American, and Unbreakable
In an age when the contributions of Latinos to American history are still too often overlooked, Roy Benavidez stands as a testament to everything we are. Courageous. Devoted. Resilient. And yes, invincible.
“Would you do it over again?” Benavidez asked during a speech, when he received the Medal of Honor. ” … I’ll answer you in this manner: There’ll never be enough paper to print the money …nor enough gold in Fort Knox for me to have, to keep me from doing what I did. We should never look at the color of skin. The only color we should look at is right there: Red, white, and blue. We’re all Americans. I’m proud to be an American. And even prouder that I earned the priviledge … to wear the Green Beret. I live by the mantra: ‘Duty, honor, and country.'”
Roy Benavidez
Want to know more? Benavidez’s story is told in the biography The Ballad of Roy Benavidez by historian Dr. William Sturkey.
For even more, check out Benavidez Garcia’s children’s book called, “Tango Mike Mike: The Story of Master Sergeant Roy P. Benavidez.” “It’s a short read, and intended for school aged students from 2nd grade thru 7th. … it’s also for the young at heart,” his daughter tells us.
