All across America and around the world, this
is Veterans Radio. And now, your host for today's
program, Dale Throneberry. Good afternoon and
welcome to Veterans Radio. My name is Dale Throneberry,
CW2 Type, United States Army Aviation. 1967 to
71. Wow, that's 100 years ago, isn't it? Pretty
close to it, anyway. I want to say to all my
veteran brothers and sisters, thank you so much
for your service. And to all of you that have
made it home safely, we want to tell you thank
you again and welcome home. We are here for you.
Veterans Radio is veterans for veterans. Everything
about the whole program is veteran -oriented,
and that's what we want to talk about today.
We're going to be telling a great story. This
has really kind of hit home with me as those
of you who have been listening to Veterans Radio
over the last number of years. I did fly helicopters
in Vietnam and I was involved with, now I can
legally talk about it because a 30 -year time
period has expired. I was involved in a special
observation group over there, Command and Control
South, and we ran teams of Special Forces units
into Cambodia, Laos, and so forth over there
before it was popular. And today's book that
we're going to be talking about is Legend, and
it's written by Eric Blem. And it's the story
of a Medal of Honor recipient, and I'll get into
that in a little bit more, but it's just, it's
a very exciting story because he was part of
a team that had gone into Cambodia, into places
that I had been a year after this story took
place. And so I'm excited to tell that whole
story. In the meantime, we've got a number of
events that are coming up, and I want to make
sure that you tell us what events are going on
in your area of the country. You can send us
an email or you can go to our website at veteransradio
.net, click on Contact Us, and we'll get out
whatever information that you want us to get
out. The event that occurred was some news that
I got from one of our listeners. And we're always
encouraging you here on Veterans Radio to get
a hold of the VA and make sure at least that
you're registered. And so that if anything does
come up, then possibly you can get a little jump
on the system and get involved in there. And
if you're entitled to benefits for a disability
or something that might have been caused by your
exposure to something, at least you've got the
ball started to roll. But I got this email, and
it talks about the you know, the Brown Water
Navy over in Vietnam, and it talks about the
mobile ravine force inshore fire support. I'm
not from the Navy, so I don't understand hardly
any of this, but it says mobile ravine force
inshore fire support ISF Division 93. If you
were listed on many of these different ships,
you might have been exposed and probably were
exposed to herbicides, and it talks about that
these types of ships now qualify for presumption
of herbicide exposure. And I'm just going to
list a couple of them. Those in your Navy, you
probably have gotten this yourselves. You may
know about it already. But it says AGP assault
group patrols, LCM's landing craft mechanized,
LCU's landing craft utility, LST's, PBR patrol
boat river, PCF patrol craft after swift boats.
STABs, strike assault boats, WAKs, cargo vessels,
there's buoy tenders, this list is pretty long,
patrol boats, harbor utility craft, and so on
and so forth. But if you want more information
on this, remember Bob always says make sure you
have a pen when you're listening to Veterans
Radio, is to go to this website and it's www
.publichealth .va .gov slash exposures. And on
that there, you'll be able to find a list. When
you look under Agent Orange, under that particular
page, you'll be able to find a list of all of
the ships that are designated, I guess you could
say, to qualify for presumption of herbicide
exposure. Now, again, all of us who are in Vietnam,
there is a presumption of herbicide exposure.
I know that the VA always wants to know, where
were you in country and when were you there?
And for some of us, we didn't know where we were
half the time because Every day we're in 25 different
towns or villages or whatever it happened to
be. But if you think that you have any health
issues caused by exposure to herbicides, get
to the VA now. Get that claim in. and let them,
you know, let's start the process going because
there's a lot of things going on out there. Remember
we talked about Agent Orange before where it
not only affects our generation but there is
proof that it affects our children's generation
and now they are finding out that it affects
our grandchildren's generation. So we encourage
you to get involved with this. Find out if there's
anything going on in your physical system caused
by Agent Orange. Do it. Please. This is really
important to you. We're going to take a break
right now, and then we're going to be back with
our guest as author, Eric Blem, and his book
is entitled Legend, the Incredible Story of Green
Beret Sergeant Roy Benavidez, His Mission to
Rescue Special Forces Team Caught Behind Enemy
Lines. You're listening to Veterans Radio. We'll
be right back. These are America's Best, and
this is what we're going to be talking about
with our guest, Eric Blem, today on Veterans
Radio. Eric, welcome to Veterans Radio. Dale,
so nice to be here and I'll just echo what you
said earlier. Thank you to all your listenership
who have served their families. Thank you for
your service and just enabling us this freedom
of speech to have an open conversation about
whatever we want on the radio here in America.
It is, isn't it? And now actually we can talk
about these missions 30 years later. Yeah, absolutely.
It's a world that I was thoroughly not aware
of the year it took place. I was born 1968, the
mission that we're going to talk about, May 2nd,
1968. And there really wasn't a whole lot in
the history books, even as I got into school
a decade later, that really gave me any enlightenment
into what the men and women did in Vietnam. Well,
you have written a number of other books. We're
going to talk about those a little bit later
on. But let's talk about... How you got involved
with this story of Roy Benavidez, if I'm pronouncing
that correctly. My wife says I can't pronounce
anything. You know what, Benavidez, you got it.
We all got taught on phonics, right? First of
all, I got into writing these stories. I was
out of college in journalism. I was an editor
of a snowboarding magazine. I wrote about adventures
and fun stuff that we get to enjoy in this country.
But after 9 -11, I asked myself what what's your
part in all this? I never did serve in the military
and I thought that my gift, my skill is writing
and research and I wanted to tell the story of
those who serve from the perspective of those
who are there on the ground without any political
bias, without any religious bias, without any
sort of bias at all, just straight and narrow
from the perspective of the guys and in some
places women who are there. And so that's how
I got into writing these types of stories. In
particular, I wrote books about our current and
currently past wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
From there, after a fairly decent following of
readership, I was given an email from my agent.
It actually was my agent's mom who told me about
Roy Benavides' story. I at first could not believe
it. She said, I think this should be your next
book. The short of the story is that this is
a guy that was wounded more than thirty times
in the process of trying to help rescue a special
forces team caught behind enemy lines and it
detailed some of the wounds that he got and I
thought this cannot be real but I did my due
diligence and my research and asked around and
found out no this is for real and I thought you
know what this this is a story that the current
generation of readership both military and civilian
need to hear and that's what urged me and encouraged
me to really dig deep and tell this story. Well
it is a fascinating story and I'm trying to put
it into historical perspective on my own basis.
In 1968, I was in flight school getting ready
to go to Vietnam. And in doing a little research
on your story, I found that my company, the 195th
Assault Helicopter Company, who had been running
the missions with Team 56, had pretty much broken
all their aircraft. in early May of 68, and the
other company, the 240th Assault Helicopter Company,
the Greyhounds, took over the mission for I think
it was six weeks or two months, something along
those lines before we got enough aircraft to
go back and take over again. And as a result,
they were thrown right into the middle of this
truly amazing adventure. Yeah, the 240th, they...
They had a really amazing, from talking to the
guys who were part of the 240th, and to step
back even a step further, Roy Benavides' story
had been told in various angles in the past,
but what had never been told was the story of
the assault helicopter company that took them
on this mission, and then also, of course, gave
a lot to try and get these guys out. And I thought
that in Vietnam, as you know, You really can't
tell a story of a mission, a ground mission,
without also telling the story from the air because
they really went hand -in -hand in Vietnam. The
first, you know, the air mobile tactics with
helicopters, all this originated in Vietnam.
And so that was kind of an interesting perspective
of this book that I really wanted to cover. And
they had such a great track record up until the
year of 1968, the Greyhounds, and then all of
a sudden just significant losses yet I was told
over and over again that they never said no to
a mission that it didn't matter how hot the landing
was and I think it really went true for most
of the assault helicopter companies. They wanted
to get their brothers out and if they put them
in they wanted to get them out and that really
is a big part of this story. I think it's a big
story about Americans military in general is
that traditionally we have never left anybody
behind. And it was kind of ingrained in us that
if somebody was on the ground from being a pilot,
it was our job to go and get them, no matter
what happened. And I think, luckily, that the
majority of us were young enough where we didn't
think about what we were doing, because nothing
would ever hurt us, that we would go and get
them. And so many of the stories in this book,
and we're talking with Eric Blem, and his book
is entitled Legend. It's just fascinating. For
any of you who are in Vietnam, you've got to
read this thing. So many of you probably were
in firefights that were very similar, hopefully
not as bad as these were. And if you were a pilot
or a door gun or crew chief, they've got everything
in here. He's put everything in here that tells
your story about what you did in there. And when
I was reading it about the towns and the villages
and the names and everything, it all came...
flashing back to me, but let's go back and let's
start talking about Roy, because this is about
him, because his story starts nowhere. Yeah,
well, he was born in rural Texas. He was orphaned
at a very young age. His father died when he
was three. His mother died when he was seven,
both from tuberculosis. They were sharecroppers.
backero's cowboys working for a ranch the wallace
ranch outside of quero texas and after his parents
were killed he was adopted by an uncle who already
had you know a half dozen kids and him and his
younger brother were brought on board and so
this is a kid that grew up in a racially turbulent
south he he grew up in a family of mexicans that
were um... experiencing racism just like the
uh... african -americans in the south at the
time when he went to a movie as a boy ushered
to the balcony where there were signs posted
that said Mexicans and Negroes to the balcony
and He was that was what he grew up with and
it's I say that as part of the story to just
show how it turned around to then He this instilled
in him this desire to serve his country the very
country that he you know was experiencing these
These challenges as a very young person battling
poverty racism prejudice you name it as a young
boy, but a teenager he ultimately dropped out
of school to continue helping the family to make
ends meet as a sharecropper picking sugar beets
and cotton and then got a job the Firestone store
and one day a recruiter came by and asked if
he could put a recruiting sign up for the for
the army and Adi Murphy was the kind of the poster
boy at the time during the Korean War in the
50s and Roy thought of Audie Murphy as a hero.
His uncle had told him how Audie Murphy came
from a family of sharecroppers, a white boy who
picked cotton himself as a young man. And he
was always kind of a hero to Roy. And that's
what kind of instigated that, let's say, military
wonder lust where he wanted to see, hey, maybe
the military is for me. And he was encouraged
by his family, by his uncle, by Art Haddock,
who was the manager of the Firestone store that
You know what? You can't let your circumstances
hold you back. You need to bring honor to your
name. You're first and foremost an American.
And the military is a pretty good option for
you. And he went that route. And sure enough,
he went down in the annals of history as truly
a legend. He did. And one of the things that
I always found that I found fascinating in the
story was the influence that his grandfather
had on him about how to live your life. touch
on that briefly. His grandfather, Salvador, he
would go and pick sugar beets in particular early.
He'd get told out of school a month, a month
and a half before school let out for most kids
and he'd go back to school a month after most
started. So for about five months with the summer
in the middle, he'd be picking crops and on these
various, you know, living in shanty towns near
the crops and whatever in Colorado, in Texas,
he would sit around campfires at night, and his
grandfather, Salvador, would tell stories. And
his grandfather had been a vaquero. He very proudly
wore a Stetson hat and a big belt buckle, and
he told the story of how one time one of his
fellow ranch hens went off of a small trail on
a narrow mountain gorge, and he had to get down
on all fours, took his belt off, and helped this
guy up at his own risk on a very slippery slope,
and almost could have succumbed to a slip and
died himself. And the lesson that he... constantly
repeated over and over again over the years to
Roy and to his fellow, you know, his cousins,
his adopted cousins were like brothers and sisters
and his own little brother was, if someone needs
help, you help them. It was as simple as that.
And that really came full circle, you know, years
later in Vietnam when he heard this call for
help from the Special Forces team that was vastly
outnumbered, outgunned, being slaughtered and
He was the first to jump in line and say, hey,
I'm going to go see what I can do to help him
out. Well, it's true. Yeah. It's an amazing story.
We're talking with Eric Lim, author of Legend,
the story of Roy Benavidez's heroic mission for
which he... rightfully deserved and finally received
his Medal of Honor. If you've got a question
for Eric or you want to jump in on the story,
please give us a call here at Veterans Radio.
Our number locally is 734 -822 -1600, 734 -822
-1600. Or if you're out somewhere in America,
you can call us at toll free at 844 -838 -1600.
That's 844 -VET -1600. All right. Roy enlisted
and For some reason he decided he wanted to go
to jump school I'm always amazed by people that
want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane
But he wanted to be the best right? Yeah, he
did and he you know, he was recently married
and to Lala wife until the day that he died and
he you know he thought of it as two things one
was hey it's um a few extra bucks on my paycheck
every month that's true and also that there was
this desire that he knew that they were looked
up to and there is again this this recurring
message you know from his from his uncle who's
who often said you know if you're going to do
something whether it's picking crops or whatever
did be the best do the best that you can do and
no one can ever fault you for that and when he
heard about the jump school and that possibility
it was it was exciting to him and he tried out
for it and ultimately uh made it but it wasn't
an easy path he tried to enlist for many many
times and he ultimately got a job he was a good
guy he had the gift of gab he always was a great
storyteller because his family had this oral
tradition of telling stories and so he ultimately
became a chauffeur for a time and as luck would
have it He was given the assignment when he was
at a fort, it's escaping me right now, which
fort it was, but it was there in Texas. Westmoreland
came to the fort where he was working and he
got to chauffeur him personally. And after being
turned down for jump school a few times, he knew
at the time Westmoreland was the top dog in the
Airborne. And by the end of his... stay there
what he kind of hinted to Westmoreland that that's
what he wanted to do and it was kind of a gift
because right before he was had the opportunity
to reanalyze at the end of that year he got orders
to attend jump school and they were from Westmoreland
himself giving him a second chance because he
he did something with Westmoreland he showed
something his spirit his story whatever it was
that reminded and had Westmoreland actually wrote
down his name when he left that duty station
and that was what really gave him the opportunity
to start this whole journey. It's just interesting
if you believe in a higher power, a lot of pieces
to the puzzle come together with this story because
the fact that Westmoreland who ultimately became
the commanding general in Vietnam met him early
on and gave him that opportunity, that chance.
to go for Airborne and to try out, it's just,
it's amazing. When I put together the pieces
and I had to check his military records, these
things that I heard were almost legendary circumstances,
you know, they all lined up and I found the facts
and the truth behind it and sure enough, it all
pulled together and it was just a neat thing
to put together because I always research everything
very deeply and very carefully to make sure,
you know, is it legend or is it truth that becomes
legend. And as we know, things over the course
of many, many years and decades upon decades,
the fog of war and just the fog of age really
can blur things. And man, his story is amazing.
And I'm telling you, it's just all of it panned
out, all of it I found very accurate. That's
true. Now, he went not only to go through jump
school, he went through ranger school and ended
up in the Special Forces. you know, he got that
coveted green beret with, you know, that's a
song that we played on earlier on. But he went
to, he had been in Vietnam one other time before
1968 and ran into difficulty, right? Yeah, and
that's really, I mean, that's a part of the story
that is, is, you know, I don't go super deep
into it because there's so much to put at the
end of the story with this true mission that
Ultimately gave him that you know the credibility
and opportunity to be eligible for that coveted
Medal of Honor but in 19 in during the first
waves of our support in Vietnam and 65 he was
there and I'll just cut it right to the chase
he stepped on a landmine was what they ultimately
Put together the medical people put together
because he was found on a trail after patrol
and he was the impact in his body he was he was
unconscious he was in a coma his spine had been
compressed he had a gigantic bruise on his on
his butt and he and just somehow this mind that
he stepped on did not explode so whether they
ended up in a million pieces he ended up concussed
thoroughly and compressed and he went back to
Fort Sam Houston and was told he would first
of all when he came to he didn't even recognize
who his wife was and he was that bad they didn't
know if he'd ever regain his senses and then
once that came through and they realized that
he was paralyzed and numb you know could not
feel any sensations from the waist down that
he would never walk again but he continued to
to go to the old chapel at the ward where he
was where there are other People coming back
from Vietnam, you know, there are people with
the amputee amputees multiple amputees burn victims
and he kept on just saying why? Why? Why God
did I not why did I survive? He just he's I wish
I would have gotten my legs blown off and I would
have never made it here because he saw himself
as This person who is going to go home He's going
to get a medical retirement because he's going
to be good for nothing and he would and he said
and this is in his own words The only thing back
in El Campo, Texas where he ended up growing
up with his uncle is that dumb Mexican, Roy Benavidez.
There's not Sergeant Benavidez, the man who he'd
become and that he dreamed to become, who could
serve his country. And after many months in the
hospital, he one night started to feel a little
bit of sensation and he actually pushed himself,
he could use his arms, he pushed himself off
of his bed, slammed onto the ground, and he attempted
to push himself up against the wall in his...
in the ward where his buddies were all lined
up again some of them amputees and he ultimately
was taken by the nurse and said you can't do
this you know don't push yourself out of the
bed he said I just want to walk and he kept giving
himself his own sort of physical therapy and
then he was going to real physical therapy and
slowly under painful circumstances he got to
the point where he did have some feeling he was
able to bear his own weight and long story short
again a lot of this is covered in the He was
able to actually walk out of a hospital. And
at that point, you'd think that he's done, but
he refused to medically retire. And then he decided,
hey, I think what I'm going to do is see if I
can't become a Green Beret. He just has had that
unstoppable spirit. And determination and just
strength of, as you mentioned, determination.
I mean, not only is he not blown apart, but blown
up, probably traumatic brain injury and all these
other things. And then he decides he's going
to become a Green Beret whose training is even
more difficult than jump school and all the other
things. So we've got about a minute before we
take a break at the bottom of the hour when we're
talking with Eric Blem here. His book is entitled
Legend and it's a story of Roy Benavidez. And
when we come back after the news, we're going
to be talking about his adventures on in May
of 1968 when he volunteered. This is the thing
that's so amazing to me is that he volunteered
to go out and to attempt to rescue a Green Beret
team that was surrounded in Cambodia. So make
sure that you stay tuned. Again, if we want to
get in on the conversation, please give us a
call here at Veterans Radio 734 -822 -1600. Total
free 844 -838 -1600. So in the 30 seconds that's
left, Eric, Roy went to Special Forces school,
got his Green Beret, and now he's going to go
back to Vietnam, correct? He's going back to
Vietnam. He doesn't know really what he's going
to do, but he knows that he's going in at a much
older age than many young Green Berets. He was
in his 30s, and he doesn't know what's in store
for him, but he knows that he's going to get
a chance to serve his country once again. Okay,
so stay tuned for the second half of Veterans
Radio. We're going to be talking about Roy Benavidez
and the mission that he went on that earned him
the Medal of Honor. You're listening to Veterans
Radio. We'll be right back. And we're back on
Veterans Radio. For those that are familiar with
Veterans Radio, that's the theme from our Medal
of Honor series that we normally run during this
time period. We haven't made a Medal of Honor
segment yet for Roy, so we've got to just put
the music in there. Joining us here on Veterans
Radio today is Eric Blem, the author of Legend,
that's the unforgettable account, and Courageous
Actions of the U .S. Army's 240th Assault Helicopter
Company and Green Beret Staff Sergeant Roy Benavidez.
Eric, I was looking in your book and I was recalling
when I got to Vietnam and they said, okay, these
are the missions that you're going to be flying.
I just wanted to remind our audience. that a
helicopter company is made up of four platoons.
There are two slick platoons. These are the troop
carriers and so forth. There's a gun platoon
and then there's the maintenance platoon. And,
you know, the guys that fix everything all the
time. And a slick helicopter has four people
on board normally. There's a pilot, co -pilot,
crew chief and a door gunner. And, you know,
we can fit... depending on the weather altitude
and density altitude and so forth we can usually
carry six to eight Americans on board and usually
more Vietnamese because they were smaller and
the When we were assigned this mission to fly
with the the ours was command and control south
Is that they took away all our identification?
Well, we didn't wear any dog tags. We weren't
allowed to carry wallets, jewelry, anything along
those lines. That would give anybody any idea
who we were. And that if we were behind, if we
got shot down behind enemy lines, we had this
silk, I don't know what you'd call it, like a
chit almost, and then five different dialects
of Cambodian or Vietnamese, it would say, if
you helped this person get back to friendly lines,
there was a reward for you. And on the other
side, there was a... a panel to help people out.
This is the scenario that the 240th ran into
when they signed up for this mission. So on May
8th or May 2nd of 1968, off they go on a mission
to drop a team of special forces, which usually
were two Americans and was it four indigenous?
Well, it really depends on the group. In this
case, it was a heavy team. So it was three Americans,
and it was, I believe it was six indigenous.
Okay. And so the mission was to do what? I guess
I'll let you explain that. They were interdicting
the Ho Chi Minh Trail. They were there to watch
and or, you know, along the way they would do
things like hit wiretaps so they can listen in
on the enemy communications that were there.
The communists, the North Vietnamese that were
using Ho Chi Minh trail to bring supplies and
personnel down into South Vietnam where the war
was taking place. Kind of a back door entrance
into the war because we had it pretty wrapped
up on the borders and even up on the at the the
northern border as well. So they went into neutral
Laos and Cambodia, breaking the international
law of those countries designation as neutral.
And they, so people often say we were supposed
to be in Cambodia. Well, we were in a very small
scale as opposed to the North Vietnamese and
communist Chinese who were supporting them that
were using the same trail. And in some ways with
the kind of underside acknowledgement, quiet
nod from the Cambodian Prince Nordam Sihanouk
who was also a very colorful character from that
period who was kind of playing all sides of the
fence. So that's kind of the setting of these
guys that were... They were trying one of the
big things they wanted to do is try and find
the command and control center of the North Vietnam
Vietnamese down here in the south and many believed
it was in this area known as either the fish
hook or the parrot speak where Cambodia jutted
out into South Vietnam the border and That was
the the fish hook was where this team was inserted
to an area where they were very confident that
there was a lot of enemy movement from past missions,
and they were, as a secondary option in this,
they were told that they couldn't hijack an enemy
truck. I like that one. They wanted to bring
back a truck. A truck, a truck from the, yeah,
and do it quietly if that's at all possible.
And they did, you know, the idea was that if
they did get it, they could use one of the big
sky cranes, the big massive heavy lift helicopters.
potentially even drive it back across the border,
because there were roads right onto the border.
I mean, it's a massive border, and there were
areas where they could do this, but they wanted
to see what was inside these, and that was secondary
to just, again, counting troop movements, and
given the opportunity, they were sometimes given
permission to raise a little hell with the enemy
as well, and it really depended. At this time,
in particular, the real goal was to stay quiet.
The truck was kind of a pie in the sky aspect
of the mission that they were encouraged to go
after if that was possible. But what happened
is shortly after being inserted, they were compromised.
They ran into some woodcutters who were clearly
North Vietnamese. These woodcutters had also
had AK -47s flung over their shoulders and they
were there. they had to deal with them and in
doing so they went into a evade and retreat situation
where they wanted to get to a landing zone and
then at that point they also ran headlong into
a an equally sized patrol of North Vietnamese
and that was really when everything went to went
to hell for the team. Right and in essence they
were basically surrounded they had just been
dropped off by the 240th and these guys immediately
had to turn, this has happened quite often because
they would, they would many times pick three
landing sites or LZs to, you know, confuse the
enemy because they didn't, you know, I mean they
could figure out where a helicopter is landing
and sometimes they would set up these landing
zones, you know, thinking well they're going
to land here so we'll wait for them and it just
seems by accident that this particular team went
into this LZ and They were very close to a large,
large contingent of North Vietnam regulars. And
so once this firefight ensued, they were totally
compromised. And they lost a couple of their
team members right away. Yes. And then they had
to call to the 240th, to the Greyhounds, for
them to come back and get them. And can you tell
a little bit? I don't want to give away the whole
book, obviously. I want people to read this book.
You know it's it's it's it's interesting because
when you discuss this it's everything that we're
talking about is the same thing that Just got
me intrigued by to tell the story and there's
so many details as you know having read it yourself
That doesn't matter if you hear the story here
you read it and it's just there's so many things
They'll just drop your jaw when you find out
what they went through I mean, I think it's always
most telling to those who it's haunting to those
who have experienced combat And it's telling,
and for those of us who have not, to just say
that they were stacking the bodies of their dead
as cover. Because they were surrounded, they
were low on ammunition, they could only carry
so much on these missions. And they were being
just shot to heck with everything from rock -propelled
grenades to standard rifle and pistol fire, but
also there were some crew served. machine guns
that were being rolled in around them in this
clearing and they basically found a small little
island of trees how that was described to me
in the middle of this of this clearing that was
really not it was kind of like a crescent -shaped
clearing maybe a hundred and thirty yards long
by seventy five seventy yards across and in the
middle of this is where they had gone to try
and get picked up There was an ant hill, an earthen
ant hill and some saplings and other than that
they were surrounded by tall grass and then they
were surrounded by the whole clearing was surrounded
by just that classic wall of jungle that is so
prevalent around these clearing areas and within
this tree line was where the enemy was slowly
encircling them and they almost completely encircled
them when finally the 240th got back in because
it was a decent time play. They had to get back
out after they dropped them off. They had to
refuel and then they had to come back out. And
by the time they got there, it was so hot that
they really were having difficulties getting
in. In fact, the one helicopter that landed,
this probably would have just haunted you for
hearing it, but the special forces team did not
want to be compromised and let anybody know where
their position was. So they were keeping it quiet.
But as the helicopter landed, they looked across
the clearing and they saw a group of North Vietnamese
coming out into the clearing. brazenly waving
hello and to try and wave the helicopter down
well these teams would wear the uniforms of the
enemy into the helicopter pilot saw these guys
coming out of the tree line thinking oh this
is the team this is what we're picking up another
guy like we don't open fire because we don't
know where we hope they can figure out that these
are not a either the bad guys and ultimately
when helicopter all the way down they did open
fire on this uh... team of uh... or this patrol
of north vietnamese who was you know trying to
act as though they were an American team. And
that's when the firefight started with the, with
the helicopters and they barely escaped, shot
to heck. And during this situation, this first
attempt to get in and pull these guys out, they,
uh, one of the gun that door gunners, uh, Michael
Craig was shot mortally through the chicken plate,
through the armor under the chest. And he flew
back to which was the base near the Cambodian
border where Roy Benavides ended up. That was
the first place after he had been stationed with
B56. He was sent to this little forward base
and he was kind of just getting to know what
the SOG group, what the Studies and Observations
group was all about, kind of to find out what
his place was going to be. And that's when he
saw a helicopter pilot running for the for the
tarmac where the helicopters would come in across
near a very small landing strip and he ran up
there and he sees this helicopter limping back
over the landing with a really hard landing that
was trailing smoke and he sees the pilot waving
and yelling out, medic, medic. Well Roy, of course,
special forces, everybody's cross -trained, he's
the medic, he runs straight to this helicopter
and Michael Craig is bleeding profusely all over
the bottom of the of the helicopter and he takes
him in his arms pulls him out of the helicopter
to see what he can do and he immediately realizes
that this young door gun or crew chief who was
20 years old I mean young young man looking up
into Roy's eyes with that look of of of terror
in his eyes and Roy being trained to to stay
calm just talk to him and the last words out
of Michael Craig's mouth were my god my mom and
dad and then he died in Roy's arms and you can
imagine Here is a situation where Roy, he's there
just to kind of help out and give support on
the ground and figure out what's going on with
his group. He's not on this mission. He's not
even on a standby mission that's supposed to
be a quick reaction force for any situation like
this. He's just there kind of hanging out, getting
his feet wet. And he immediately looks around
and sees another helicopter. He sets down Michael
Craig gently on the tarmac and he walks to the
next helicopter and he asks the pilot. who was
Larry McKibben, another young man, if they're
going back in. And he said, well, you're going
to need a belly man. I'm here to help you out.
He jumps on board. Without any weapons, by the
way, folks. No, he just threw it on his way to
breakfast. All he had in his pocket was a bottle
of Tabasco sauce and he had his special forces
knife, which over time, I will say, had grown
to 14 inches long and a small machete. But in
reality, it was a classic seven or eight inch
blade. Right. Right, so this is what he, he gets
on his helicopter and the 240 takes him back
into that landing zone. Yeah, and it gets worse.
It does, it just culminates, and when you don't
think it gets any worse, it gets worse and worse
and worse. And on the ground there was a very
brave Special Forces soldier, there was Brian
O 'Connor, along with the team leader, assistant
team leader, and Brian was the radio man. And
he was helping to coordinate, and they had all
been shot up profusely. They were all losing
blood. They were putting in their own blood expanders.
They were tourniquets, helping out each other
with tourniquets, all these things. And Roy,
he flies in with Larry McKibbin and he just says,
I can't get in. It's too hot. And Larry really
wants to get in. And he ultimately is told by
Roy, get me as close as you can. And so he goes
to the far end of this clearing, the clearing
part of the clearing that has not yet been encircled
by enemy, but is still on all sides flanked,
I mean on all sides, on two sides flanked, and
the front in the middle of this clearing is the
team. And Roy says, give me as close as you can.
He gets to about a 15 -foot hover, and Roy crosses
himself, he was a devout Roman Catholic, crosses
himself multiple times and jumps. He jumps with
a medical bag. and on the way out on this flight
he realized his faux pas he realized the ultimate
mistake that he did that you know even a buck
private should never do is he went into battle
without a weapon and he landed on the ground
and he immediately starts running and everybody's
honing in on him and when a helicopter comes
into a landing zone and surrounded that is like
a magnet to gunfire and of course when they see
somebody drop out of it that becomes secondary
magnet so everyone's trying to shoot him there's
tracers going everywhere Larry McKibbin pulls
out Roy runs across the thing. On the way, he's
shot once. He doesn't even realize he's shot,
but he's tripped up. He feels like he's caught
up by a thorn, but he actually was shot through
the calf. And then a Rock and Roll grenade hit
almost when he was to the perimeter of this team,
this decimated team. And he took shrapnel to
the face and the chest, and then he still crawled
in. And then at that point, without going into
all the detail, he formulated... and just calmly
took control and helped to put together this
extraordinary defense to really inflict the most
punishment and damage onto this superior enemy
force yet to keep the team there under cover.
And then he's called in, you know, danger close
air support, napalm and whatnot to encircle his
team with a barrier of protection. while trying
to provide medical assistance as well. It's just
one of those moments where there's so much chaos
going on, and I just took the time to interview
people seeing it from the ground, from the air,
the survivors, the statements that were written,
to give the reader a taste of just the utter
chaos that was going on in this moment. And through
it all, everybody over and over again said that
this calm that was brought by Roy because he
was there and he had come and he was just very
calmly putting it all together and orchestrating
this defense while they were just holding on.
They were ready to call it quits. They thought
they were dead. I have to say that this section
of the book, I read it straight through. I could
not put it down. It was that gripping for me.
And I can't even remember how many times Roy
was wounded. He was stabbed. He was everything
else. And folks, you've got to read this. This
book is a legend. It's by Eric Blem. And in fact,
when they finally did get everybody out and they
got back into Vietnam, they thought that Roy
was dead and started putting him into a body
bag. That's how badly he was wounded. And so
we'll stop at that point. They get out. But you
have to read this. I mean, whether you were on
the ground as an infantry or if you were a pilot,
door gunner, crew chief, whatever it was, this
story is going to make the hair in the back of
your neck stand up. And even after you're done
reading it and know exactly how everything comes
out, it's an amazing story of an amazing man.
And Eric, I want to thank you for writing this
book. I think it's such a powerful story. The
men and women of today's Army are so similar
to people like Roy. And this is what I want people
to understand, that this is what a veteran is
like. These are the people that are willing to
put their lives on the line, not just for you
at home, but especially for their buddies on
the ground. Indeed. Indeed. And so I want to
take a real quick break and then we'll come back
and maybe we'll talk some more about legend.
But you've written some other books. I want to
make sure that we get you the ability to mention
those. So we're going to take a real fast break.
You're listening to Veterans Radio. We'll be
right back. And we're back on Veterans Radio
and we're talking with Eric Blimm, the author
of Legend, the story of Green Beret Sergeant
Roy Benavidez's heroic mission to rescue a special
forces team caught behind enemy lines in Cambodia
in 1968. And I'm encouraging, this is, I don't
know how I'm going to rate these books. Maybe
I'll give it five stripes for this one. This
is one that all of you need to read. whether
you were in Vietnam or not, it explains a lot
of what was going on. You're going to understand
what the SOG missions were about, these special
observation group that was over there, and some
of the missions that they ran to try and prevent.
I mean, there was a regular, almost a four -lane
highway going down through Laos and Cambodia
with all the supplies and so forth that were
coming from North Vietnam. But we've got a, hold
on just a second. I don't know who Jerry is.
Somebody wanted to know if you used the most
current Medal of Honor? Talk to me. Oh, okay.
Well, I'm not sure. Did you? We talked about
how you got the story. A mother of a friend of
yours said you got to talk about this, right?
Yeah, exactly. Okay. Oh, I know what I was going
to mention to you. In your book, you mentioned
a good friend of ours here in the Ann Arbor area,
and that's Colonel Chuck Kettles. And Chuck Kettles
is also a helicopter pilot whose current commendation
is being upgraded to a Medal of Honor for something
that he did in Vietnam in 1967. And I just wanted
to mention that. So he really is using a lot
of sources here. In fact, I've got him on the
desk in front of me. So Chuck Kettles is there.
I've got my secret Green Beret commandos in Cambodia
book by Lieutenant Colonel Lindsay. And he's
been on our program too. He was so great at introducing
me to various individuals. These guys have just
been... So helpful. And so, you know, the families,
so you mentioned how if you're part of all this,
you want to read the story. And what I think
one of the greatest compliments I got was from,
I went to the reunion of the 240th. It was a
reunion not long ago. And they said how the family
members said, you know, they didn't talk about
a lot of this. And that's why I told these stories.
I was encouraged by the World War II veterans
who were many of them. dying off and the World
War I veterans and never having spoken of their
stories. And they said, you know, this book has
given me a chance to understand what my dad did,
because he can talk to me about it in a way that
he couldn't talk to his son or daughter. And
by putting it together, it was just a nice way
to let them understand, hey, this is what, you
know, my father did, or an uncle, or a relative,
or the guy down the street that wears, you know,
always... flies the flag and puts an MIA black
flag up in front of his house. These are the
people that you get a little bit of insight into.
Same with the other books that I've written that
are more contemporary. Fearless is the story
of SEAL Team Six operator Adam Brown who overcame
just incredible odds to make it to that top tier
of SEAL Team Six. Crack Addiction, Jail. He was
one of these guys who got a second chance with
the military and then rose above all of that.
ultimately to put his own life in harm's way
in order to protect his teammates. It is another
classic story of a hero who, when he was killed,
one of the last things he told his family was
that if I ever am killed in combat, don't tell
the story of me becoming this seal and this hero.
Tell the story of who I was when I was this derelict,
when I was this scumbag, dirtbag, stealing from
my own family in the street. to give hope to
people that you can be in that dark place, the
darkest place in your life, and you can turn
it around. And that, to me, is the epitome of
fearlessness, because he was willing to open
that closet and show the skeletons of his past
in order to do one thing. Not to make himself
look good, but to inspire others and make him
rise above. To give hope. Yeah, and so that's
Fearless, and another book I wrote was The Only
Thing Worth Dying For, which was the story of
ODA 574 Special Forces team in Afghanistan, one
of the first teams in after 9 -11 and the first
team in to go to the south of Afghanistan where
there was no standing, you know, Northern Alliance
or United Front. This is a team that went in
to raise a militia, a classic, traditional guerrilla
warfare situation to try and foment the posh
tune to rise up above and against the Taliban
from within. It's a story that ends with a friendly
fire incident, and it's a story that's really
never been told. The rise of Hamid Karzai, who
I was able to interview along with the man who
was a military advisor to Hamid Karzai. So it's
another little piece of history that I think
would have been lost had these men been willing
to tell the story to honor the guys who were
killed on that mission, but also just to honor
history and the truth of what really went on
in those early days after 9 -11. Those are those
are the two along with along with fearless that
I've dedicated the last Decade of my life to
to research and tell the stories Along with a
story called the last season which is not military
But it's a story of a backcountry Park Service
Ranger who went missing mysteriously while on
patrol in the High Sierra Sequoia Kings Canyon
National Park and so I guess the the kind of
the link or the thread through my career thus
far is just telling the stories of those who
serve and it's It's always an honor to do it.
It's an honor to be called on a radio show like
yourself that really focuses on exactly that
honoring and also just enlightening people, both
veterans and people who are interested in veterans
and what they've done, who have a place, a forum
to come to and be given information that is not
only important but also worthy of... people's
time because time is short nowadays. When someone
takes time to read a book or listen to a radio
show, you've got to clap your hands and be thankful
for that because there is so much information
out there. Well, there is. Our goal has always
been to get these stories out. You're certainly
one of the authors that we can trust to get the
true story out. Roy always said, and all the
Medal of Honor that we've had the privilege of
talking to. have all said, you know, I'm not
the hero. The heroes were the ones that didn't
come back. And, you know, and that always takes
my breath away when I think about all of the
men and women that have not come back. And so
that's why we keep telling these stories because
we want to make, we want to keep them alive as
long as we possibly can. And I want to thank
you so very much, Eric, for being on Veterans
Radio. And I definitely plan on reading those
other two and having you back when legend comes
out in paperback, which, by the way, how do people
get a hold of your books? They're available everywhere
books are sold. It's going to come out in paperback
in April, although it's available for pre -order
now, but it's available in hardcover, audiobook.
It's in large print. I believe as well So anywhere
books are sold at you know, if you do the online
thing Amazon or Barnes and noble comm or books
a million Whatever, but I will always urge people
if you have a bookstore in your town that you
like to go and walk through the aisles And maybe
they have a coffee house have a cup of coffee
support them because they're disappearing at
an alarming rate and it's a it's fit for philanthropy,
you know, some people will support whatever.
I tell you, I buy books as often as I can whenever
I see a nice bookstore and I get good service
because it's nice to have them there. If you
don't buy books, they're not going to be there
much longer. That's true. So today on Veterans
Radio, we talked about Legend by Eric Blem. That's
B -L -E -H -M. And I encourage everybody to go
find Eric on the internet. Thank you very much
for being on Veterans Radio. Dale, thanks for
having me. And again, everybody out there in
your listenership, thank you for your service.
And the families, thank you for your service.
Thank you very much, Eric. Next week on Veterans
Radio, folks, it's music time. We're doing a
program called We Gotta Get Out of This Place,
the soundtrack of the Vietnam War. If you have
any favorite songs that you would listen to while
you were in Vietnam, contact Veterans Radio so
we can put you on our playlist next week. Until
then, you are dismissed.