I was born and raised
in a small town in the Midwest
by name of Waurika, Oklahoma.
I was raised on a farm
with a large family.
We learned to work.
And with a large family,
I learned to share.
I began college,
and I was more interested in the good-looking girls
than I was the academic work.
My father told me, said,
“You know, son, I may be wasting my money on you.”
I dropped out of college, went to work,
and shortly was drafted into the military.
I wanted to be the best that I could possibly be.
And in 1961,
after about a year and a half of Special Forces training,
they said, “You get to wear the full Green Beret.”
My first trip in Vietnam
was, uh, began in February, 1963.
We were advisors
training the civilian forces
to protect their own villages.
On my second tour,
I was assigned to Special Forces Team A102.
Right in the A Shau Valley.
Jungle, mountainous,
right in the middle of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
That was a major route
to supply the North Vietnamese armies.
The only way
that you could get to that location was by air
because the North Vietnamese owned the roads
and owned the jungle.
This was a super-hot area.
Every day there,
it seemed like I was fired on by the North Vietnamese.
We knew that we were eventually going to be attacked.
We had some North Vietnamese soldiers surrender to us.
My interrogation revealed
that they were going to attack us in the bad weather.
We could hear the digging in
foxhole-type positions
in large numbers outside the camp.
On 9 March, 1966,
the battle began.
There would be a heavy barrage
of artillery fire placed on the camp.
The North Vietnamese would assemble
and you would hear the soldiers chanting and so forth.
And then a mass assault.
The first attack, the mortars,
they were super accurate.
The shelling had just about destroyed
all of our mortar positions,
except some way mine.
We were blown from our mortar pit on three different occasions.
Unfortunately, a mortar crew was killed.
I had to find other indigenous personnel
to help me continue firing the mortar.
Early in the battle,
Master Sergeant Gibson, our team Sergeant, was hit bad.
Exposing himself to enemy fire,
Sergeant First Class Bennie Adkins carried his comrade
to the landing strip beyond the wall of the compound.
I put him into a little fixed-wing aircraft.
And at this time,
we were not only being fired on
by the North Vietnamese outside of the camp,
but like I said, our 141 Company inside the camp
decided to fight with the North Vietnamese.
I found out the hard way
because one of them shot me in the leg.
The entire 141 Company
had become soldiers for the North Vietnamese.
This allowed the North Vietnamese
to penetrate the camp.
Throughout the first day of the fight,
Adkins proved indispensable,
retrieving ammunition that had been air dropped outside the camp
and maneuvering to aid fellow soldiers.
After a second night of shelling,
with the enemy breaching the south and east walls,
Sergeant Adkins played a pivotal role
in stopping the onslaught.
From my firing position,
I had access to one of the main attack areas.
The North Vietnamese wanted to engage
in a little hand grenade fighting.
They got one into the mortar pit with us.
And one of the indigenous mortar crews with me
tried to play soccer with it.
He lost a leg and I received some-- some heavy shrapnel.
Then one come in
and I was able to catch this grenade in the air.
I sent it right back from where it come from.
Since I was a high school catcher, see, that did help out a little, yes.
On the afternoon of the 10th,
Sergeant Adkins and remaining battle-ready U.S. and Allied forces
fought to retake the camp,
but they could not hold the ground.
Having suffered serious loses
and with no hope of reinforcements,
it was clear that they might not survive through the night.
We were ordered to evacuate the camp
after a 38-hour battle.
We were greatly outnumbered
by a superior force
with superior arms and ammunition.
We had made up our mind
that we were not going to be taken as prisoners alive.
They come in with 18 helicopters...
and only eight of them were able to get on the ground.
The other 10 were destroyed.
We went back into the compound
to get a Special Forces soldier that was severely wounded.
When we arrived, there was no helicopters available.
We had no choice but to take him into the jungle with us.
This is the night
the North Vietnamese had us surrounded.
We started hearing a noise.
And this is the night that a tiger surrounded us,
could smell the blood on us.
And the North Vietnamese soldiers that had us surrounded,
was more afraid of the tiger than they were of us.
They backed off.
The jungle become our ally.
I was one of the last to be evacuated
after 48 hours in the jungle.
I was sent out on a hospital ship.
A short time later, I was back out in the jungle
doing the same thing again.
I was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross
which I wore with pride for 48 years.
And on June 11th of 2014,
President of the United States called me
and told me that he had approved the Medal of Honor for me.
Bennie ran into enemy fire
to retrieve supplies and ammo,
to carry the wounded to safety,
holding off wave after wave of enemy assaults.
Bennie will tell you that he owes everything
to the men he served with in Vietnam.
Especially the five who gave their lives in that battle.
What I did is not heroic.
I was just an average soldier.
That was my job.
I try to tell the young folks,
“Whatever you want to do,
be the best that you can be at it.”
I hope that no one else has to experience this.
It is a form of hell.
The medal that I wear is not for me,
but it’s for those other 16 Special Forces soldiers
with special emphasis
to the five that paid the ultimate price.
They deserve this
around my neck rather than me.