Title: 5 Most Badass People Of All Time Source:
[None] URL Source:[None] Published:Jul 16, 2016 Author:ba Post Date:2016-07-16 13:14:14 by HAPPY2BME-4UM Keywords:None Views:470 Comments:10
I met Roy Banavidez at the NCO Club at Pope AFB in 1980.
I was lucky enough to have served with him and knew him before he won the MoH.
What that little blurb didn't tell you was that the action took place in Laos,and Roy wasn't even supposed to have been on the medievac helicopter for the Bright Light mission. The people on the recon team that was surrounded and being overran were friends of his,he heard what was happening over the radio as the launch site people were prepping for the mission,and just grabbed a medic's bag and jumped on the dustoff chopper armed only with a Bowie Knife strapped to his belt. He didn't even have a canteen or a handgun.
Nor did it say he got burned rescuing the pilot or co-pilot from the crashed helicopter because it was burning when he got there. IIRC,he also dragged the door gunners away from the flames.
He was wounded a total of 36 times that day,and the very last time was when a NVA run up from behind the helicopter he was trying to get in,and stuck Roy with a bayonet. That was also the last enemy killed by Roy that day. When the slick too off to return to the launch site after the door gunner jumped out and threw Roy into it,that last NVA was laying dead on the ground with Roy's Bowie Knife sticking out of his chest.
It also doesn't mention that while serving in a conventional army airborne unit years before going to Viet Nam he was seriously hurt in a parachute accident that should have put him out of the army on medical retirement,but he fought to remain on active duty,and later volunteered for and completed Special Forces training. Nor does it mention that he had been seriously wounded on a previous tour in Viet Nam with Special Forces.
Despite all that,he really was a quiet and modest man that was always smiling and joking.
You just can't tell the character of a man or the level of his determination by looking at him. Roy just flat didn't have any "quit" in him.
And thank you for your distinguished service as well, sneakypete.
Thanks,but there was nothing particularly distinguished about my own service. I did the best I could do at the time,but it's hard to stand out when surrounded by giants.
No false modesty there. I am a literal person,and that is the literal truth. I'm just happy to have been considered "one of the guys" and allowed to know and serve with them.