This is my children’s favorite Medal of Honor story: MSG Roy Benavidez

On 2 May 1968, 12 Green Berets were surrounded near Loc Ninh, South Vietnam, by an entire battalion of NVA. They were thus outnumbered, 12 men versus about 1,000. They dug in and tried to hold them off, but were not going to last long. Benavidez heard their distress call over a radio in town and boarded a rescue helicopter with first aid equipment. He did not have time to grab a weapon before the helicopter left, so he voluntarily jumped into the hot LZ armed only with his knife.

He sprinted across 75 meters of open terrain through withering small arms and machine-gun fire to reach the pinned down MACV-SOG team. By the time he reached them, he had been shot 4 times, twice in the right leg, once through both cheeks, which knocked out four molars, and a glancing shot off his head.

He ignored these wounds and began administering first aid. The rescue chopper left as it was not designed to extract men. An extraction chopper was sent for, and Benavidez took command of the men by directing their fire around the edges of the clearing in order to facilitate the chopper’s landing. When the aircraft arrived, he supervised the loading of the wounded on board, while throwing smoke canisters to direct the chopper’s exact landing. He was wounded severely and at all times under heavy enemy crossfire, but still carried and dragged half of the wounded men to the chopper.

He then ran alongside the landing skids providing protective fire into the trees as the chopper moved across the LZ collecting the wounded. The enemy fire got worse, and Benavidez was hit solidly in the left shoulder. He got back up and ran to the platoon leader, dead in the open, and retrieved classified documents. He was shot in the abdomen, and a grenade detonated nearby peppering his back with shrapnel.

The chopper pilot was mortally wounded then, and his chopper crashed. Benavidez was in extremely critical condition and still refused to fall. He ran to the wreckage and got the wounded out of the aircraft, and arranged them into a defensive perimeter to wait for the next chopper. The enemy automatic rifle fire and grenades only intensified, and Benavidez ran and crawled around the perimeter giving out water and ammunition.

The NVA was building up to wipe them out, and Benavidez called in tactical air strikes with a squawk box and threw smoke to direct the fire of arriving gunships. Just before the extraction chopper landed, he was shot again in the left thigh while giving first aid to a wounded man. He still managed to get to his feet and carry some of the men to the chopped, directing the others, when an NVA soldier rushed from the woods and clubbed him over the head with an AK-47. This caused a skull fracture and a deep gash to his left upper arm, and yet he still got back up and decapitated the soldier with one swing of his knife, severing the spine and all tissue on one side of the neck. He then resumed carrying the wounded to the chopper and returning for others, and was shot twice more in the lower back. He shot two more NVA soldiers trying to board the chopper, then made one last trip around the LZ to be sure all documents were retrieved, and finally boarded the chopper. He had lost 2 quarts of blood. Before he blacked out, he shouted to one of the other Green Berets, “Another great day to be in South Vietnam!” This battle lasted six hours. He had been wounded 37 times.

What are some courageous acts that inspire you most?

The magazine Psychology Today published an article called “The Six Attributes of Courage.” They are:

1. Feeling Fear Yet Choosing to Act
2. Following Your Heart
3. Persevering in the Face of Adversity
4. Standing Up for What’s Right
5. Expanding Your Horizons; Letting Go of the Familiar
6. Facing Suffering with Dignity or Faith

What do you think of this list?
How do we distinguish courage from foolishness?

Verse 1-2: Do you think the American church has done a good job of being courageous in the face of our cultural changes? Where do we succeed and where do we fail? What is at stake?

Verse 3-4: The world wants you to believe that we can only have our eyes opened when we listen to our hearts. What does God say about this? Read Romans 1:21-23.
What is the attraction of following your heart?
What is our fear of following God?
What are the consequences of being blind? Are unbelievers really blind?

“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭1:21-23‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Verse 5-6: What is something you have wished you would have been able to tell someone but were afraid to? What is something hidden that would have been healed if it would have been known?

Read ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭10:26-33. Why can we have boldness in speaking the truth about Jesus Christ? What can we lose by not having boldness about Him?

“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭10:26-33‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Verse 7-10: The penalty that good men pay for indifference to godless people is that they will be ruled by then. Do we have a fear of speaking out in truth and love about Jesus? How are our fears manifest? We live in a time where what you say can bring you infinite fame or infinite notoriety, and that opinion can change in a heartbeat (see Carson King). How do we respond in a world that’s ready to crown you or crucify you in a moment’s notice?

How do we build resilience in our faith? What is it that drives men to get back up on the horse and not stay beat down? Why is Jesus an important part of staying in the fight for Christians?

Verse 11-12: Why do we honor soldiers? What sacrifices do they make for us? What is the benefit of their sacrifice?

What sacrifices did Christians at the time of Paul have to endure to live out their faith? What is the benefit of their sacrifice?

Does your life reflect a lifestyle of sacrifice? What is the evidence of it and who has benefited?

Verse 13-15: If you had the power of invincibility, or that you at least knew you could never die, what are some things you would do?

If someone who had died and gone to heaven could come back for one day and talk to us, what do you think that person would say to us?

Verse 16: Have you ever seen a young guy perform some athletic feat and realized that you were too old to pull that off?

Have you ever been around a person who has lived a long life of obedience to God and wish you weren’t so young in your faith?

Is the inevitable degradation of your body being offset by the renewal of your spirit daily?

Verse 17-18: Why do men boldly sign up to die in the field of battle? What possible reward is in it for them?

Why would a believer want to boldly embrace Christ in a world that despises Him? What reward is in it for us?