Roy Benavidez, The Fearless Vietnam War Veteran Who Survived ‘Six Hours In Hell.

The blood, the spit, and the body bag. It’s all coming up as we continue our Veterans Day series with Part II of the Roy Benavidez story. Dig in, patriots. It's a wild one.

Benavidez had returned to Vietnam — after he’d already stepped on a landmine, after he’d heard he’d never walk again, after he’d thrown himself out of his recovery bed each night until he could stand.

Adversity had a way of finding him, but he had a way of kicking it in the ass. And it was coming around again.

His radio crackled something about a patrol being trapped. There were a dozen of our boys, and a thousand of the enemy. But Benavidez didn’t hesitate.

He hopped in a chopper and headed into the thick of it. When they pulled up, they saw the report had been correct. Nothing but certain death, it seemed, was waiting below.

With the same grit he used to throw himself out of bed each night at the hospital, he threw himself into the fray — a med-bag in one hand, and nothing but a knife in the other. That was all this warrior needed.

For six hours, he fought back the enemy. For six hours, he took the hits so his brothers could live. For six hours, he saw and survived what no human should have to endure.

Thirty-seven bullet, shrapnel, and bayonet wounds later, Benavidez finally collapsed.

A medic tried what he could, but couldn’t save him. He declared Benavidez dead.

The medic was zipping the body bag shut when Benavidez spat blood from between his teeth — and into the medic's face. 

Wounded as terribly as he was, spitting was the only way for him to indicate that he was still alive. It was an unmistakable message from a man who'd truly fought his way to hell and back.

But his message didn't end there. Tune in tomorrow night for our third and final installment in the Benavidez war story saga, to hear how his story continued. 

From his time as a soldier to his time as a civilian, this legend took the fight with him wherever he went, giving freely of himself so that others might live, and might lead better lives. 

We can’t think of anything, or anyone, who better models the kind of living we aspire to here at the CIVVIESUPPLY community.