Heroes of the Medal of Honor
Outnumbered ten-to-one, this Special Forces sergeant heroically defended his training camp near the Ho Chi Minh trail, overcoming several wounds, betrayal and even a wild tiger
With enemy fire pummelling the American camp, First Class Sergeant Bennie G Adkins burst into his rudimentar y headquar ters and hastily gathered together any papers or files he could find. The swift and sudden North Vietnamese Army (NVA) attack, some 36 hours earlier, had taken the Americans completely by surprise. Now the order had finally come: they had to get out. But Adkins couldn’t leave this critical intelligence for the enemy. Striking a match, he set the papers alight before stumbling back into the maelstrom.
The US camp, hidden in the A Shau Valley, was under attack from an enemy that, unknown to Adkins, outnumbered his 16 Special Forces and 416 South Vietnamese ten-to-one. The NVA were running rampant in the camp. One, spotting Adkins, immediately let off a volley, with a bullet striking the magazine of the American’s M-16 rifle.
Miraculously uninjured, Adkins quickly returned fire and put his attacker down.
Adkins then made his escape from the camp. With him were two fellow Special Forces personnel, including the mortally wounded Sergeant Jimmy Taylor, and several members of the South Vietnamese Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG). Taylor died soon after and Adkins hid his body. However, the remaining sur vivors of his small unit were able to evade North Vietnamese attention and moved nor thwest in an attempt to cross the border into Laos.
After a hard night in the jungle, Adkins used his M-16 as an antenna for his damaged radio to call in two Sikorsky H-34 helicopters for extraction. One was close to landing when an NVA rocket brought it down, preventing the second helicopter from touching down. With a thick fog closing in, Adkins and his men were facing another night of terror in the jungle. Exchanging fire with the pursuing NVA troops, they found a small area of high ground to make camp. Adkins’ group was surrounded, but the jungle was their closest friend as the enemy seemed unable to find them. That was when they saw a pair of yellow eyes emerge from the foliage and heard a deep growl – an Indochinese tiger had smelt blood.
Becoming a Green Beret
Adkins didn’t come from a traditional military background ( just one of his brothers had been in the armed forces), yet civilian life was not for Adkins, with two short attempts at college dismaying his mother. He’d also felt out of place in administrative and training roles in the army, so jumped at the chance when he heard about the Special Forces. Adkins was soon accepted into ‘Q Course’ trai
