Fort Huachuca, Arizona - The Medal of Honor, the highest award for valor in action against the enemy, was established by Congress in 1861.
Originally for enlisted members of the Navy, within months, Congress authorized a similar medal for non-commissioned officers and privates in the U.S. Army. In 1863, the medal was approved for Army officers. Despite changes to the criteria and guidelines for award of the Medal of Honor, it remains the military's highest honor for bravery.
The Medal of Honor has been presented to 259 individuals for actions during the Vietnam War; two-thirds were given to Army enlisted members and officers. Several recipients were conducting intelligence-related activities at the time their actions made them eligible for the award.
1st Lt. George Sisler
1st Lt. George Sisler enlisted in the Army in 1956 and served with the Army National Guard, the Army Reserves and four years of active duty with the U.S. Air Force. Sisler attended the Army's Officer Candidate School and was commissioned a second lieutenant in Military Intelligence in June 1965.
In 1967, Sisler was an intelligence officer with the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, MACV, Studies and Observations Group, SOG. On Feb. 7, he volunteered to accompany a combined U.S./South Vietnamese exploitation force operating deep within enemy-dominated territory.
When his platoon was attacked by a company-size enemy force, Sisler rallied the men, deployed them to a better defensive position, and called for air strikes. Under heavy enemy fire, he attempted to assist wounded men to safety and then charged directly into the enemy force to draw fire away from the rest of the platoon. His actions, along with air strikes he personally directed, finally forced the enemy to withdraw, but not before Sisler and two others were killed. Sisler was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 1968.
Master Sgt. Roy Benavidez
Master Sgt. Roy Benavidez enlisted in the Texas Army National Guard in 1952 and switched to the Regular Army in 1955. He served one tour in Vietnam during which he was badly wounded. By 1968, however, he was back in Vietnam working in an intelligence position with the MACV SOG.
On May 2, 1968, Benavidez was off-duty when a Special Forces Reconnaissance Team was ambushed inside Cambodia. He jumped on the nearest departing helicopter and, upon arriving at the scene of attack, he spent eight hours administering first aid, setting up defensive fire, calling in air strikes, and loading dead and wounded American Soldiers on rescue helicopters.
By the time he was evacuated, he had been shot five times and was nearly mistaken for dead. He managed to destroy or carry off the battlefield all of the team's classified material and equipment. Benavidez was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1981 for his "fearless personal leadership, tenacious devotion to duty, and extremely valorous actions in the face of overwhelming odds."
Capt. Humbert "Rocky" Versace
Capt. Humbert "Rocky" Versace graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1959 and was commissioned an Armor officer. After graduating from Ranger and Airborne schools, he completed the Intelligence course and a Vietnamese language course. In 1963, he was an intelligence advisor to the Civil Defense and Self Defense Forces operating in the Mekong Delta region of South Vietnam.
On Oct. 29, 1963, while on patrol with Advisory Team 70, Versace was ambushed, wounded and taken prisoner by the Viet Cong. He was held for nearly two years, often in irons within a small isolation cage. He continually resisted his captors' efforts to accept their communist propaganda while also rallying American prisoners in the camp. His tenacious resistance and rigid adherence to the Code of Conduct eventually led his captors to execute him on Sept. 26, 1965. Versace posthumously received the Medal of Honor in 2002.
Command Sgt. Maj. Bennie Adkins
Command Sgt. Maj. Bennie Adkins was drafted in 1956 but volunteered to remain in the Army and served 13 years with Special Forces, including three tours in Vietnam.
In 1966, Adkins was an intelligence sergeant assigned to Detachment A-102, 5th Special Forces Group, at Camp A Shau near the Ho Chi Minh Trail. In the early morning of March 9, enemy forces attacked the camp. Adkins sustained several wounds but managed to drag wounded comrades to safety and retrieve much needed ammunition from outside the camp perimeter.
The next day, when the order came to evacuate the camp, Adkins and a small group of soldiers stayed behind to destroy all signal equipment and classified documents. Official reports estimated Adkins killed up to 175 enemy insurgents while sustaining 18 different wounds during the attack. Unable to reach the last extraction helicopter, Adkins led the group into the jungle where they evaded the enemy for 48 hours before being rescued. In 2014, Adkins was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic and selfless actions.
(Editor's Note: This article is fifth in a series on Military Intelligence in Vietnam marking the 50th anniversary of the commitment of American combat troops to South Vietnam. Portions of this article were taken from Ruth Quinn's article "Special Operations is Part of Army Intelligence Heritage" published in the Sept. 12, 2014 issue of The Fort Huachuca Scout.)
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