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Episode 2596 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Vietnam Vet Kim McKim’s talk about MACV-SOG heroes. The featured story appeared on the American Legion website and is titled: Legionnaire and former Green Beret shares story of ‘best-kept secret’ of Vietnam War. It was submitted by Steven B. Brooks.
Brooks reported that, Keith McKim stepped to the podium at The American Legion National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Aug. 30 with a pretty impressive military résumé.
A Green Beret during the Vietnam War, McKim earned both a Silver and Bronze Star, as well as the Purple Heart. But the life member of American Legion Post 171 in Cripple Creek, Colo., didn’t want to talk about himself. Rather, he wanted to share the story of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG), and, in particular, a Medal of Honor recipient who served in it.
Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) was a highly classified, multi-service United States special operations unit which conducted covert unconventional warfare operations before and during the Vietnam War.
Established on 24 January 1964, it conducted strategic reconnaissance missions in the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), Laos, and Cambodia; took enemy prisoners, rescued downed pilots, conducted rescue operations to retrieve prisoners of war throughout Southeast Asia, and conducted clandestine agent team activities and psychological operations.
McKim described the actions of SOG soldier, Medal of Honor recipient Roy Benavidez, who was credited with saving the lives of eight men while suffering 37 bullet, bayonet and shrapnel wounds. He was actually thought to be dead and was placed in a body bag before he spit on the attending doctor to alert him that he was alive. Benavidez was originally denied the Medal of Honor but was presented with it in 1981 after a witness emerged to his heroics.
“This is a story of a hero,” McKim said. “President Reagan said on the day he awarded the medal, ‘If this was a movie script, you would not believe it.’ Roy Benavidez is a hero and an inspiration to those of us who are in this fight to save our nation.”
Listen to episode 2596 and discover more about Vietnam Vet Kim McKim’s talk about MACV-SOG heroes.
