SFC ADKINS, THE ONE-MAN ARMY
On March 9, 1966, SFC Bennie G. Adkins was serving as an intelligence sergeant with the 5th Special Forces Group at Camp A Shau in Vietnam. When the camp came under attack from Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces in the early hours of the morning, Adkins ran through heavy enemy fire and manned a mortar position to bring indirect fire onto the enemy. That is where he was hit for the first time. When he learned that several soldiers had been wounded in the center of the camp, he handed the mortar to another soldier for a while, ran through exploding mortar rounds and sniper fire and brought the wounded men to safety. He even went outside the camp twice to recover airdropped supplies and a wounded comrade.
On the morning of March 10, the enemy launched their main attack, and within two hours Adkins was the only man still working a mortar. When the mortar rounds ran out, he took the enemy on with recoilless rifles. Although he picked up further wounds from grenades, he beat back wave after wave of attackers. He then fell back into a bunker with several other soldiers and kept fighting from there. With ammunition running critically low, he returned to the mortar position, gathered up what ammunition was left and ran back to the bunker through heavy enemy fire. When the order came to evacuate the camp, Adkins and the other soldiers destroyed the radio equipment and the classified documents, dug their way out of the back of the bunker and fought their way out of the camp. While Adkins was carrying a wounded soldier to the extraction point, he learned that the last helicopter had already left. He took charge of the group and evaded the enemy until they were picked up by helicopter on March 12. Over the 38-hour battle and the 48-hour evasion, Adkins killed an estimated 135–175 enemy fighters, and was wounded 18 times himself.
SFC Adkins received the Medal of Honor on September 15, 2014, after the events of those days were reviewed again. He died at the age of 96 in April 2020.
Author’s note: if you like our articles, you can support us with a purchase in our shop (click here). We’re grateful for every bit of support!