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USNS Benavidez (T-AKR 306)

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USNS BENAVIDEZ is the seventh and final BOB HOPE - class large, medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off ship (LMSR) and the first ship in the Navy named after Army Master Sgt. Roy Benavidez. Shortly after delivery, the BENAVIDEZ was activated for Operation Enduring Freedom. USNS BENAVIDEZ was inactivated and stricken on September 21, 2022, and subsequently disposed of through an inter-agency transfer to the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD). This transfer caused the loss of her "USNS" designation and she was renamed MV ROY P. BENAVIDEZ (T-AKR 306). She subsequently entered MARAD's Ready Reserve Force but is still available for military sealift missions.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USNS BENAVIDEZ. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

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About the Ship's Name:

USNS BENAVIDEZ is named in honor of Army Master Sgt. (then Staff Sgt.) Roy Benavidez, born Aug 5, 1935 in Lindenau, Texas, who distinguished himself in a series of daring and extremely valorous actions while assigned to Detachment B56, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, Republic of Vietnam.

Benavidez was first awarded the Distinguished Service Cross from Gen. William Westmoreland for his heroism. When the full story of his daring and extremely valorous actions became known, the medal was upgraded to the Medal of Honor. Former President Ronald Reagan awarded him with the Army's highest medal in 1981. Retired Master Sgt. Benavidez died Nov. 28, 1998 in San Antonio, Texas.

Citation:

Master Sergeant, then Staff Sergeant, United States Army. Who distinguished himself by a series of daring and extremely glorious actions on 2 May 1968 while assigned to Detachment B-56, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne). 1st Special Forces, Republic of Vietnam. On the morning of 2 May 1968, a 12-man Special Forces Reconnaissance Team was inserted by helicopters in a dense jungle area west of Loc Ninh, Vietnam to gather intelligence information about confirmed large-scale enemy activity. This area was controlled and routinely patrolled by the North Vietnamese Army. After a short period of time on the ground, the team met heavy enemy resistance and requested emergency extraction. 3 helicopters attempted extraction, but were unable to land due to intense enemy small arms and anti-aircraft fire. Sergeant Benavidez was at the Forward Operating Base in Loc Ninh monitoring the operation by radio when these helicopters returned to off-load wounded crew members and to assess aircraft damage. Sergeant Benavidez voluntarily boarded a returning aircraft to assist in another extraction attempt. Realizing that all the team members were either dead or wounded and unable to move to the pickup zone, he directed the aircraft to a nearby clearing where he jumped from the hovering helicopter, and ran approximately 75 meters under withering small arms fire to the crippled team. Prior to reaching the team's position he was wounded in his right leg, face and head. Despite these painful injuries he took charge, repositioning the team members and directing their fire to facilitate the landing of an extraction aircraft, and the loading of wounded and dead team members. He then threw smoke canisters to direct the aircraft to the team's position. Despite his severe wounds and under intense enemy fire, he carried and dragged half of the wounded team members to the awaiting aircraft. He then provided protective fire by running alongside the aircraft as it moved to pick up the remaining team members. As the enemy's fire intensified, he hurried to recover the body and classified documents on the dead team leader. When he reached the leader's body, Sergeant Benavidez was severely wounded by small arms fire in the abdomen and grenade fragments in his back. At nearly the same moment, the aircraft pilot was mortally wounded, and his helicopter crashed. Although in extremely critical condition due to his multiple wounds, Sergeant Benavidez secured the classified documents and made his way back to the wreckage, where he aided the wounded out of the overturned aircraft, and gathered the stunned survivors into a defensive perimeter. Under increasing enemy automatic weapons and grenade fire, he moved around the perimeter distributing water and ammunition to his weary men, reinstilling in them a will to live and fight. Facing a buildup of enemy opposition with a beleaguered team, Sergeant Benavidez mustered his strength, began calling in tactical air strikes and directed the fire from supporting gun ships to suppress the enemy's fire and so permit another extraction attempt. He was wounded again in his thigh by small arms fire while administering first aid to a wounded team member just before another extraction helicopter was able to land. His indomitable spirit kept him going as he began to ferry his comrades to the craft. On his second trip with the wounded, he was clubbed with additional wounds to his head and arms before killing his adversary. He then continued under devastating fire to carry the wounded to the helicopter. Upon reaching the aircraft, he spotted and killed 2 enemy soldiers who were rushing the craft from an angle that prevented the aircraft door gunner from firing upon them. With little strength remaining, he made one last trip to the perimeter to ensure that all classified material had been collected or destroyed, and to bring in the remaining wounded. Only then, in extremely serious condition from numerous wounds and loss of blood, did he allow himself to be pulled into the extraction aircraft. Sergeant Benavidez' gallant choice to voluntarily join his comrades who were in critical straits, to expose himself constantly to withering enemy fire, and his refusal to be stopped despite numerous severe wounds, saved the lives of at least 8 men. His fearless personal leadership, tenacious devotion to duty, and extremely valorous actions in the face of overwhelming odds were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service, and reflect the utmost credit on him and the United States Army.

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USNS BENAVIDEZ History:

The strategic sealift ship USNS BENAVIDEZ (T-AKR 306) - a BOB HOPE-class Large, Medium-Speed Roll-on/Roll-off (LMSR) designed to move large volumes of wheeled and tracked military equipment - was built by Avondale Shipyards at New Orleans, Louisiana. The keel was laid on December 15, 1999, and the ship was launched on August 11, 2001. Hilaria Benavidez, the widow of the ship's namesake, served as sponsor and christened the ship. After completion and testing, the vessel was delivered on September 10, 2003, and entered service the same day as a Military Sealift Command ship operated by contracted civilian mariners rather than a commissioned U.S. Navy warship.

In the context of the post-9/11 era - when U.S. ground forces were being surged and rotated to Southwest Asia - USNS BENAVIDEZ quickly became part of the heavy-lift logistics "pipeline" moving unit equipment between the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. During an early documented wartime movement, the ship made a brief port visit at Souda Bay, Crete, sitting pierside on January 6, 2004, and then getting underway from Souda on January 7, 2004, while carrying more than 230,000 square feet of U.S. Army combat equipment and supplies for the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division (Fort Hood, Texas) as it deployed for service connected to the Iraq conflict. The voyage was described as part of the standard rotation of forces and equipment, with the ship bound onward for offload in Kuwait.

A few weeks later, the ship's role in the Iraq-theater rotation cycle was again visible during the redeployment phase: USNS BENAVIDEZ arrived at Jacksonville, Florida, on the afternoon of February 15, 2004, after a three-week voyage from Kuwait, initiating the sea-lift return of aviation assets from Operation Iraqi Freedom. On February 16, 2004, port crews used two 110-ton cranes to hoist 17 helicopters - including CH-47 Chinooks and UH-60 Black Hawks - from the ship, an evolution tied to the movement of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) back to Fort Campbell and described at the time as the first in a series of returning ships expected by the end of March.

The ship continued to appear in publicly documented logistics movements in subsequent years, including a Middle East port evolution where USNS BENAVIDEZ entered the Port of Ash Shuaybah, Kuwait, on December 10, 2008, under heightened protection procedures associated with "high interest vessel" handling. During that entry, a U.S. Coast Guard vetting team monitored and coordinated the inspection of tugs and pilot boats that would come in contact with the ship.

The vessel's U.S. port activity is also documented in later movements: on December 21, 2012, personnel assigned to Military Sealift Command loaded an Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter aboard USNS BENAVIDEZ in Savannah, Georgia, reflecting continued use of the LMSR fleet for outsized and rolling cargo that benefits from roll-on/roll-off handling. On October 29, 2015, USNS BENAVIDEZ was documented as being moored in the Corpus Christi inner harbor at the U.S. Army North dock during a separate marine casualty in the harbor, indicating the ship's presence at Corpus Christi on that date even though it was not the casualty vessel.

In 2016, the ship supported another clearly documented Army movement connected to sustaining U.S. posture in Southwest Asia: after an extended onload period at Jacksonville, Florida, involving tactical vehicles, containers, and engineer equipment moved to the port for loading, USNS BENAVIDEZ completed the Jacksonville loading phase and received the order to raise its ramp and depart on April 22, 2016, getting underway bound for the Beaumont/Port Arthur area for additional load-out. The ship arrived at Port Arthur, Texas, on April 25, 2016, as the movement continued toward onward shipment to Kuwait.

In early 2020, as U.S. and allied forces prepared for major Europe-focused deployments intended to demonstrate reinforcement capability and interoperability in the NATO arena, USNS BENAVIDEZ was used to move heavy U.S. Army equipment overseas in support of AGILE DEFENDER 2020 and DEFENDER-Europe 20: the ship moored at the Port of Beaumont, Texas, on February 20, 2020, where contracted mariners and U.S. Army soldiers conducted intensive roll-on/roll-off loading, including movements of M1 Abrams tanks up the stern ramp on February 21, 2020. The Beaumont port operations were explicitly described as supporting DEFENDER-Europe 20 alongside the chartered vehicle carrier MV RESOLVE. After completing onload, the ship got underway from Beaumont on February 24, 2020, and, with the strategic context shaped by allied deterrence signaling and large-scale transatlantic reinforcement planning, crossed the Atlantic as part of a group that also included U.S.-flagged merchant vehicle carriers MV RESOLVE and MV PATRIOT, escorted by the guided-missile cruiser USS VELLA GULF (CG 72). The voyage's European arrival is documented on March 11, 2020, when USNS BENAVIDEZ moored at Vlissingen, Netherlands, and was also photographed transiting the English Channel the same day - activity described within the broader framing of naval operations intended to maintain maritime stability and safeguard allied and partner access and interests.

After nearly two decades of service with Military Sealift Command, USNS BENAVIDEZ was inactivated, placed out of service, and stricken on September 21, 2022. By April 27, 2023, the ship was documented at the Newport News Marine Terminal (Norfolk, Virginia area) with disposition via interagency transfer to the Maritime Administration (MARAD). Although stricken from the Navy list, the hull later reappeared in publicly documented service through activation from the government reserve fleet: as MV ROY P. BENAVIDEZ, a Ready Reserve Force ship brought under Military Sealift Command management when activated, it departed Newport News, Virginia, on March 21, 2024, after loading the heavy equipment and material required to build a modular temporary pier as part of the U.S. Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore effort associated with the humanitarian maritime corridor mission later publicly identified as Operation Neptune Solace.

In the opening phase of that operation - conducted against the backdrop of the Gaza humanitarian crisis and multinational efforts to increase aid flow without establishing a traditional deep-water port off Gaza - MV ROY P. BENAVIDEZ served alongside USNS 1ST LT BALDOMERO LOPEZ (T-AK 3010), with soldiers and sailors assembling elements of the roll-on/roll-off discharge facility offshore. By May 2, 2024, U.S. officials publicly described MV ROY P. BENAVIDEZ as being off Ashdod, Israel, in connection with the plan to bring relief cargo from Cyprus for transfer into the sea-based distribution system. On May 16, 2024, U.S. Central Command announced that personnel had anchored the temporary pier to the Gaza beach at approximately 7:40 a.m. (Gaza time), with truck movement ashore expected in the coming days and distribution coordinated through the United Nations - marking the point at which the equipment carried forward for the modular pier concept transitioned from assembly to initial operational use.

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USNS BENAVIDEZ Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the BENAVIDEZ at Bremerton, Wash., on October 13, 2017.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the BENAVIDEZ at Norfolk, Va., on December 26, 2021.

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