Benny R. Cooper

United States Army

Written by: Michelle Horton

In 1954, Vietnam was divided into two sections: the communist North and the democratic South. Tensions began escalating and turning into armed conflicts between the two territories. The United States provided funding, armaments, and training to South Vietnam’s governments and military service. Still, in 1961, United States President John F. Kennedy would expand the military aid program. The former president committed United States soldiers to the South Vietnam area in hopes of repelling communism spreading into the South. After Kennedy’s passing, his successors continued their support for South Vietnam. By the year 1969, more than 500,000 United States military personnel were stationed in Vietnam. Benny R. Cooper was one of those brave men, drafted into the United States Army the year before, ready and willing to serve his country.

Benny grew up in Redwater, Texas, and describes his childhood as “hard work.” His parents owned a local grocery store, Cooper’s Grocery, and Benny, along with his younger brother, younger sister, and parents, lived in the back of the grocery store. There was always work to do in the family business, and Benny stayed busy after school and during the summer months.

After graduating high school in the summer of 1967, Benny had a choice to make. He could either go to college to delay his drafting status or get drafted into the military service. “Boys my age, at that time, that’s all we had to look forward to,” Benny says. Benny went to work at Cooper Tire in Texarkana, Arkansas, and in July 1968, the expectant letter arrived at Benny’s home. His path would be redirected to the United States Army. Benny was inducted in Shreveport, Louisiana, and describes the setting as follows: “There were a lot of people in that room. In 1968, they were drafting a bunch of people. This First Lieutenant walked in there and said, ‘I want everybody to stand up and make one line all the way around the room.’ So, we made that one line, and he said, ‘Every other man take a step to the left.’ That made two lines, and the Lieutenant walked over there and said, ‘Everyone in this line is going to the Army, and everyone in this line is going to the Marine Corps.’” Benny learns that, at this moment, he is going to the United States Army, and these newly drafted men are put on a bus and headed to Fort Polk, Louisiana.

Basic training occurred at Fort Polk and lasted for eight weeks. “It included a lot of physical training, pushups, and a lot of running. It was pretty tough. I went from a 29/30” waist to a 33” waist and 135 pounds to 165 pounds in eight weeks,” Benny says. “We learned how to take a rifle apart and put it together, read a compass, and march precision style. Everything had to be perfect, and inspections happened often. They’d get you to where you were ready to kill your drill sergeant, and then they’d just back off. They knew when they had gotten you nearly to that point.”

Finally, graduation comes, and Benny has completed his basic training. “I got with this other guy that lived in Atlanta, Texas, and he took me home to Redwater. I spent the weekend there and then returned to Fort Polk. We were going to what they call ‘Tigerland’ for Advanced Individual Training (AIT). When you got your orders that you were going to Tigerland, you knew you were going straight to Vietnam,” Benny says.

During this nine-week training in Tigerland, men are placed in more extensive training than basic training. “You have compass courses, more rifle ranges, and are learning different kinds of weapons. It is more intense than basic training. You never knew what time you were gonna get back to the barracks. You might get two hours of sleep, or you might not,” Benny says.

About the eighth week of AIT, the soldiers would walk out to a bulletin board with everyone’s names listed on it. Most names, including Benny’s, had RVN beside them, which stood for the Republic of Vietnam. Benny’s prediction was correct; he was going to Vietnam.

Benny graduated from AIT on a Friday, went home for 30 days, then boarded a plane to Fort Lewis, Washington. Once a jet became available, Benny was on and headed to Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, which was a replacement station. “There must have been three or four thousand of us. Every morning, they’d all gather, and this guy would be standing up there at a podium and calling names out. This morning, he called out four names, and mine was one of them. The other three I had been through AIT with, and one of the men – me and him- slept side by side during basic. We walked up there to that podium, and he said, ‘You’ll get on that helicopter; you’re going to the First Air Mobile Calvary Division,’” Benny says. He was now assigned to the Echo Company, Commanded by CPT David Niles.

“The kicker about all this is that when I was in basic training, they got the whole battalion, took us down to this big ole’ barn, and said, ‘We’re gonna watch a movie.’ We were sitting there, and the movie came on, and it was helicopters. It’s in black and white, back in those days. They were coming in, touching the ground, these guys were jumping out. I’m sitting there and thinking, ‘That’s what I want to do right there.’ That movie was showing the actual battle of the Ia Drang Valley,” Benny says. “Well, you better watch what you wish for because you just might get it. The first combat assault we made – we got in those helicopters, and we went in, and we jumped out.”

The battle of Ia Drang Valley lasted three days and occurred in Vietnam on November 14, 1965. Benny points out, “The war really started heating up in 1965 with this first major battle.” The 1st Battalion, 7th Calvary Regiment, 1st Calvary Division fought an overwhelming battle. Little did Benny know, but he would become part of this same battalion in Vietnam.

Benny was dropped off in a landing zone the first week of January 1969. Most of the time, Benny and his division were either in the jungle, on a landing zone, or on a firebase. The men would never stay in one spot, and they moved at six every morning whether they needed to or not. These men would battle the most brutal environments while carrying a 170-pound pack full of weapons, C-rations, water, and necessary supplies daily.

However, when a mission or combat assault arises, it doesn’t matter what you are doing or how you feel; you just go. “You didn’t know if you were going into a hot LZ (landing zone) or a cold one. You wouldn’t know until you flew what felt like forever, got up in the air, and started circling. All at once, you’d see this artillery come in and all these explosions, and then you knew – you were going right there. Twelve choppers would line up, staggard formation, and eight to ten men would jump out of each chopper,” Benny says.

Most of the time, the men would remain on the mission for 90 days, return to the rear, get new clothes and new boots, and get to take a shower. Benny and his division had been on the move for close to two and a half months, and as their 90 days approached, life was about to change for the Echo company. “You’re always getting shot at. Rockets, mortars, you know, but nothing really major there. They’re lobbing them over, and you can hear them flying over, but you never know when they are going to hit,” Benny remarks. During January and February, there wasn’t much interaction with the Vietnam army in person, mostly just the rockets and grenades. But that would all change in March 1969 as Benny is now arriving on Hill 54.

On March 15, 1969, Benny and his company boarded a Chinook helicopter for Hill 54, a remote outpost with a landing zone so small that the aircraft could not fully land, having to hover with the front wheels off the ground. Another division was leaving Hill 54 and getting onto the helicopter. One of the men passing Benny said, “We’ve been here for 32 days; it’s a piece of cake. Nothing’s happened.” Benny replied, “Ok, that’s good. That’s good.”

It is March 16, 1969, at 11pm. Benny had just gone to sleep because he had guard duty coming soon. He laid down in a small hole. Benny notes, “All at once, I heard this explosion, and I rolled over, and there was another one. Then there was another one, and they were right there, right beside me,” Benny declared. The enemy was now inside the wire, and they were no longer safe. “It had rained that evening, and the ground was slick. I just started sliding down that hill toward the bunker. When I went by my M16, I grabbed it and some ammunition and slid right into the hole. There was another man in the hole, John May, and he asked, ‘What are we gonna do?’ I asked him, ‘Where is your M16?’ He said, ‘I left it out there.’ I then said, ‘Well, we gonna fight or we gonna die.’” This was midnight on March 17, 1969, and would become known as the Battle of Hill 54.

The Echo company mortar team was set up to provide support, but the enemy was able to lock in the position on the flash from the tube with B40 rocket-propelled grenades the first time a mortar was fired. The enemy was quickly destroying their position. The enemy then threw an incendiary device into the ammunition bunker about twenty feet from Benny’s hole. Once ignited, all the ammunition and over eighty mortars began to explode all around him.

The incoming enemy fire did not cease as wave after wave of enemy troops were out to destroy the outpost of Hill 54 and kill every American there. Even though the world was exploding all around, Benny Cooper and his Echo company refused to give up.

Because of Hill 54’s remote location, additional help would be delayed, but it did come in the form of aircrafts. Bien Hoa was a major Air Force Base from which large fighter jets took off. One fighter jet took off and joined forces with a helicopter patrolling the Dong Nai River, dropping basketball flares that lit up the entire area on Hill 54. This allowed troops to see everything.

The Battle of Hill 54 raged continuously for six hours, but the Echo company held its ground. Once daylight came across the land, the Vietnamese army retreated, and fighting ceased. “There was 52 of us the night before, and when I came out of the bunker the next morning, I went to counting, and I counted 13 that could move and walk. That was a life-changing night for everybody. It was the longest six to seven hours of our lives,” Benny remarks. “I get to looking out across the area, and there are bodies everywhere. The first thing we do is try to find all of our people. We had two Observation Points out, and they were all killed. We got ponchos (slicker suits), went down, picked them up, wrapped them up, and brought them to the top of the hill.” Another company, Charlie Company, incurred a difficult march throughout the night and arrived at daylight to help the Echo company. They would help reinforce the bunkers, rebuild the fighting positions, and extract the wounded. They were in total disbelief at the devastation they saw and what the Echo company had just encountered.

“We thought they might get us off that hill, but they kept us there another three weeks. They kept us there until we got replacements and got back up to strength,” Benny says. However, these remaining soldiers who had just risked their lives and fought the Battle of Hill 54 would not return for a warm shower and fresh clothes. Instead, they kept moving and kept serving. Over a year, other missions would arise, and Benny and his company men would load onto helicopters and go wherever they were needed.

Benny had seven months left on his contract when he returned to the States. He spent a short time at Red River Army Depot in Hooks, Texas, and was then ordered to Fort Hood, Texas. “Back then, Fort Hood was mechanized tanks. So many of us were coming back from Vietnam and sent to Fort Hood that they had to establish another battalion. It was an infantry battalion and I got put there instead of the mechanized tanks. I spent the next seven months doing the same thing that I had been doing in Vietnam. We would go into the field every Monday, and they would pick us up on Friday,” Benny remarks. They did this in order to keep the battalion busy and well-prepared in case they had to be sent back to Vietnam.

Since Benny was drafted, he was only required to serve a two-year term. Benny mentions, “You get this re-enlistment talk from this First Lieutenant, and he talked for about an hour. I’m sitting on the front row and you’ve got your name tag on your chest. He said, ‘What about you, Cooper?’ Well, you know, I had thought about re-enlisting, then I got to thinking if I re-enlist, I’m going to come down on the levy to go back to Vietnam. I said, ‘No. I can’t stay, I gotta go.’”

Benny Cooper was ready to depart Fort Hood but could not rent a car to get back home because of his young age. He was able to get ahold of his younger brother, who drove down to get Benny and return him home to Redwater. Once they arrive, Benny describes the scene, saying, “We are standing in front of my Mother and Daddy’s house, and they both come out on the front porch and they’re looking at me. About that time, this chihuahua comes running out on that porch and jumps off that porch, and I catch her. I thought it was pretty bad the chihuahua was the only one that recognized me.” Benny’s parents did not know who was standing before them; he had changed a lot. “You take a 19-year-old kid, send him to a combat zone for a year; he comes back 45,” Benny says.

Life after service in Vietnam was not always rosy, and not everyone in the country appreciated Benny’s sacrifice. “When we returned from Vietnam, we were ‘baby killers.’ That’s what everybody called us, and they didn’t want to have anything to do with you. I mean everybody. I had a good buddy I had graduated with, and when he found out I had just come back from Vietnam, all the laughing and drinking just stopped. We were at the lake one night, and his wife said, ‘Benny, we haven’t seen you in a year; where have you been?’ I replied that I had just come back from Vietnam. They haven’t had a thing to do with me since.”

One can only fathom what these men had been through in a foreign country as they would see their friends and comrades fall to death in a very gruesome battle. Traumatic effects continued after their service and would range from taking over-the-top precautions in order to sleep at night to using alcohol to make it through each day. “I tried to stay drunk. They said I was self-medicating. I was a straight-running drunk for 35 years. But, this month, it has been 20 years since I have had anything to drink.” Benny says.

He returned to work at Cooper Tire in July 1970 and then went to work for the Missouri-Pacific railroad in October 1972, where he retired after 30 years. “I wanted to use the GI Bill to go to college, but because I was working on the railroad, my schedule would not allow for it,” Benny says. Later, in 1976, Benny met the love of his life, Debbie Marshall Cooper, in Fort Worth, Texas. The two established their home and family in Redwater, Texas. Today, they have three children, Ashley, Christina, and Michael, and eight grandchildren.

There are good aspects of Benny’s military career. He made lifelong friends like Robert Chambers, who lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Karl Swenson, the platoon leader for whom Benny carried the radio. “There are eight of us still alive today that went through that. We get to catch up at reunions and see each other,” Benny says.

Benny learned discipline and respect for authority as he became an essential part of our military history. Benny is now a life member of the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), Post 4562, in Texarkana, Arkansas. Benny also finds time to help other veterans in our area. “I have one buddy that cannot drive, and when he calls me, I’ll take him to the VA in Shreveport or the one here,” Benny says.

We thank you, Benny Cooper, for your personal service and sacrifices for the United States of America. You are a true American hero.