Calls to service still echo in community
By SHANNON CRABTREE

Master Sgt. Roy P. Benavidez of El Campo earned the Medal of Honor for his actions during a Vietnam rescue mission. The Wharton County Historical Museum in Wharton has a display featuring his medal.

Wharton County residents have never been hesitant to answer the call to service, with honors earned on virtually every one of the nation's battlefields.

Johnnie David Hutchins, a Lissie sharecropper, was the first Wharton County resident awarded the Medal of Honor. The 21-year-old sailor died Sept. 4, 1943. When already injured, he took the helm of a landing ship and maneuvered the vessel out of the path of an oncoming torpedo, saving the crew.

A display honoring Hutchins as well as Master Sgt. Roy P. Benavidez, the county's second Medal of Honor recipient, are on display at the Wharton County Historical Museum in Wharton.

Sgt. Benavidez, of El Campo, was presented the Medal of Honor Feb. 24, 1981 in a ceremony presided over by President Ronald Reagan - 13 years after he faced the bullets of some 250 North Vietnamese regulars.

The American Legion Craig-Harriss Post 251, located at Armory Road on Hwy. 71 just south of El Campo, opened its new hall in July 2006. The monument out front honors all who served. Nearby is the Roy P. Benavidez National Guard Armory - home to a 36th Infantry company.

On May 2, 1968, then Staff Sgt. Benavidez, voluntarily boarded a helicopter to go out to help recover a 12-man team trapped behind enemy lines.

Benavidez jumped from the helicopter and was able to save the lives of eight soldiers, as well as recover classified documents despite his own severe injuries.

He later retired and returned to El Campo.

Benavidez died in 1998 and is buried at the Fort Sam Houston Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas.

Hutchins and Benavidez aren't the only county residents to serve with distinction.

Samuel R. Craig and Hugh B. Harriss are forever honored at American Legion Craig-Harriss Post 251 of El Campo.

Capt. Craig was the first Wharton County resident to die in World War I service. He was killed in action at St. Mehiel. Harriss was a Navy corpsman killed on the USS West Virginia during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Marine Lance Cpl. Johnny Ceasar was one of 220 to give their lives during a 1983 Beirut bombing. He rests at the El Campo Community Cemetery.

El Campoan D.D. Hill served on the USS Dewey that day and survived to tell the tale. Now a retired

teacher, he still lives quietly here attending yearly Pearl Harbor survivors reunions.

At the El Campo Community Cemetery, visitors can pause to honor Lance Corporal Johnny Douglas Ceasar of El Campo.

Ceasar and 219 of his fellow Marines died in a terrorist attack Sunday, Oct. 23, 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon. Ceasar had been part of the peacekeeping force deployed to that country. At the time of the attack, he had been scheduled to rotate home in just two weeks.

Other area veterans continue their pledge to serve by remaining active in the American Legion and Disabled American Veterans posts and the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization.

The DAV sponsors a van service from El Campo to Houston's Veterans Affairs Hospital to obtain medical services for local and area vets.