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Clarence Eugene Sasser (b. September 2, 1947, Chenango, Texas – d. May 13, 2024, Sugar Land, Texas) was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in the Vietnam War.
Born in Chenango, Texas, Sasser briefly attended the University of Houston as a chemistry major but was forced to drop out due to lack of funds. He was drafted into the United States Army after giving up his college deferment and served as a combat medic during the Vietnam War. Sasser's Vietnam War tour lasted just 51 days. He received the Medal of Honor from President Richard Nixon in 1969 for his actions as a combat field medic on January 10, 1968, in Dinh Tuong Province, South Vietnam.
Sasser received multiple wounds during the January 10 battle when his unit was airlifted to a Mekong River rice paddy on a reconnaissance mission. As soon as he disembarked from the transport helicopter, Sasser was shot in the leg. Subsequently, he received shell fragments throughout his body, impeding his ability to render aid to wounded soldiers. Despite his wounds, Sasser continued to crawl through the muddy field, bandaging soldiers and dragging them back to safety. Sasser and other members of his unit continued to fight the enemy for nearly twenty hours and were not evacuated until the next day.
Sasser was transported to a hospital in Japan where he recovered from his injuries. He did not return to Vietnam.
A member of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division, Sasser was a private first class attached to the 3rd Battalion's Company A when he earned the medal and was later promoted to specialist five.
When Sasser's military commitment was finished, Sasser enrolled at Texas A&M University as a chemistry student. Although he did not graduate, he received an honorary doctorate of letters from the university in 2014. He then worked at an oil refinery for more than five years before being employed by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.
In 1970, Sasser married Ethel Morant. The couple had three sons: Ross, Benjamin and Billy. In 1996, his wife died. His sons Ross and Benjamin also preceded Sasser in death.
Sasser raised an American flag on a flagpole outside his home every day. In his later years, he turned down multiple speaking engagements, saying "These are the memories you deal with better if they're not in the forefront of your mind." During a Library of Congress interview, Sasser spoke of the privilege of being a medic and how that helped explain his battlefield bravery: "There's no way I could have, in my mind, not went to see about someone when they hollered medic. Repayment of the adulation these guys heaped on you demanded that you go."
A statue depicting Sasser in the war was created in 2010 and was placed in front of the Brazoria County Courthouse.
Sasser died in Sugar Land, Texas, on May 13, 2024. At the time of his death, Sasser was one of 61 living Medal of Honor recipients and one of just three living Black recipients.
In a White House ceremony on March 7, 1969, Sasser was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Richard M. Nixon in a joint ceremony along with two other Medal of Honor recipients: Joe Hooper and Fred Zabitosky. The official citation for the medal reads:
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Clarence Sasser, 76, Vietnam Medic Honored for Life-Saving Valor, Dies
A Medal of Honor recipient, he was repeatedly wounded in an ambush. Despite his injuries, he ran through gunfire and “swam” through mud to reach his comrades.
Clarence Sasser, who ran through a hail of gunfire and sustained many wounds to save the lives of his fellow American soldiers during an ambush in the Vietnam War — an act of valor for which he received the Medal of Honor — died on May 13 in Sugar Land, Texas. He was 76.
The Congressional Medal of Honor Society announced the death in a statement, which did not provide further details.
The Medal of Honor is the U.S. military’s most prestigious decoration. Mr. Sasser was one of 61 living recipients, according to the Medal of Honor Society, a majority of whom fought in Vietnam. He was one of just three living Black recipients.
A combat medic, he earned his medal for saving, not taking, lives on Jan. 10, 1968 — “the longest day of my life,” he said in a 1987 oral history interview with the U.S. Army Medical Department Center of History and Heritage.
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Mr. Sasser was stationed in the Mekong Delta, a riverine agricultural hub in South Vietnam that the Viet Cong could easily reach by crossing the nearby Cambodian border. Medics there aided soldiers who not only had mortar and bullet wounds but also jungle rot and fungal infections and leech bites, all inflicted by the swamps.
Days earlier, Mr. Sasser’s infantry company had been designated as backup. “For once we thought we were going to have a good mission,” he said in the oral history. Then, on the morning of the 10th, the company was told to head out on a reconnaissance mission to investigate reports of enemy activity. The soldiers loaded into helicopters.
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As they arrived at a rice paddy, one helicopter was shot down. Mr. Sasser was “dumped,” he said, into the mud. Instantly he felt a bullet rip through his leg. Dozens of American soldiers were killed in minutes. As the injuries piled up, the company was left with only one of its four medics — Mr. Sasser.
A cry went out among his brothers in arms: “Doc! Doc!”
He heeded their calls.
He dashed through gunfire to one group of soldiers, and as he moved one to safety, a rocket explosion tore through his shoulder and back. But he kept running, through a barrage of rocket and automatic weapon fire, to help two more men. Injuries multiplied across his body: excruciating hot shell fragments embedding in his flesh, a ricocheting bullet slamming against his skull.
Mr. Sasser saw a safer way to move around the rice paddy. Rather than standing up and leaving himself open to attack, he lay down in the mud — which was two-and-a-half-feet deep, he estimated — and moved by grabbing one rice sprout after the next to pull himself along, almost like swimming.
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He encouraged another group of soldiers to crawl to relative safety and spent hours continuing to attend to his comrades’ wounds until he ran out of medical supplies.
“The only thing I could offer was, shall we say, mental support, emotional support,” he recalled in the oral history. “Which I thought was part of medic’s job, too.”
About 4 or 5 a.m. the next day — nearly 20 hours after Mr. Sasser landed in the rice paddy — he and other survivors of the ambush were rescued.
Mr. Sasser was transported to a hospital in Japan. He did not return to active combat. In a White House ceremony on March 7, 1969, President Richard M. Nixon presented him and two other young soldiers, Joe Ronnie Hooper and Fred Zabitosky, with the Medal of Honor.
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“It was really an experience, from my background, of course — you know, poor farm family,” Mr. Sasser said in a 2001 interview with the Library of Congress. “My mother and sisters were flown up to D.C., and this was, I guess, the best thing that ever happened to them.”
Clarence Eugene Sasser was born on Sept. 12, 1947, in or around the small town of Rosharon, Texas, a short drive from Houston. His family raised cows, pigs and chickens.
He graduated near the top of his segregated high school class and enrolled at the University of Houston, where he studied chemistry. To pay for tuition, he had to work, which meant that he could attend classes only part-time. That made him eligible for the draft.
He arrived in Vietnam within weeks of turning 20. Becoming an Army medic, he decided, approximated his dream as a chemistry student of becoming a doctor one day.
After receiving the Medal of Honor, he got a scholarship to attend Texas A&M University. He did not graduate, though he received an honorary doctorate of letters in 2014.
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In about 1970, he married Ethel Morant, with whom he had three sons, Ross, Benjamin and Billy. His wife died in 1996. Ross and Benjamin also died. His survivors include his son Billy and several brothers and sisters.
Mr. Sasser spent most of his post-military career working for the Department of Veterans Affairs reviewing disability claims. He raised an American flag on a flagpole outside his home every morning and lowered it every night. He turned down many requests to recount his longest day — “These are memories that you deal with better if they’re not on the forefront of your mind,” he told the Library of Congress — but occasionally appeared at a ceremonial event or granted an interview.
He often spoke about the privilege of being a medic. He got first choice of rations. Everyone called him Doc. He was an object of reverence. All of that, he said, explained, his battlefield bravery.
“There’s no way that I could have, in my mind, not went to see about someone when they hollered medic,” Mr. Sasser said in the 1987 oral history. “Repayment of the adulation these guys heaped on you demanded that you go.”
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