Clarence Sasser, who ran thru a rain of gunfire and sustained many wounds to avoid wasting the lives of his fellow American squaddies right through an ambush within the Vietnam Warfare — an office of valor for which he won the Medal of Honor — died on Would possibly 13 in Sugar Land, Texas. He used to be 76.
The Congressional Medal of Honor Public introduced the dying in a observation, which didn’t handover additional main points.
The Medal of Honor is the U.S. army’s maximum prestigious ornament. Mr. Sasser used to be one in every of 61 dwelling recipients, in line with the Medal of Honor Public, a majority of whom fought in Vietnam. He used to be one in every of simply 3 dwelling Unlit recipients.
A fight medic, he earned his medal for preserve, now not taking, lives on Jan. 10, 1968 — “the longest day of my life,” he stated in a 1987 oral historical past interview with the U.S. Military Scientific Branch Heart of Historical past and Heritage.
Mr. Sasser used to be stationed within the Mekong Delta, a riverine agricultural hub in South Vietnam that the Viet Cong may simply achieve via crossing the close by Cambodian border. Medics there aided squaddies who now not simplest had mortar and bullet wounds but additionally woodland rot and fungal infections and leech bites, all inflicted via the swamps.
Days previous, Mr. Sasser’s infantry corporate have been designated as alternative. “For once we thought we were going to have a good mission,” he stated within the oral historical past. After, at the morning of the tenth, the corporate used to be informed to go out on a reconnaissance undertaking to analyze studies of enemy task. The warriors loaded into helicopters.
As they arrived at a rice paddy, one helicopter used to be shot ailing. Mr. Sasser used to be “dumped,” he stated, into the dust. Right away he felt a bullet rip thru his leg. Dozens of American squaddies have been killed in mins. As the wounds piled up, the corporate used to be gone with simplest one in every of its 4 medics — Mr. Sasser.
A yell went out amongst his brothers in hands: “Doc! Doc!”
He heeded their screams.
He dashed thru gunfire to at least one crew of squaddies, and as he moved one to protection, a rocket explosion tore thru his shoulder and again. However he saved operating, thru a barrage of rocket and automated weapon hearth, to assistance two extra males. Accidents multiplied throughout his frame: excruciating scorching shell fragments embedding in his flesh, a ricocheting bullet slamming towards his cranium.
Mr. Sasser noticed a more secure option to advance across the rice paddy. In lieu than status up and departure himself not hidden to assault, he lay ailing within the dust — which used to be two-and-a-half-feet deep, he estimated — and moved via grabbing one rice sprout later the upcoming to drag himself alongside, virtually like swimming.
He inspired every other crew of squaddies to move slowly to relative protection and spent hours proceeding to wait to his comrades’ wounds till he ran out of scientific provides.
“The only thing I could offer was, shall we say, mental support, emotional support,” he recalled within the oral historical past. “Which I thought was part of medic’s job, too.”
About 4 or 5 a.m. the upcoming while — just about 20 hours later Mr. Sasser landed within the rice paddy — he and alternative survivors of the ambush have been rescued.
Mr. Sasser used to be transported to a clinic in Japan. He didn’t go back to lively fight. In a White Area rite on March 7, 1969, President Richard M. Nixon introduced him and two alternative younger squaddies, Joe Ronnie Hooper and Fred Zabitosky, with the Medal of Honor.
“It was really an experience, from my background, of course — you know, poor farm family,” Mr. Sasser stated 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 used to be born on Sept. 12, 1947, in or across the little the town of Rosharon, Texas, a decrease pressure from Houston. His population raised cows, pigs and chickens.
He graduated close the supremacy of his segregated highschool elegance and enrolled on the College of Houston, the place he studied chemistry. To pay for tuition, he needed to paintings, which intended that he may attend categories simplest part-time. That made him eligible for the draft.
He arrived in Vietnam inside of weeks of turning 20. Changing into an Military medic, he determined, approximated his dream as a chemistry scholar of turning into a health care provider one while.
Next receiving the Medal of Honor, he were given a scholarship to wait Texas A&M College. He didn’t graduate, despite the fact that he won an honorary doctorate of letters in 2014.
In about 1970, he married Ethel Morant, with whom he had 3 sons, Ross, Benjamin and Billy. His spouse died in 1996. Ross and Benjamin additionally died. His survivors come with his son Billy and a number of other brothers and sisters.
Mr. Sasser spent maximum of his post-military occupation running for the Branch of Veterans Affairs reviewing incapacity claims. He raised an American flag on a flagpole out of doors his house each morning and reduced it each night time. He grew to become ailing many requests to recount his longest while — “These are memories that you deal with better if they’re not on the forefront of your mind,” he informed the Library of Congress — however from time to time seemed at a ceremonial match or granted an interview.
He continuously spoke concerning the privilege of being a medic. He were given first number of rations. Everybody known as him Document. He used to be an object of reverence. All of that, he stated, defined, 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 stated within the 1987 oral historical past. “Repayment of the adulation these guys heaped on you demanded that you go.”
