Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described the Vietnam War as, “a white man’s war and a black man’s fight.” Black men made up 31% of the men in ground combat battalions, while they made up 12% of the United States’ population. However, despite them being on the battlefield at higher rates, they were honored far less for their acts of heroism. The vast majority of medal of honor recipients for the Vietnam War were white soldiers. The Vietnam War is unfortunately one of many examples of the U.S.’s inequalities within race, and class, and the story of Captain Clarence E. Sasser is no exception. 
After graduating from a segregated high school in Texas, in which he was near the top of the class, Sasser went on to college where he worked and took classes part-time to be able to afford school. However, this made him still eligible for the draft, as he was not a full-time student. After getting drafted, he became a medic and went on to experience what he describes as the “longest day of my life.” After being told that his infantry would only be back-up, they went on a reconnaissance mission where their helicopter was shot down, as well as Sasser, himself, being shot. In an interview from 2001, Sasser recalls the aftermath of the attack, “we were off-loaded in the rice paddy -we never made the tree line until dark…- snipers were around - guys were yelling Doc-Doc…I was the onliest medic that lived.” Sasser was severely injured from gunshot wounds and rocket debris, but he continued across open fields to help other soldiers and when his legs finally gave out, he crawled to help. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor from President Nixon. While Sasser’s story is incredible, the draft showed many race and class issues in the US. For one, Sasser was only a part-time student because he could not afford to not work. The penalty for draft dodging was expensive and so was going to college, which meant poorer families were hit harder and due to systemic racism, this disproportionately affected Black families specifically. Therefore, not only were Black men more likely to be drafted, but once they returned they were still substantially disadvantaged in a country that they had sacrificed their life for. Despite this, Sasser still saved many lives and will always be remembered as a hero. 



Secondary Source Bibliography
Elsbury, Will. “Racial, Ethnic, and Religious Minorities in the Vietnam War: A Resource Guide.” Library of Congress Resource Guides. September 12, 2022. https://guides.loc.gov/racial-ethnic-and-religious-minorities-in-the-vietnam-war#:~:text=Approximately%20300%2C000%20African%20Americans%20served,the%20general%20population%20was%2012%25. 
Traub, Alex. “Clarence Sasser, 76, Vietnam Medic Honored for Life-Saving Valor, Dies.” The New York Times. May 31, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/31/us/clarence-sasser-dead.html. 
Primary Source Bibliography 
Medal of Honor Presentation by President Richard M. Nixon. Video. Directed by Department of 
Defense: US Army Audio Visual Center. 1969. Washington D.C.: Motion Picture Films 
from Army Library Copy Collection, 1984. Film. 
Sasser, Clarence E, Unknown Interviewer, Congressional Medal Of Honor Foundation, and Thomas L Wilkerson. Clarence E. Sasser Collection. 1967. Personal Narrative. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.89777/. 


Clarence Eugene Sasser was born near Houston, Texas, on September 2, 1947. He grew up on a small farm along with a brother and sister and four step-siblings. He was raised by his mother and stepfather. His birth father was a World War II veteran.

Sasser went to Marshall High School and was in one of his school's last segregated classes, graduating in 1965. He then attended the University of Houston, majoring in Chemistry. When he switched to part-time status, he became eligible for the draft. Clarence decided to enlist, later stating, “I was drafted. My idea was to…do my time, get out, and get on with life. So, I took my chances.” He added, “It was a fact of life that if you didn't have a deferment, then you…were drafted. I actually sort of embraced it.” 

Sasser enlisted in the Army in June 1967 and trained as a medical aidman before shipping to Vietnam in September, having just turned twenty. When asked what it was like when he arrived in country, he replied: “Scary. I mean, real scary, to the point of, you know, a good cry and ‘what am I doing over here’ and ‘I want my mama’ and all of that type stuff.”

PFC Sasser was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division, and on January 10, 1968, he accompanied Company A on a reconnaissance mission that would forever change his life. That morning, as helicopters began landing, the men and choppers came under intense fire from three sides. Within minutes thirty American soldiers were down and it was up to Sasser to help them. As it turned out, surviving the landing was no easy task. He recalled, “I got grazed getting off the helicopter, in the leg…With the helicopter down…we were dumped in the rice paddy.”

Even though he knew that the enemy purposely targeted medics, Sasser ran across the rice paddy through a hail of gunfire to get to his wounded buddies. He received a second wound in the shoulder, but continued to drag himself through the rice and mud to recover more of the wounded. Now with multiple wounds and faint from loss of blood Sasser continued to work on the wounded until night fell. Night time was even harder, as he remembered, “all you could hear was guys moaning, calling for their mama. Listening to them beg all night…was the toughest thing I've ever done.”

Sasser’s unit was evacuated early the next morning and he was taken to a hospital for treatment. When later asked if he was afraid, he explained, “When they call, when they holler ‘Medic’ or ‘Doc,’ your job was to go! Nothing more! Without fear of your life or anything of that sort. It was your job!”

During the fight, 34 Americans were killed and 59 wounded, but the number surely would have been higher were it not for Sasser. Clarence spent three months in a hospital at Camp Zama in Japan and when he had recovered a doctor there kept him on, thus ensuring that he would miss the heavy fighting that took place during the Tet Offensive. It was at Camp Zama that he learned he would receive the Medal of Honor, which was placed around his neck by President Richard M. Nixon during a ceremony at the White House on March 7, 1969. When asked what the medal meant to him, he said, “Simply that I did my job.”

Sasser was discharged from the Army as a Specialist Fifth Class in June of 1969 and resumed his studies at Texas A&M University. Before graduation, however, Clarence fell in love and married Ethel Morant, who would bear him three sons. He took a job in a chemical refinery plant near Houston and worked there for five years before beginning a longtime career with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Houston. Texas A&M awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters degree in 2014.

Sasser passed away on May 13, 2024 at the age of 76.

SOURCES:

James H. Willbanks, ed., America’s Hero’s: Medal of Honor Recipients from the Civil War to Afghanistan (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2011), pp. 300-301. 

Sasser, Clarence E, Unknown Interviewer, Congressional Medal Of Honor Foundation, and Thomas L Wilkerson. Clarence E. Sasser Collection. 1967. Personal Narrative. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.89777/.


Sasser receiving the Distinguished Service Medal at Camp Zama, Japan, October 28, 1968. US Army photograph.

Sasser in dress uniform receiving decoration.

Image of Clarence Sasser in Army dress uniform with decorations.

Houston National Cemetery

Clarence E. Sasser is featured in the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History lesson plan "Vietnam Veterans: Legacies of Service, 1965–2012". 

Gilder Lehrman Lesson Plan on Vietnam Veterans

Watch Clarence Sasser tell his OWN story as part of the Library of Congress' Veteran History Project; https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.89777/ 

“I don’t think what I did was above and beyond, I never have, and for a long time, I had a problem with that,”. Read more about Pfc. Sasser's heroic story as a Vietnam War medic ;
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2024/08/14/medic-in-the-mekong-a-soldiers-valor-under-fire-in-vietnam/

I SALUTE YOU SIR.
REMEMBERING YOU "BB"
Minnie Diggs Clark a Marshall High School  friend. 

CLARENCE E SASSER

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