Military Combat Medic
Growing up on a farm, he never intended to be a war hero. Accepting the full range of his military duty, he risked his life to save the lives of soldiers for whom he was responsible. Those soldiers – and his nation – were forever grateful.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
Clarence Sasser (CS) was born within “a family of color” in Chenango, Texas, south of Houston.
CHILDHOOD
CS was raised on a farm near his Texas birthplace.
EDUCATION
Applying himself especially to math and science courses, following high school graduation, CS enrolled at the University of Houston to study chemistry. After the first semester of his freshman year, CS needed a job to pay the next semester’s tuition, so he transferred to part-time studies. This ended his student draft deferment (in effect during the Vietnam War of the 1960s into the early 1970s).
MILITARY MEDIC
Having lost his student deferment, CS was drafted into the Army. While a new soldier’s background might presumably lead the Army make an assignment related to his or her civilian background, it is said that ‘military intelligence is an oxymoron.’ (An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear at the same time – e.g. “the brave coward…”)
Editor’s note – Another career story within this Career Stories Library: Law – Immigration Lawyer, relates the Army’s assignment of a pre-draft college graduate / law student to pump gas at a helicopter base. Surely an important job though unrelated to the drafted soldier’s civilian experience.
CS became an exception to the anecdotal, oxymoronic history of Army specialty assignments when – with his science background – he was sent to Vietnam as a combat medic.
Editor’s note – Medics are responsible for providing emergency medical treatment at a point of wounding in a combat or training environment, as well as primary care and health protection and evacuation from a point of injury or illness.
Additionally, medics may also be responsible for the creation, oversight, and execution of long-term patient care plans in consultation with in in the absence of a readily available doctor or advanced practice provider.
Combat medics be may used in hospitals and clinics, where they have the opportunity to work in additional roles, such as operating medical and laboratory equipment and performing and assisting with procedures.
HEROIC BRAVERY MAY EARN THE ‘MEDAL OF HONOR’
Four months into his service in Vietnam, CS’s Company A was dispatched for scouting patrol over a delta area where enemy guerilla forces known as Viet Cong had been increasing their hit-and-run strikes.
An ambush awaited Company A. American casualties quickly piled up. At least 30 U.S. personnel were killed or wounded in the first minutes of the attack. “There was (rifle) fire all around us,” recounted CS later, “There wasn’t any choice. We had to go in to help the wounded.”
Pfc (Private First Class) CS, a combat medic, leaped off the helicopter which had brought him into the combat zone. Almost immediately, his leg was grazed by a bullet. He raced across open ground to assist the injured, bringing one soldier to safety, splashing through the muck of rice paddies to reach a dike. An instant later, a rocket fragment tore into the shoulder of 20-year-old Pfc CS.
After bringing the first wounded serviceman to a protected area, CS ignored his own wounds. “The pain sets in later,” he said. He checked his medical supplies and ran back into the open. Suddenly, he collapsed. His legs were hit twice. He crawled to reach another injured soldier. They all had to remain flat. “If you stood up, you were dead,” he said. “The enemy snipers would get you.”
BS knew that U.S. army medics were special targets for the enemy. Killing a medic probably meant that others would also die on the battlefield because the wounded would then be without potentially helpful medical care.
The closest area with some protection, a cluster of trees, was about 200 meters away. CS gathered a group of wounded soldiers. The only way out, he told them, was to cover the distance on their bellies. “It was a lot better than just laying here, waiting on things to come in to kill you,” BS recalled telling those troops.
Crawling in a line, with gunfire above them, they slithered over the rice fields. “The best way to get around that day was just simply grabbing the rice sprouts and sliding yourself along,” recounted BS. “You could move better like that.”
They reached the trees, but the ground was soggy and filled with leeches that the soldiers constantly needed to pull off their skin. There was nowhere else to go, he said. BS quickly used up all his medical supplies to stabilize who he could. Others were too far away for him to reach.
“The tough part wasn’t enemy fire, it was listening to guys call for their mama, and you can’t do anything. Listening to them beg all night,” said BS later. “And then you don’t hear them anymore in the morning, so you know they died.”
During the night, U.S. airstrikes and napalm fireballs hit the guerilla positions. Evacuation helicopters arrived just before dawn. “Of course I was afraid,” said CS. “But these were my guys… My job was to take care of my guys. That’s it.”
CS was soon sent to a U.S. military hospital in Japan for his own recovery, where he helped in the hospital’s dispensary and was so dedicated to assisting others, he was assigned to remain there until his honorable discharge.
CS was eventually awarded the highest honor available from the U.S. government for military valor, the Medal of Honor, presented by then-President Nixon during a ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C.
EDUCATION – PART TWO
Following his military service, CS resumed his chemistry studies under a scholarship awarded by Texas A & M University. He did not complete all his courses – leaving to take a job at a petrochemical refinery near Houston – but was awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree by the university several decades later.
CAREER SATISFACTION
A portrait of CS was placed in the Texas Capital building – fortunately while he was still alive to appreciate the honor.
CS often expressed deep pride in his role as a combat medic, describing himself as part of a tradition of aid going back centuries. “My medal was awarded for saving lives rather than taking lives. To me, it makes a difference.”
___________________________________________________________________
This career story was based upon multiple sources including an obituary written by Brian Murphy of the Washington Post, published by the Philadelphia Inquirer on May 20, 2024 plus internet research, including Wikipedia.
