How the 3 Living Black Medal of Honor Recipients Embody the Military’s Top Award

On Jan. 10, 1968, Private 1st Class Clarence Sasser was part of a reconnaissance mission in southern Vietnam when his detachment’s helicopters were attacked upon landing. Over five grueling hours, Sasser, an Army medic, risked his life to help his fellow soldiers to safety and aid the wounded despite leg and shoulder injuries that rendered him "in agonizing pain and faint from loss of blood."

The following year, President Richard Nixon presented Sasser with the Medal of Honor.

"I don't think what I did was above and beyond," Sasser, now 76, said during a video interview with the Congressional Medal of Honor Society (CMOHS) in the early 2000s. "I never have, and for a long time, I had a problem with that. But finally, ... a friend helped me reconcile it to the point that it meant, 'Hey, you did your job.'"