Black Medal of Honor Heroes
Of the Vietnam War

In all, of the 246 Medals of Honor awarded to soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines during the Vietnam war, 20 were bestowed upon Black heroes. The fact that not one Black defender of freedom in either of the World Wars received the Medal of Honor was corrected in the 1990s with belated presentation of one Medal of Honor to one World War I black soldier, and to seven from World War II. Even with that correction, it is obvious that during the Vietnam War, for the first time in our nation's history, great strides were made to correct this long-standing slight of our heroes:

It is probably an over-simplification to take men or women of the caliber of the 20 Black Vietnam War heroes and categorize them by ethnicity, or for that matter by any other category. They should be remembered for what they were--AMERICAN HEROES. That said, the parsing out of these 20 Black heroes does at the least, serve well to demonstrate the great strides towards equality of Black Americans during the War in Vietnam.

These 20 heroes came from a variety of backgrounds: North, South, East and West, from broken homes and stable families, from poor neighborhoods and hard-working middle class families. Among them you will find a few high school dropouts, far more high school graduates, and several college educated men. One of them subsequently ran afoul of the law; others rose to the pinnacles of their profession. All of them accomplished unbelievable and sacrificial deeds that deserve the highest platitudes we can bestow upon them. Only one, Clarence Sasser, is alive today.

 These twenty Black heroes represent a cross-section of America. Furthermore, they men provide vivid example of the fallacies of many so-called "facts" ascribed to the Vietnam Veteran:

·        Fifteen of the 20 Black Medal of Honor recipients died in their moment of heroism, a casualty rate of 75%. That is only slightly higher than the 62% casualty rate of all 246 Vietnam War Medal of Honor heroes.

·        The youngest Black recipient was 18-year old Milton Olive; the oldest was 39-year old Calvin Rogers. The average age of these 20 heroes at the time of their actions in Vietnam was 26.7 years of age.

·        At least 15 of these men ENLISTED to answer the call of duty; they were VOLUNTEERS. Only TWO are specifically identified as having been drafted.

·        Six of these heroes were "lowly" Privates First Class. Ten were seasoned Non-Commissioned Officers; four were Officers.

·        Two of the twenty were highly trained medical aidmen. Two others were members of the Army's elite Special Forces.

All of them were dedicated Americans who served, sacrificed, and in most cases gave all that they had including their lives, in answer to the call of duty.

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