September 2017.
Real Hero Report | January 2020 | 21
steak in better living conditions.
“As a leader, you don’t get something that your men can’t
have,” said Clack. “It was my job to be there. When you care
about the people you are with, you aren’t going to segregate
yourself from them.”
He was hit by an exploding round.
down, and I sat up and I looked down, and I saw that I was
missing my right arm and right leg, and my left leg was laying off
to the side like it was broken,” said Clack.
“I had several puncture wounds over my body that I was
bleeding from. I saw everybody running around and from that
point forward, I really started thinking that my time had come and
I was going to die.”
Clack said that during the ordeal, he felt calm and didn’t feel
any pain.
After the battle subsided, a medevac came. Clack remembered
the medic covering him with a poncho and telling the others that
he had not made it.
“I remember seeing myself as if I was looking down from
above,” said Clack. “I knew that I was dead.”
Evac Hospital in Cu Chi and put in the area that was used for the
DOA’s.
For reasons that he still cannot explain, the surgeon at the
hospital went over and uncovered Clack’s body and saw
something that made him believe he was still alive. He and his
team immediately began surgery.
During the time that he was considered deceased, Clack
describes an experience where he was back at the scene of the
battle, surrounded by fellow soldiers, and it was understood
amongst all of them that they were all dead. He described a white
glow of light and a feeling of peace.
Seven days later, Clack woke up.
“I was touched by God and told that it was not my time,” said
Clack.
Clack told the medical staff everything that had happened to
him during the past seven days. He recalled how, from above,
he saw his body getting covered with the poncho. He told of
his experience back at the scene of the battle and named all
of the men that had died that day. Everyone was awed as it
would have been impossible for him to know this under normal
circumstances.
He realized that his left leg had been amputated above the knee,
leaving him with his left arm as his one remaining limb.
Clack then spent 22 months in the Atlanta VA Medical Center,
going through 33 operations. Since that day in 1969, he has
survived 50 inpatient surgeries, 15 outpatient surgeries, and
spent a total of two years, six months, and 12 days being laid up
recovering from these surgeries.