Clyde Everett Lassen

Clyde Everett Lassen
Medal of Honor recipient
Born	(1942-03-14)March 14, 1942 Fort Myers, Florida
Died	April 1, 1994(1994-04-01) (aged 52) Pensacola, Florida
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1961 - 1982
Rank	Commander
Unit	Helicopter Squadron 7, Detachment 104
Battles/wars	Vietnam War
Awards	Medal of Honor

Clyde Everett Lassen (1942 – 1994), a native of Fort Myers, Florida, was a retired Commander in the United States Navy and a Naval Aviator. As a Lieutenant, he received the Medal of Honor for his rescue of two downed Naval Aviators while piloting a search and rescue helicopter in Vietnam.

On June 19, 1968, Lassen, then a 26-year-old Lieutenant, junior grade flying a UH-2A Seasprite of HC-7 (assigned to the USS Preble), embarked on a mission to recover two downed Naval Aviators (from VF-33, off the USS America) whose F-4J plane had been shot down on a night interdiction mission deep inside North Vietnam. Upon reaching the hilly terrain where the aviators were hiding, Lassen made several attempts to recover the aviators, but dense tree cover, enemy weapons fire and intermittent illumination frustrated his efforts. Lassen turned on the landing lights of the helicopter, despite the danger of revealing his position to the enemy. After the pilots made their way to the helicopter and with his bullet-riddled helicopter dangerously low on fuel, Lassen evaded further antiaircraft fire before landing safely at sea on board the USS Jouett with only five minutes of fuel left in the helicopter's fuel lines. The account of the rescue was logged as a successful, routine search and rescue mission.

LT Lassen became the first Naval Aviator and fifth Navy man to be awarded the Medal of Honor (MOH) for bravery in Southeast Asia (SEA)/Vietnam. He was also only one of three Naval Aviators to be awarded the MOH in SEA (along with CAPT , and RADM ), and the only rotary wing Naval Aviator to be awarded the MOH in SEA.