Ruppert L. Sargent
United States Army Medal of Honor recipient (1938-1967)
Ruppert Leon Sargent (January 6, 1938 – March 15, 1967) was a United States Army officer and a recipient of America's highest military decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in the Vietnam War.
Life
Ruppert L. Sargent was a graduate of Virginia State University. He first enlisted in the Army from Richmond, Virginia during the late 1950s, served several years as an enlisted soldier before attending Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning. By March 15, 1967, he was serving as a First Lieutenant in Company B, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. On that day, while in Hậu Nghĩa Province in the Republic of Vietnam, Sargent threw himself on two enemy hand grenades, sacrificing himself but saving the lives of two men nearby.
Burial and legacy
Ruppert Sargent, aged 29 at his death, was buried in Hampton National Cemetery, Hampton, Virginia.
The Ruppert L. Sargent Building in Hampton, Virginia houses the Hampton City Schools, Commissioner of the Revenue, Treasurer, Economic Development Department and Office of the Assessor of Real Estate. A statute of Sargent rests in the building's lobby. Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3219 renamed the post in honor of Medal of Honor recipient, 1st LT Ruppert Leon Sargent, in April 2019. The VFW Post 3219 renamed the post to honor his gallantry and heroism.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ruppert L. Sargent” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.