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Clement was born in Plainfield, New Jersey and attended school in the area, completing two years of high school. He was inducted into the United States Army in April 1941 and became part of the well-known 366th Infantry Regiment, a mixed-ethnicity unit of non-white soldiers. He was assigned to Company B at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, continuing his infantry training. Near the end of his training, in late December 1941, just weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Clement and several other soldiers were involved in a serious automobile accident just off base in Massachusetts. He was hospitalized but died from his injuries in January 1942. Two other soldiers also died in the same accident. His gravestone at Fairview was provided by the Central Board of Veterans of Plainfield.

The 366th Infantry Regiment was organized in February 1941 and was a “separate” infantry regiment. Separate not in the context of their ethnicities but separate meaning this was one of only 50 regiments during WWII that were under the command of Corps rather than Divisions. These separate regiments, often referred to as orphans, were organized to function completely on their own. They had their own transportation, their own medical, dental and general services, an artillery company, and in the case of the 366th, even a band. 

Within days of Pearl Harbor and Germany’s declaration of war on the United States, there was widespread military concern that infrastructure in the eastern United States was exposed to enemy sabotage. The 366th was fully ready and available to respond and elements of Company B were dispersed all over New England to provide 24-hour duty to sensitive installations, including a secret radar research facility at MIT. PFC Chapman’s surviving compatriots served this duty until the end of 1942 and subsequently joined the combat in Italy in early 1944.