Member-only story
Lawrence Joel, Medal of Honor Medic
Just after dawn on November 8, 1965, a company of paratroopers patrolled the rain forest northwest of the Dong Nai River. Their task: a search and destroy mission to clear nearby hills of Communist insurgents.
For two tense hours, they prowled through the shadows of the triple canopy jungle.
Suddenly, the hillside ahead erupted as several hundred unseen hostiles poured torrents of machine gun fire down on the badly outnumbered Americans.
The first barrage mowed down everyone in the lead squad and dozens behind them. Diving for cover, the survivors returned fire while their wounded comrades lay bleeding and dying around them.
Disobeying orders to stay down, a medic crept among the fallen. Lawrence Joel bandaged wounds, shouted encouragement, and inserted IVs to replace lost blood. Despite relentless enemy fire, he repeatedly rose to a kneeling position, holding plasma bottles high to help lifesaving fluids drain into his patients’ veins.
When a Viet Cong bullet tore through his calf, Joel bandaged the gash, gave himself a shot of morphine and used a makeshift crutch to hobble to the next patient. Having treated the fallen in his own platoon, he floundered forward, into the teeth of the crossfire, in search of more men in need.
When another bullet drilled deep into his thigh, Joel just ignored it and kept working. After he had used up most of his medical supplies, he found a gasping soldier with a sucking chest wound. Improvising, the medic used an empty plastic bag to stop the hemorrhaging.
Once reinforcements arrived, Joel grabbed a fresh first aid kit from a wounded medic and kept working. The dense overgrowth made it difficult to evacuate most patients until the end of the intense 24-hour battle. Many of the wounded needed constant attention to keep death at bay.
Finally, the Viet Cong began to withdraw, having lost about 400 men. Fifty Americans died that day, but Joel’s efforts saved the lives of at least 13 men. The Army awarded him a Purple Heart and a Silver Star for his valor.
