Wake Forest Athletics
Winston-Salem & American Hero: Remembering Lawrence Joel on Veterans Day
11/11/2020 12:00:00 PM | General, Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball
In February 1986, the Winston-Salem Board of Alderman voted to name the city’s new arena “Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum” in honor of Joel and all other Forsyth County veterans who died in service to their country.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- On November 8, 1965 an Army medic from Winston-Salem, N.C. assigned to the 1st Battalion of the 503rd Infantry in the 173rd Airborne Brigade set out on an all-day patrol to search for Viet Cong Soldiers in the steaming jungles of Vietnam. To that point in his 16 years of service in the Army, Specialist Lawrence Joel had served with occupation forces in France, Germany and Italy; he did a tour in Lebanon; he was cited for treating troopers burned in a personnel carrier explosion in Alaska, but he had never seen any real combat, nor had he ever treated any battle casualties.
That was all about to change.
Joel's unit was ambushed by a Viet Cong battalion that outnumbered the American paratroopers six to one, and his first day of bloody combat commenced. He would spend nearly 24 hours in living hell. Wounded twice by Viet Cong machine gun fire, Joel never abandoned his duty to his fellow soldiers. After being struck in the right leg, he bandaged his own wounds, gave himself a shot of morphine to deaden the pain, and went back to his life-saving mission. He was struck a second time, and with a bullet lodged in his thigh, he continued to attend to the wounded, shouting words of encouragement to those around him as he dragged himself over the battlefield.
Joel is credited with saving the lives of 13 fellow soldiers before the fighting subsided many hours later.
Joel, who spent three months in hospitals in Saigon and Tokyo recovering from wounds to his right thigh and calf, received the Silver Star. On March 9, 1967, Joel earned the nation's highest award for bravery as President Lyndon Johnson presented Joel with the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in the Vietnam War on the White House lawn. Joel was the first medic to receive the Medal of Honor and the first living African-American recipient since the Spanish-American War.
In his presentation speech, President Johnson spoke of Joel's "very special kind of courage — the unarmed heroism of compassion and service to others.
"I'm glad to be alive," Joel said before going to Washington to receive his medal. "I just wish I could have done more. I never say that I deserved the medal. That's just not for me to say. It was just my job."
Upon returning home from receiving the Medal of Honor, at least 30,000 people turned out for a parade in his honor throughout his hometown of Winston-Salem.
Joel, who died of complications from diabetes in 1984, was born in Winston-Salem in 1928. He was educated in Winston-Salem elementary and junior high schools and attended Atkins High School. He served for one year in the Merchant Marines and, in 1946, enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 18.
He retired from military service in 1973.
In February 1986, the Winston-Salem Board of Alderman voted to name the city's new arena "Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum" in honor of Joel and all other Forsyth County veterans who died in service to their country.
Wake Forest is the only Power 5 school in the country to have its men's basketball arena named after an African American.
Joel is buried in Section 46 of Arlington National Cemetery adjacent to the Memorial Amphitheater.
