On November 8th 1965, during Operation Hump in Warzone "D"
in Vietnam, the 173rd Airborne division was ambushed by over 1200 Viet Cong soldiers.
48 American soldiers died during this incident, and for some reason every year I think about this on the exact day.
Lawrence Joel, who happened to be the first African American to recieve the Medal Of Honor since the Spanish American War, is actually from my home state of North Carolina.
This is an excerpt from Wikipedia about Joel's heroism that day:
in Vietnam, the 173rd Airborne division was ambushed by over 1200 Viet Cong soldiers.
48 American soldiers died during this incident, and for some reason every year I think about this on the exact day.
Lawrence Joel, who happened to be the first African American to recieve the Medal Of Honor since the Spanish American War, is actually from my home state of North Carolina.
This is an excerpt from Wikipedia about Joel's heroism that day:
"On November 8, 1965 then-Specialist Five Lawrence Joel and his battalion of paratroopers were sent on a patrol for Viet Cong soldiers near Bien Hoa in the heart of Vietnam, conducting Operation Hump. Joel and his battalion shortly found themselves in a Viet Cong ambush, outnumbered six to one. Under heavy gunfire, Joel did his duty as a medical aidman (medic), administering first aid to his wounded fellow soldiers. Joel defied orders to stay to the ground and risked his life to help the many wounded soldiers; nearly every soldier in the lead squad was either wounded or killed in the battle. Even after being shot twice (once in the right thigh and once in the right calf), Joel continued to do his job; he bandaged his wounds and continued to help the wounded in not only his unit, but in the nearby company as well. When his medical supplies were depleted, he hobbled around the battlefield for more, using a makeshift crutch. Joel attended to thirteen troops and saved the life of one soldier who suffered from a severe chest wound by improvising and placing a plastic bag over the soldier's chest in order to congeal the wound until the supplies were refreshed. After the firefight which lasted over twenty four hours, Joel was hospitalized and shipped to locations including Saigon, Vietnam and Tokyo, Japan to recover. Shortly after, he received the Silver Star for his activities on November 8, 1965."
Country music duo Big and Rich composed this song as a tribute to the men who fought and died that day.
We are better people becuase of the men of Warzone D.
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