With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Memory of Medal of Honor recipient could soon fade away at Walter Reed

For 20 years, Walter Reed Army Medical Center has celebrated the memory of Deborah Joel’s father, the first African American combat medic to receive the Medal of Honor. But the honor, it seems, is about to come to an end.

Her father, Lawrence Joel, who served in the Army in the Vietnam War, was presented with the distinction in 1967. And for the past two decades, the Joel Auditorium at Walter Reed has been a testament to his service.

But the hospital is moving in the fall. And when the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center opens in Bethesda, there will be no more auditorium named in her father’s honor. The Joel head bust and bronze wall plaque kept at the old hospital will be returned to his family....

Read entire article at WaPo