(WXYZ) — Two Jewish Vietnam War veterans are being honored this Veterans Day not only for their military service, but for an extraordinary friendship that has lasted 75 years and counting.
Watch Jolie Sherman's video report:
Dr. Paul Gold and Dr. Joel Leib have shared nearly every chapter of their lives together — from middle school through medical school, military service in Vietnam, and a 50-year medical practice partnership.
"We were like brothers in sense," Gold said.
The lifelong friends met in middle school, went to high school together, and continued their education at Wayne State University. Both were also accepted into the osteopathic medicine program in Des Moines, Iowa.
"We had the same experiences over a lifetime, and that tends to make you close," Leib said.
In their mid-20s, both newly married and fresh out of medical school — with Leib a first-time father — they were drafted to serve in Vietnam.
"I got a notice in the mail, halfway through my internship, that said San Francisco on the outside, so I knew immediately what it was," Leib said.
While their shared experiences continued in Vietnam, their military assignments differed.
Gold, a Purple Heart and Silver Star recipient, served as a combat physician, stationed two miles behind every mission, while Leib worked as a radiologist, oversaw a hospital of six beds, and often treated patients with malaria and shrapnel wounds.
The friends saw each other every couple of months during their deployment. When they did reunite, it was as if no time had passed.
Leib recalled one memorable encounter: "One day I was reading a comic book — a Superman comic book — and I hear this noise outside, grinding."
Gold had arrived in a military vehicle. "We pulled the track up to Joel's door, and we beeped the horn real loud," he said.
"I said, Are we being raided? So, I go out, and I see this tank with the point aiming at me, and I see this guy full of dirt and mud and bullets across his chest and an M16, and I looked at him and said, 'Paul, is that you?' He said, Yeah, it's me, don't you know there's war on?" Leib said.
Their bond remained unshakeable after the war. They say the experience enhanced their medical skills when they returned to civilian practice.
"It was like spending a whole year in the emergency room, so it added to my great knowledge when Joel and I went back into practice a year and a half later," Gold said.
The two opened a family medicine practice in Waterford and worked together for 50 years. Their Vietnam service not only made them better doctors, but they say better people and friends.
"I look at it as an experience that made me appreciate life more, and appreciate the things that I have and that my family has more," Leib said.
Gold called his Vietnam service "the most fulfilling year of my life." Their friendship continues to flourish decades later.
"He was a good friend then and a good friend now…and he'll be my friend for the rest of my life," Leib said.
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