REAL HEROS ARE NOT MOVIE STARS!

[TheHarleyMan2]

You're a 19 year old kid.
You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam .

It's November 11, 1967.
LZ (landing zone) X-ray.

Your unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 yards away, that your CO (commanding officer) has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.

You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you're not getting out.
Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again.

As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.

Then - over the machine gun noise - you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter.
You look up to see a Huey coming in. But ... It doesn't seem real because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.

Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you.

He's not Medi-Vac so it's not his job, but he heard the radio call and decided he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway.

Even after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.
He's coming anyway.

And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 3 of you at a time on board.
Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses and safety.

And, he kept coming back!! 13 more times!! Until all the wounded were out. No one knew until the mission was over that the Captain had been hit 4 times in the legs and left arm.

He took 29 of you and your buddies out that day. Some would not have made it without the Captain and his Huey.

Medal of Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman, United States Air Force, died last Wednesday at the age of 70, in Boise , Idaho .

May God Rest His Soul.

I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing, but we've sure seen a whole bunch aboutMichael Jackson and Tiger Woods.

Medal of Honor Winner
Captain Ed Freeman

Shame on the American media !!!

[jharhed]

You hit the nail on the head Harley Man, many folks are absolutely clueless.

[MSgtUSAF]

One reason is that he passed on in Aug 2008, Capt Ed W. "Too Tall" Freeman (November 20, 1927 - August 20, 2008). The OP is also incorrect on the dates, the amazing feat occurred in Nov 1965, not 1967. he was 80, not 70 at the time of his death. Capt Freeman originally served in the Navy in 1944 as enlisted member, after WW2 he left the Navy. He enlisted in the Army in 1954 and saw action in Korea where he was one of only 14 survivors out of 257 men from the battle on Pork Chop hill, He received a battlefield promotion to 2nd LT for his actions.

On November 14, 1965, Freeman and his unit transported a battalion of American soldiers to the Ia Drang Valley. Later, after arriving back at base, they learned that the soldiers had come under intense fire and had taken heavy casualties. Enemy fire around the landing zones was so heavy that the medical evacuation helicopters refused to fly in to the landing zone. Freeman and his commander, Major Bruce Crandall, volunteered to fly their unarmed, lightly armored UH-I Huey in support of the embattled troops. Freeman made a total of fourteen trips to the battlefield, bringing in water and ammunition and taking out wounded soldiers from what was later named the Battle of Ia Drang. By the time they grounded their wounded huey, Capt. Freedman been wounded four times by ground fire.

The man lived through hell at least twice and only God knows how many other times.


MSgt

[TheHarleyMan2]

One reason is that he passed on in Aug 2008, Capt Ed W. "Too Tall" Freeman (November 20, 1927 - August 20, 2008). The OP is also incorrect on the dates, the amazing feat occurred in Nov 1965, not 1967. he was 80, not 70 at the time of his death. Capt Freeman originally served in the Navy in 1944 as enlisted member, after WW2 he left the Navy. He enlisted in the Army in 1954 and saw action in Korea where he was one of only 14 survivors out of 257 men from the battle on Pork Chop hill, He received a battlefield promotion to 2nd LT for his actions.

On November 14, 1965, Freeman and his unit transported a battalion of American soldiers to the Ia Drang Valley. Later, after arriving back at base, they learned that the soldiers had come under intense fire and had taken heavy casualties. Enemy fire around the landing zones was so heavy that the medical evacuation helicopters refused to fly in to the landing zone. Freeman and his commander, Major Bruce Crandall, volunteered to fly their unarmed, lightly armored UH-I Huey in support of the embattled troops. Freeman made a total of fourteen trips to the battlefield, bringing in water and ammunition and taking out wounded soldiers from what was later named the Battle of Ia Drang. By the time they grounded their wounded huey, Capt. Freedman been wounded four times by ground fire.

The man lived through hell at least twice and only God knows how many other times.


MSgt

Hey thanks for the update MsgtUSAF. I got that in an e-mail and thought I would copy share it here. I didn't do much research on it, (guess I should have), I guess many make the mistakes of sending out stuff and half of it get turned around. Sorry!

I do remember the miltary channel a year or so back doing a thing on Viet Nam and mentioned and talked about Freeman and his Heroism going in 14 times to get wounded out and bring supplies.

[Urban Prospector]

To every rule an exception, Audie Murphy was both hero and movie star. Capt Freeman was a soldier and a sailor, I'd not be surprised to find he is now a Marine guarding the streets of heaven as per the Marine's Hymn.