The Cellar - Ed Freeman

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- - Ed Freeman (http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=18724)

The Vietnam War was and always will be a contentious issue. I know the pro and all the cons. I was vocally against it.
But that said, I appreciate the sacrifice of the people that had to endure it, and the heroism some displayed, in that war.

Quote:

Ed Freeman

Imagine, you're an 18 or 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle in the I Drang Valley, 11-14-1965. Landing Zone X-ray , Vietnam . Your Infantry Unit is outnumbered 8 to 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the Medi-Vac 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 1/2 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 distinctive sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see a Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because there are no Medi-Vac markings are on it.

Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not a Medi-Vac pilot, so it's not his job, but he's flying his UH-1 Huey helicopter down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vac choppers were ordered not to come.

He's coming anyway.

He lands in the middle of it all, then sits there absorbing the heavy machine gun fire. They load more wounded soldiers on board the now bullet riddled helicopter. Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire ... to the Doctors and Nurses ... and life.

And, he kept coming back ... 13 more times .. and took about 30 of your buddies who would never have never made it otherwise.

Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise , ID ......May God rest his soul...

Rest in Peace, Ed.

Sad way for more people to become aware of his story.

I salute you right back, Mr. Freeman. R.I.P.

Bless you Ed & thanks for all you've done.

Having never served, it feels inappropriate for me to salute him, but I'll stand in silence for a minute.

And I notice ... 2008, 80 years old... he was 37 in 1965. Not some reckless "I'm bullet-proof" early twenties lad, but a guy who had been around long enough to get some sense and know what happens to people who take lots of risks... and he took them anyway, to save others. It doesn't get much braver than that.

That's what I call a real hero. The stuff songs and legends are made of.

RIP

Freeman, a Mississippi native who married an Idahoan, began his military career at 17 with a two-year stint in the Navy during World War II. "He joined the Navy and hated it. The ocean thing was not his bag," Mike Freeman said.

So he joined the Army, serving four years in Germany before getting deployed to the Korean conflict. He served as a Master Sergeant during the Korean War and was given a battlefield commission during the battle of Pork Chop Hill.

At that point in his career his dream was to attend flight school. However, because of his six foot four stature he was considered too tall. In 1965 the height limit was raised allowing Freeman to enroll fulfilling a lifelong dream. The nickname "Too Tall" stuck with him throughout his military career.

The rest is history.

Ali, does this remind you of Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick?

He is by far the best known Australian war hero. He was a medic at Gallipoli. He brought out somewhere between 70 and 300 wounded men by sitting them on a donkey he "obtained" from somewhere and walking them to the beach down a path in full view of enemy snipers. He was eventually killed in action.

Very much so, although I think the Brits have as much (or more) claim on him than we do.

and he looks like an ordinary old dude. just goes to show.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZenGum (Post 504674)

That must have been one strong donkey.

:lol: you silly boy HLJ!