You're a 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley , 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray , Vietnam . Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander 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 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 sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it... Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, 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 2 or 3 of you on board. Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses. And, he kept coming back.... 13 more times...... And took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out. Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman,died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise , ID .......
Thanks for posting this , Russ. I think back to WW2 when a Marine Gen. Chesty Puller said that a man does not live by his years but by his deeds. Ed Freeman certainly fits this statement. Switches
I believe he died over a year ago... http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008127946_apidobitfreeman1stldwritethru.html
When ever he passed it is sad to hear. Not too many CMH recipients still with us. A local radio show host used to spend his Vetrans Day show reading citations for the Medals of Honor that have been awarded. Many would bring tears to your eye.
Indeed, Medal of Honor winners are a different breed. I met and chatted with 4 of them at the 50th anniversary of the B-17 and they all exuded something outstanding and special in their persona. It was nothing that they did by design but it came from just who they were. Switches
I guess the Big Guy upstairs needed him for another mission. Thanks for your years of service and thanks from all the guys still here because of you.
