You want a real American Hero story to read? We have so little lately to inspire us and reaffirm our beliefs that real heroes still exist. This story should do that and take your mind off of the clows in D.C. for a while. Stories like this helps people like me to get by from day to day. Here's the story:
Ed Freeman: A Hero of Our Country.
Imagine this: You're a 19 year old kid, critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, 11-14-1965, LZ Xray, 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 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 halfway 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 there are no Medi-Vac markings 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 told 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 waiting Doctors and Nurses.
And, he kept coming back...... 13 more times.... and took over 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.
Ed originally was in the infantry in the Korean War, and due to his heroism on the battlefield, was given a field commission (enlisted to officer). While he was humble, this commission made his childhood dream of becoming a pilot possible. Almost.
The military had a rule then that people taller than 6'2" could not be pilots. The military determined Ed to be "Too Tall", a nickname that has followed him since. Luckily, in 1955, the military changed this stance and Ed was in. He learned both on fixed wing aircraft and then transferred to helicopters.
During the Vietnam War, when the reports were coming in about the insurmountable odds being faced, the commander of the air wing that Ed was a part of asked for volunteers to go in and get them. Ed was the only one that stepped forward. He and his commander saved so many that day...men that certainly would have perished had it not been for Ed.
His commander decided later on to submit him for the Medal of Honor, but did not meet the two year statute of limitations for that award. Didn't matter to Ed. He did what he thought was right, regardless of the potential for recognition. E
d is my hero.
Fortunately, the statute of limitation was removed in 1995, and in 2001, Ed Freeman received a long overdue Medal of Honor from President George H. W. Bush.
Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman died August 20, 2008 in Boise , ID , at the age of 80.
May God rest his soul.....
Oh yeah, Paul Newman died that day too. I guess you knew that. He got a lot more press than Ed Freeman. Where is the Justice? Can you compare the two and justify the difference in press, respect, and admiration? I can't.
This guy is someone we should inspire to be like. We don't need to march in the path of bullets, but understand that his heroism should inspire us to do good for everyone.
by Das Goob! Now listen!-"Life is hard. It's harder if you are stupid" John Wayne
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