7.24.2009

Real hero dies


a local fella sent me this:


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 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the outnumbered 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. May God rest his soul.


Medal of Honor Winner

Ed Freeman!

8 comments:

Big Shamu said...

RIP sir and thanks for your heroric duty. I'm sure the men you risked everything for that day appreciated your courage.
Mr. Freeman also served in WWII and the Korean war. He also helped to fight fires in Idaho.

Aunty Belle said...

HI Shamu!

How was yore trip?

Thanky fer the comments--I jes' am grieved that we fergit so many good people whose quiet and steady heroism goes un remarked, while we make a whoop-de-doo about lesser efforts.

Big Shamu said...

My trip was good, I spent some time in the apparently Recession Proof Sanibel Island, soaking up the sun and those tasty Florida shrimp.

Buzz Kill said...

Ed Freeman is a hero and MOH winner, but he apparently passed away last August. Like so many real stories, once out on the blogoshere, they become fodder for miscreants who would dishonor them.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/freeman.asp

Aunty Belle said...

Shrimp recipe Shamu!! shrimp Dim Sum

Buzz, thanky fer the clarification--but wuzn't he a fine man??

fishy said...

Aunty Belle,
Good of you to publish this post.

I have heard many a story from some of the Nam vets about the need to put some decency in play, in the face of overwhelming chaos, in order to remain sane.

True heroes.

Jenny said...

Peace out, kind and nobel Sir.

h said...

Amen. It annoys me when people use "hero" indiscriminately.