whats wrong with america

Ed Freeman

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..!!

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 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 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..!! 

He 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.

I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing, but we've sure seen a whole bunch 

about some freakish white-gloved sexual pervert's passing..!!




Medal of Honor Winner
Ed Freeman!


kind of put things in perspective for me

Concur.  MoH winners rarely get to have the medal placed around their necks.

The actual citation reads:

Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Captain Ed W. Freeman, United States Army, distinguished himself by numerous acts of conspicuous gallantry and extraordinary intrepidity on 14 November, 1965, while serving with Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, First Cavalry Division (Airmobile). As a flight leader and second in command of a 16-helicopter lift unit, he supported a heavily engaged American infantry battalion at landing zone X-ray in the Ia Drang Valley, Republic of Vietnam. The infantry unit was almost out of ammunition, after taking some of the heaviest casualties of the war, fighting off a relentless attack from a highly motivated, heavily armed enemy force. When the infantry commander closed the helicopter landing zone, due to intense direct enemy fire, Captain Freeman risked his own life by flying his unarmed helicopter through a gauntlet of enemy fire, time after time, delivering critically needed ammunition, water and medical supplies to the underseige battalion. His flights had a direct impact on the battle's outcome by providing the engaged units with timely supplies of ammunition critical to their survival without which they would almost surely have experienced a much greater loss of life. After medical evacuation helicopters refused to fly into the area, due to intense enemy fire, Captain Freeman flew 14 separate rescue missions, providing life- saving evacuation of an estimates 30 seriously wounded soldiers, some of whom would not have survived, had he not acted.All flights were made into a small emergency landing zone within 100 to 200 meters of the defensive perimeter where heavily committed units were perilously holding off the attacking elements. Captain Freeman's selfless acts of great valor, extraordinary perseverance and intrepidity were far above and beyond the call of duty or mission and set a superb example of leadership and courage for all of his peers. Captain Freeman's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army. 


ALSO, for what it is, he was present at the Korean conflict at Pork Chop Hill.  Check out the film.

yeah, that is sad.

I guess it just shows the power of sensationalist media.

"No one ever lost money by underestimating the taste of the American public."

H. L. Menckin

While I don't doubt that the media would have ignored Ed Freeman's passing in favor of Michael Jackson's, for the record he didn't die last week. According to Wikipedia, he died August 20, 2008.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Freeman

I went to look him up because I wondered if he was the guy portrayed by Greg Kinnear in the movie "We Were Soliders". It turns out that Kinnear played Bruce Crandall, another Medal of Honor winner for the same battle and to whom Ed Freeman was a wingman that day.

Regardless of when he actually died, I think the point still stands that too often we honor the wrong people.

Amen

Thanks to Matt White for saving me the work...as I was wondering the exact same thing...

sorry i didnt have time to do the fact checking, i recieved it in my email from a vietnam vet, so i kinda took their word for it for being recent. but matt got to the point i was making

Coming from a military family, I can't tell you how much I appreciate this topic.