Bayoupiper 738 Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 You're an 18 or 19 year old kid. You're 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 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 a 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..... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jrance@iacwds.com 716 Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 Amen - a hero in every sense of the word. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
read_the_wall 614 Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 Thanks Will for this post. Another fallen hero not forgotton. R.I.P. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
loki0629 55 Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 Nice post Will. Thanks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
waltham_41 52 Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 The man had balls the size of basket balls, along with the rest of his crew. RIP, he will be missed. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Twinsen 86 Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 For a man that did that, 80 is fantastic. He was probably 25 when that happened? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ck43001 12 Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 For a man that did that, 80 is fantastic. He was probably 25 when that happened? Unless my math is off, he was 37 in 1965. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
evildog 20 Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 R.I.P. A real american hero. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
G O B 3,516 Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 I raise my glass to celebrate a MAN. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Twinsen 86 Posted October 5, 2008 Report Share Posted October 5, 2008 For a man that did that, 80 is fantastic. He was probably 25 when that happened? Unless my math is off, he was 37 in 1965. Well, my math was lazy. But who'd have thunk that a man that brave putting his life in so much danger so many times would outlive most of us? Karma. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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