Passing of a HERO.....Viet Nam

[John Schmidt]

You're a 19 year old  kid. You are critically wounded and dying in the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam.  It's November 11,  1967.   LZ (landing zone)  X-ray. Your unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense from 100 yards away, that your CO (commanding officer) has  ordered the MedEvac 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 half 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 a Huey coming in. But.. it doesn't seem real  because no MedEvac markings are on it. Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you. He's not MedEvac so it's not his job, but he heard the radio call and decided he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway. Even after the MedEvacs 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 3 of you at a time on  board. Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses and  safety.

And, he kept coming  back!! 13  more times!! Until all the wounded were out.  No one knew until the mission was over that the Captain had been hit 4 times in the legs and left arm. He took 29 of you and your  buddies out that day. Some would not have made it without the Captain and his Huey.

Medal of Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman, United States Air Force, died at the age of 70, in Boise , Idaho. May God Bless and Rest His Soul.

I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing, but we've sure seen a whole bunch of crap about the thug Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and the bickering of congress over Health & OBAMACARE!  BUT ZIP ABOUT THE PASSING OF Medal of Honor Winner Captain Ed Freeman.

Shame on the media  !!!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I rec'd. this from a good friend and Nam vet, a former Spotter pilot, flying those little puddle jumpers without any protection. Believe me, he has some stories to tell. I have no idea when Capt. Freeman died but I get the feeling from the comparison to current events it must have been recently.

[MarkT]

Passed August 2008.

From Snopes:

At a White House ceremony in July 2001 was presented with the Medal of Honor by President George W. Bush. President Bush said of Freeman on that occasion:

By all rights, another president from Texas should have had the honor of conferring this medal. It was in the second year of Lyndon Johnson's presidency that Army Captain Ed Freeman did something that the men of the 7th Cavalry have never forgotten. Years passed, even decades, but the memory of what happened on November 14, 1965 has always stayed with them.

For his actions that day, Captain Freeman was awarded the distinguished Flying Cross, but the men who were there, including the commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Crandall, felt a still higher honor was called for. Through the unremitting efforts of Lieutenant Colonel Crandall and many others and the persuasive weight from Senator John McCain, the story now comes to its rightful conclusion.

That story began with a battalion surrounded by the enemy in one of Vietnam's fiercest battles. The survivors remember the desperate fear of almost certain death. They remember gunfire that one witness described as the most intense he had ever seen, and they remember the sight of an unarmed helicopter coming to their aid. The man with the controls flew through the gunfire not once, not 10 times, but at least 21 times. That single helicopter brought the water, ammunition and supplies that saved many lives on the ground, and the same pilot flew more than 70 wounded soldiers to safety.

General Eisenhower once observed that when you hear a Medal of Honor citation, you practically assume that the man in question didn't make it out alive. In fact, about 1 in 6 never did, and the other five, men just like you all here, probably didn't expect to.

Citations are also written in the most simple of language, needing no embellishment or techniques of rhetoric. They record places and names and events that describe themselves. The medal itself bears only one word and needs only one, valor.

As a boy of 13, Ed Freeman saw thousands of men on maneuvers pass by his home in Mississippi. He decided then and there that he would be a soldier. A lifetime later the Congress has now decided that he's even more than a soldier because he did more than his duty. He served his country and his comrades to the fullest, rising above and beyond anything the Army or the nation could have ever asked.

It's been some years now, since he left the service and was last saluted.

But from this day, wherever he goes, by military tradition, Ed Freeman will merit a salute from any enlisted personnel or officer of rank. Commander Seevers, I'll now ask you to read this citation of the newest member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, and it'll be my honor to give him his first salute.

Ed Freeman's Medal of Honor citation reads as follows:

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, 1st 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 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 besieged 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 gone down, with 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 estimated 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.

Read more at http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/freeman.asp#4QQLPpoD6vtk5SSA.99

Ed I salute you sir.  I will decorate your grave with a flag and a flower if I ever get the chance.

A POX on that dirtbag obama and all his pals.

[specialdose]

           John, I am sitting here crying. Never heard this story. What a HERO and PATRIOT. Thank you Captain Freeman for your service
   and Heroism. I have to believe you are with Jesus now.

                                                           Thank you and salute, Larry, Vietnam 67-68 USAF

[Patrick]

I heard about Captain Freeman back in the day. Good good man. I had not heard of his passing at such a young age. Too bad.

[Oss]

his words

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdDYNI7V0co

the oral histories are something I encourage you all to listen to

[T-Bird]

Thanks John & Mark,
God bless our men of the service. We need more hero's like this.

[saddlesore]

During the war in Viet Nam many low income boys were drafted and sent to Nam, yes many blacks. Maybe if we had that situation again Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin would have been drafted and  made into men to be proud of and worthy of headlines. 
Thanks for posting a story of a worthy man.

[Jess from VA]

At the time I met Lt Col Jim Flemming at Squadron Officer School (Maxwell AFB AL) in around 1988, he was the only USAF MOH winner still on active duty.

Medal of Honor
Silver Star
Distinguished Flying Cross
Air Medal - 8

James Fleming, Medal of Honor, Vietnam War	powered by Aeva

[Willow]

John,

Capt. Freeman (ultimately Maj. Freeman) died in 2008 at the age of eighty.  He was a veteran of WW II, Korea, and Vietnam.  He was Army, not Air Force, an enlisted man who received a commission after reaching the rank of First Sergeant. 

It;s no real wonder his story didn't compete with Martin and Brown.  He was long gone before we heard anything of the thug two.

Sometimes you just can't trust what comes to you through email.   

[John Schmidt]

Is it possible the message that was put across here was still the fact that the good captain or major didn't get nearly the coverage the two thugs got....regardless of when death occured?  He gave society his all and was wounded for it while asking nothing in return. The two thugs did nothing for society and got everything they asked for....in spades. And look at the coverage they got, absolutel astounding considering the D.C. clowns that showed up in Missouri.

[Jess from VA]

This is on the media, not the thugs.

Though the perversion of the media is probably just a reflection of the perversion of our culture and society.

[specialdose]

    Thinks John for the post even with the email you received having a few nuances. Certainly did not know it was the story Gibsons
movie was based on. Darn good movie. Glad Col. Crandall got his MOH. Both HERO"S and PATRIOT"S.

[MarkT]

    Thinks John for the post even with the email you received having a few nuances. Certainly did not know it was the story Gibsons
movie was based on. Darn good movie. Glad Col. Crandall got his MOH. Both HERO"S and PATRIOT"S.

If you are talking about We Were Soldiers, the movie was based more on the true story of Col Hal Moore and the  1/7th Cavalry Regiment of the US 1st "Air" Cavalry Division.  Same battle though. That was the first major battle of the American involvement in the nam.  They  invented the concept of "air mobility".