They Were Young And They Were Soldiers

[DandyDon]

I'm cleaning up the email a bit but posting it intact, with more information below...

Look at the photo before reading the story. He looks like he could be one of my uncles, or a grandfather or maybe a great grandfather, the hat gives away the fact that he was a soldier once. But that face looks just like almost every other older gentleman out there in the world.
Now read the story please.
Then, please if you will, say a prayer for all those like him, and for all those that hopefully will live to be him.
Best wishes to you and yours,
Little john

Ed Freeman​

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 August 20, 2008 at the age of 80, in Boise, ID......May God rest his soul.....



From Military.com August 21, 2009

As Ed "Too Tall" Freeman lay ill in a Boise hospital over the past few weeks, many came to pay their respects to the 80-year-old national war hero and former helicopter pilot.

One unexpected visitor offered a very personal thank you to Freeman, a veteran of three wars and recipient of the highest military award -- the Congressional Medal of Honor -- for his actions on Nov. 14, 1965, at Landing Zone X-Ray, Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam.

"A guy came into the hospital and said, 'You don't know me, but I was one of those people you hauled out of the X-Ray,'" said Mike Freeman, 54, one of Ed's two sons. "He said, 'Thanks for my life.' "

Freeman died Wednesday.

From Wiki

Ed W. "Too Tall" Freeman (November 1927 - August 20, 2008) was a United States Army fixed- and rotary wing aircraft pilot who received the Medal of Honor on July 16, 2001 for his actions in the Battle of Ia Drang in 1965. As a helicopter pilot, he flew through gunfire more than 20 times during a single, ferocious battle, bringing supplies to a trapped battalion of United States soldiers and flying more than 70 wounded soldiers to safety. Freeman flew wingman for Major Bruce Crandall who also received the Medal of Honor for the same missions. He is also honored in the film We Were Soldiers and is played by Mark McCracken.

Interesting story on his life before the battle on MSNBC here...
MEDAL OF HONOR: ED W. FREEMAN - The Daily Nightly - msnbc.com

​

 

[redacted]

Where is the THANKS button when you need it.

Thanks Don.

 

[DandyDon]

Where is the THANKS button when you need it.

Thanks Don.

It was my honor and pleasure to share this...

 

[The Kraken]

Knew him well.

:salute:

The Kraken

 

[ronbeau]

I'm cleaning up the email a bit but posting it intact, with more information below...

​

Ed Freeman​

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 August 20, 2008 at the age of 80, in Boise, ID......May God rest his soul.....



From Military.com August 21, 2009




From Wiki





Interesting story on his life before the battle on MSNBC here...
MEDAL OF HONOR: ED W. FREEMAN - The Daily Nightly - msnbc.com

Thanks for posting the story. The story was very moving and emotional.

I was fortunate enough to have just missed being sent to Vietnam. Considering that I am the same age as this brave man's son he too probably just missed being sent to Vietnam.

For the record, I was opposed to the Vietnam war but that does not diminish my respect for the men and women that answered the call to duty and served in Vietnam. Many people mistakenly blame LBJ for our involvement in Vietnam when in fact, it was JFK that got us involved in Vietnam.

If JFK's crowing achievement was his handling of the Cuban missile crisis then his his misguided judgment in getting us involved in Vietnam has to be the low point of his presidency.

Given the background laid out above, I still feel that the way our military veterans were treated when they returned from Vietnam is a national disgrace.

I will never understand the logic nor ever forgive some of those in the earlier part of my generation who insulted and spit upon military personnel returning from Vietnam.

Apparently, these people lacked the mental capacity to be able to separate the war itself from the men and women who obeyed the laws of this country and fulfilled their military service.

I will now get down off the soap box.

 

[SteveTW]

Thank you for your post about ED FREEMAN
Steve C.

 

[miked]

To Don: Thanks for posting the article.
To Ed Freeman, and all the others like him, who have served: Thank You/Rest in Peace,with our gratitude