Tuesday, January 13, 2009

So.....SB Sends

He forwarded an email to me about noting the passing of MOH winner CAPT Ed Freeman. Some feel that not enough attention was paid. I'm sure they are correct. For the record I did note it at the time.

But here is the email

Have a drink for 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 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.....

(Oh yeah, Paul Newman died that day too. I guess you knew that -- He got a lot more press than Ed Freeman.)

Have a drink for Paul Newman too "Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand".
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2 comments:

  1. Ron Simpson15 January, 2009 15:58

    I did not know this at all. I have not heard or read athing about it anywhere else. Dammitall. This is more important to me that Paul Newman any day of the week.

    Thanks for letting me know.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stella by Starlight17 January, 2009 00:58

    I think I read this four times before I felt I could respond. I am unable to imagine the soldier's horror as he feels his life ebb from his body. Reading this brings only a vague understanding of the reality of fighting in a war as I've never been in the military.

    Then, along comes Capt. Ed Freeman and saves your life—against orders in the middle of an intense war zone. The writer of this email depicts a world of an unimagined nightmare. If there were ever a soul bound for heaven, this great man is there who saved so many. His courage is beyond my ken.

    I'm going to take you up on your suggestion and have a drink, a little late, to Capt.&Freeman and Paul Newman to toast their greatness, and to you for sharing this email.

    ReplyDelete