Who gets recognition..who doesn't.

louixo · Apr 1, 2010

You're a 19 year old kid.
You're 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 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 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 Medi-Vac markings are on it.

Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you.

He's not Medi-Vac 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 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 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 last Wednesday at the age of 70, in Boise , Idaho .

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 Michael Jackson and Tiger Woods.

Shame on the American media !!!

Now ... YOU pass this along on YOUR mailing list.

Please.

Turtle · Apr 1, 2010

Ed Freeman died August 20, 2008. It's not a surprise that's he's not in the headlines this week.

Michael Jackson died June 25, 2009, eight months after Ed Freeman. It's not surprising that Michael Jackson's death pushed Ed Freeman off the news.

Tiger Woods is still alive, and has largely pushed both Michael Jackson's and Ed Freeman's death off the news.

But like all Medal of Honor recipients, Ed Freeman did make the news when he died. Shame on the originator of this e-mail, for fraudulently shaming the American media.

layoutshooter · Apr 1, 2010

Turtle said:
Ed Freeman died August 20, 2008. It's not a surprise that's he's not in the headlines this week.

Michael Jackson died June 25, 2009, eight months after Ed Freeman. It's not surprising that Michael Jackson's death pushed Ed Freeman off the news.

Tiger Woods is still alive, and has largely pushed both Michael Jackson's and Ed Freeman's death off the news.

But like all Medal of Honor recipients, Ed Freeman did make the news when he died. Shame on the originator of this e-mail, for fraudulently shaming the American media.

Correct Turtle, there is no need to fraudulently shame the American media. There are far to many real things to shame them about.

Turtle · Apr 1, 2010

Ed Freeman was far more impressive than the episode that got him a Medal of Honor.

He served in World War II, Korea and Viet Nam. He and reached the rank of first sergeant by the time of the Korean War. Although he was in the Corps of Engineers, he fought as an infantry soldier in Korea. He participated in the Battle of Pork Chop Hill and won a battlefield commission as one of only 14 survivors out of 257 men who made it through the opening stages of the battle. His second lieutenant-bars were pinned on by General James Van Fleet personally. The commission made him eligible to become a pilot, a childhood dream of his. He then took over B-Company and led them back up on Pork Chop Hill. However, when he applied for pilot training he was told that, at six feet four inches, he was "too tall" for pilot duty. The phrase stuck, and he was known by the nickname of "Too Tall" for the rest of his career.

In 1955, the height limit for pilots was raised and Freeman was accepted into flying school. He first flew airplanes before switching to helicopters. After the Korean War, he flew the world on mapping missions before Vietnam. By the time he was sent to Vietnam in 1965, he was an experienced helicopter pilot and was placed second-in-command of his sixteen-craft unit. He served as a captain in Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Calvary Division. It was then where he flew the missions that got him his Medal of Honor.

Freeman was sent home from Vietnam in 1966 and retired from the military the next year. He settled in the Treasure Valley area of Idaho, his wife Barbara's home state, and continued to work as a pilot. He used his helicopter to fight wildfires, perform animal censuses, and herd wild horses for the Department of the Interior until his final retirement in 1991. By then, he had 17.000 flight hours in helicopters and 8.000 in fixed-wing aircraft. 17,000 hours is an astounding amount of time in a helicopter, especially for someone who didn't even start flying until he was 30 years old.

In the film We Were Soldiers (2002), from the book written by Lt. Col. Hal Moore and Joseph Galloway where Mel Gibson portrayed Colonel Moore, which depicted the Battle of Ia Drang, Captain Ed "Too Tall" Freeman was portrayed by Mark McCracken.