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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

A Hero Passes

This email arrived this morning.

You're a 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded and dying in a jungle in Vietnam. 
It's November 11, 1967.   
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 last Wednesday at the age of 70, in Boise, Idaho.
          May God Bless and Rest His Soul...
       
          Now... YOU pass this along. Honor this real hero.
Please.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 24, 2012 at 11:37 AM

    God Bless the Captain and his family. Rest in peace, you now have the ultimate "wings!"

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  2. Bob BohneJanuary 24, 2012 at 12:12 PM

    Now THAT brings tears to my eyes!
    Well done Captain Freeman. Well done.

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  3. steve mcdonaldJanuary 24, 2012 at 2:55 PM

    looks like this chain's a touch older, but the message is still crystal clear - Captain Ed = the man.

    Here's his Wikipedia Entry.

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  4. DannythemanJanuary 24, 2012 at 6:23 PM

    Quite a man. Heroism like this isn't taught. It comes from somewhere bigger, larger!!

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  5. CharlieSixJanuary 24, 2012 at 9:40 PM

    My thoughts go back to my days in Viet Nam on the ground when my twin brother was a helicopter pilot. I know for certainty that it would not have mattered to him if I was the one on the ground under enemy fire or another soldier in need. And I also know, without any hesitation of mind in me whatsoever, that if it was me on the ground under enemy fire that there would have been a pilot other than my brother who would have risked his and his crew's lives to try to save me. That is the way it was. So, yes, Well Done, CPT Freeman. And a hearty Well Done to his counterparts who have never been made known to us, other than to those they saved...

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