Ed Freeman
You're an 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, 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!
Terry.
I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing, but we sure were told a whole bunch about some Hip-Hop coward beating the crap out of his "girlfriend.”
Medal of Honor Winner
Ed Freeman!
Shame on the American Media!!!
Do NOT...repeat NOT watch the Mel Gibson movie based on this battle. It is dreadfully inaccurate and insulting-read the book, "We Were Soldiers" itself. That was a hell of a fight in that valley.
ReplyDeleteIts only the bad news that sell the Tabloids and gossip magazines, not true American Hereos. After all, we've all been taught it was a quagmire anyway. Some of us forget about the hereos that risked everything to save their fellow Americans ,who they probably didn't even know. They understood the concept of Leave no man behind. Thanks for the story. It was heart lifting.
ReplyDeleteGod Bless Ed Freeman and the many others like him who fought in Vietnam and other wars defending our freedom today-Thank you
ReplyDeleteThe unfortunate side is the real Med-Evac Hueys experienced the unreal small arms fire from the ground around the LZ and REFUSED TO GO IN. "Too Tall" Freeman, and wingman Bruce Crandell {and their crews}, who were originally only charged with insertion duties flew approximately 12 missions into the night to not only take out the wounded; but to bring re-supply of water, first aid supplies, and the ammunition that kept the unit from being over-run. Legend has it Crandell was especially displeased when he returned to the ground and confronted the Med-Evac pilots who did NOT have Medal of Honor integrity.
ReplyDeleteBTW..if only a sister battalion had this kind of air support the next day when they marched out, on foot, in column formation and were ambushed once again by a superior enemy force. Unfortunately, that fighting went hand-to-hand...and the American casualties {very few wounded-the NVA had time to finish the wounded as they found them lying in the elephant grass} were stunning.
9:40 you are absolutely correct. I read the book about 2 years before the movie came out and when I saw it, I couldn't believe it was the same battle. And then there was no mention at all about what happened AFTER lz-xray, which was the Battle of Lz Albany - which the book covered in its entirety. Rick Rescorla, who perished in the World Trade Center attacks, was featured in both battles very prominently yet was not even mentioned in the movie. Typical Hollywood.
ReplyDeleteThe MSM would by far rather blind us with the bling than tell us what is really important. They're trying to turn us into a nation of sheep, blindly following them down the path of ignorance.
ReplyDeleteHe was a real man, Real men dont run away from a battle, they run into it. Rest in Peace Sir. Let us never take our freedoms lightly.
ReplyDeletePraise God that this hero had his day in the sun and I pray that he is sitting at the right hand of God as we speak. Nothing else really matters but what we do here to end up up there.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your printing this , your friend , Wayne
ReplyDeleteReese Bobby--Are you speaking from personal experience?? Were you there? If so, you have gained my respect;if not then what is your source?
ReplyDeleteReese was in Law School.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't even in diapers yet in 1965!! I have been a student of history, and thus, unfortunately, war, all my life. My source is the text "We Were Soldiers Once.." written by battalion commander Hal Moore and correspondent Joe Galloway {who ultimately dropped his camera and grabbed an M-16 while covering the action in that landing zone}. Landing Zone XRay is, in fact, only half the story. The tragedy/ambush at LZ Albany immediately afterwards was just down right heart-breaking. Thanks to Al Gore inventing the internet; you can even read the after-action reports on these battles by doing some simple "Googling."
ReplyDelete1:54 he is probably referring to the Book by Hal Moore entitled "We Were Soldiers Once, and Young" for his information.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this, Joe.
ReplyDelete"Let us not so much mourn the passing of such men as thank God that such heroes have lived."
I salute you in my heart Ed Freeman. Peace be to you.
ReplyDeleteA REAL American hero has left us. As Americans, we should be proud to call him our own. Thank you, sir.
ReplyDeleteEd Freeman was just one of the heroes in that war. He was absolutely the epitome of a hero. God bless you, sir! I hope to meet you in heaven one day.
ReplyDeleteGod bless all the military personnel who have and who continue to put their lives on the line for this great country & our freedom. You have my undying respect for what you did (and do).