H1HU Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 Ed "Too Tall to Fly" Freeman A measure of heroism that is not so obvious in the Mel Gibson movie: "We Were Soldiers Once......And Young" You're an 18 or 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, November 14,1965. LZ Xray, Vietnam. Your Infantry Unit is outnumbered 8 to 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that yo! ur own Infantry Commander 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 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 medevac markings are on it. Ed "Too Tall" Freeman is coming for you. He's not a medevac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the medevac's were orde! red not to come. He's coming anyway. 0A And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, they load 2 or 3 of you onboard, as they drop off much needed water and ammunition. 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 Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008 at the age of 80, in Boise, Idaho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snapper Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 God bless him. We Were Soldiers Once..And Young is a masterpiece. It always brings me back to Rick Rescorla from Cornwall who died in the World Trade Center. What a man he was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enigma Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 A very brave man. I salute him humbly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
private mw Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 a great story and a true hero .............r.i.p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 The Medivac 'copter's of Vietnam have a laudably desreved reputation. Ed Freeman was a hero by any measure, he had no need to fly in, by duty and honour he would have ben excused, due to orders. He refused to acept this, and carried on, not a single act but thirteen times. He could equally have faced a Court martial, an example of a man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazz Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 a true hero, in the real sense of the word. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlienFTM Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 I am sure I read something remarkably similar earlier in the year (but before he died) about the battle and the banter between himself and his best buddy. No doubt somebody will drag that out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Helicopter rescue pilots seem a breed apart. A few years ago there was an oil rig on a barge strnded on a reef of Guernersey in a Force 12. The crew on board told the Navy Sea King pilot there was no way he could approach. The raised legs of the platform being about a foot wider than the 'copter rotors. The pilots reply' Shut up , get off the line, we are concentrating' . If I remember correctly eight men were lifted off. I was also priviliged some years ago to meet the crew of the Bristow Rescue helicopter, the Maritime & Coastgaurd Agency SOLAS (Saftey Of Life At Sea) When I asked what made them go out when others were running for cover, they looked at each other and the capatian said 'Well, it's a living'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Lyndon Johnson should have been the one to give the medal to him and not taken 30 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve ryan Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 R.I.P. Ed Freeman .some big shoes left to fill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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