Ed Freeman .... A True Hero

You're an 18 or 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle at Landing Zone X-ray in the Ia Drang Valley, Republic of Vietnam, 14 November 1965. Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 - 1 and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that you own Infantry Commander has ordered the Medi-Vac 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 the 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.

Ed Freeman risked his own life by flying his unarmed helicopter through a gauntlet of enemy fire time after time, delivering critically needed ammunition, water and medical supplies to the besieged battalion. His flights had a direct impact on the battle's outcome by providing the engaged units with timely supplies of ammunition critical  to their survival, without which they would almost surely have gone down, with much greater loss of life. 

Ed Freeman, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in July 2008. His heroics grew nation wide when his character was played by Mark McCracken in the film, "We Were Soldiers." 

Captain Freeman died 20 August 2008 at the age of 80 due to complications of Parkinson's Disease.