You’re a 19 year old kid. You’re critically wounded and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, on 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 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 an un-armed Huey. But…it doesn’t seem real because there are no MediVac markings on it. Ed Freeman is coming for you. He’s not MediVac so it’s not his job, but he’s flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway. Even after the MediVacs 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. 20 more times, give or take. He took seventy of you and your buddies out who would never have gotten out if it weren’t for him and his astounding bravery and dedication. Leave no man behind.
Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman, passed away in August 2008 at the age of 80, in Boise, Idaho.
May God Rest His Soul.
Snopes has more information on the real life heroism of this inspiring man. It’s all true, fools. I wish I could have bought this man a beer.
Yes, that’s most definitely a description of a true hero. Hate it when I here it being used to describe a sporting event.
One of my hobbies is documenting military graves, and I’m always touched when I come across a Medal of Honor Recipient.
I’ve only heard good things about skiing in Argentina and vacationing there. Did you have a bad experience?
Sandy
Hey Sandy – I suck at skiing – but Argentina has snooty girls. So if you are a dude in your 20’s I would recommend going to Brazil instead!
And yeah, that guy is what the word hero was invented for.
I’m with Sandy, how can you compare a sporting event to something like this. That’s one hell of a guy.
I gotta agree with the ladies. What a guy!
Next time someone says some joe is a hero for filming the rescue of a cat stuck in a tree or something, I’m going to link them to this page.