From My Mind to....

A Real Hero

I don't usually pass forwarded emails along, but something about this one struck me.  Tha sad things is there are thousands of such stories worthy of being passed along, stories that by their telling make us better for the hearing.  Too bad the media doesn't buy into all that positive energy.


You're a 19 year old kid.  You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam.

It's November 11, 1967.  LZ (landing zone) X-ray.

Your unit is outnumbered eight to one, 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 to fly his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway.  Even after the MedEvacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway.

He drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire as they load three 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!!

He returned 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.

I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing,  but we've sure seen a whole bunch about Lindsay Lohan, Tiger Woods and the bickering of Congress over Health Reform and the budget.

Shame on the American media!!!


While I seldom agree with our civilian leadership's decisions to continually send our military into harm's way WITHOUT giving or allowing them the means to win, I fully support all the men and women who serve.  I just hope we can survive as a country despite our leaders. 

Jace