[Nfbf-l] Captain Ed Freeman Boise Idaho Passed Away In 2008 A Medal Of Honor Hero

[REPCODDS at aol.com]

See below!!!
 
 
Circulating via forwarded email, a tribute to Vietnam War hero and Medal  
of Honor recipient Ed Freeman, who died at the age of 80 in Boise, Idaho on  
August 20, 2008.  
Status: True (see details below)  
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..... 

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   


Analysis: From the closing sentences above, one could  come away with the 
impression that the courageous life and quiet death of  retired Army Captain 
and Medal of Honor recipient _Ed W. Freeman_ 
(http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/07/11/265756.aspx)  had been  completely ignored by the 
media. Not so, as the partial list of news sources  further down this page 
shows. It may not have made front-page news, but  Freeman's passing on August 
20, 2008 was commemorated in a special segment on  the NBC Nightly News, an AP 
national wire story, and obituaries published in  newspapers across the 
country. 

As stated in the email, in 2001 Freeman  was awarded the nation's highest 
military honor some 36 years after the fact for  his heroic actions as a 
Vietnam War helicopter pilot on November 14, 1965. He  was presented with a 
citation by President George W. Bush which read as follows:   
Captain Ed W. Freeman, United States Army, distinguished himself by  
numerous acts of conspicuous gallantry and extraordinary intrepidity on 14  
November, 1965, while serving with Company A, 229th, Assault Helicopter  
Battalion, First Cavalry Division Air Mobil (ph). 

As a flight leader and  second in command of a 16-helicopter lift unit, he 
supported a heavily engaged  American infantry battalion at landing zone 
X-ray in the Idrang Valley, Republic  of Vietnam. The infantry unit was almost 
out of ammunition, after taking some of  the heaviest casualties of the war, 
fighting off a relentless attack from a  highly motivated, heavily armed 
enemy force. 

When the infantry commander  closed the helicopter landing zone, due to 
intense direct enemy fire, Captain  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 
Paceeds (ph) 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 experienced a much greater loss 
of life. After medical  evacuation helicopters refused to fly into the 
area, due to intense enemy fire,  Captain Freeman flew 14 separate rescue 
missions, providing life- saving  evacuation of an estimates 30 seriously wounded 
soldiers, some of whom would not  have survived, had he not acted. 

All flights were made into a small  emergency landing zone within 100 to 
200 meters of the defensive perimeter where  heavily committed units were 
perilously holding off the attacking elements.  Captain Freeman's selfless acts 
of great valor, extraordinary perseverance and  intrepidity were far above 
and beyond the call of duty or mission and set a  superb example of 
leadership and courage for all of his peers. 

Captain  Freeman's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in 
keeping with the  highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit 
upon himself,  his unit and the United States Army.