Courage Under Fire

[Spark]

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 8-1 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 he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway.



Even after the MedEvacs 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 3 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!!
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 Michael
Jackson and Tiger Woods.





Medal of Honor
Winner Captain Ed Freeman



Shame on the American media !!!

[husker]

GREAT post spark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


it infuriates me when politicians, media, or anyone else use "hero" to describe people or groups that have never done anything close to something like this. it's insulting and cheapens the meaning of a "hero" to people like this who REALLY are hero's. just because you put on a uniform (fire, police, military, etc.) doesn't mean you are a hero. just like when i see someone say it on tv, i'm really getting mad just thinking about it.

[BigMike]

Sure didn't, thanks for posting Joe!

[KazDog]

Great story and thanks for posting Joe. The "shame on the media" part is ludicrous however. His story was covered by the Associated Press, Washington Post, NBC Nightly News, CNN all the Boise papers and that's just to name a few. Very well covered and honestly, you can only run a story like that so many times. Really, you run it once, which many papers did.

And yes, the media runs to death stories about Woods and Jackson, because unfortunately, that's what sells papers. If no one picked up the National Enquirer, then it wouldn't be in business. TMZ broke those stories and they are thriving because this country has a younger generation that mostly cares about who's doing what in Hollywood. The media in general stopped covering hard news and real news and started giving the reader/viewer more and more of what they want. Which is gossip. Sadly.

THAT IS THE REAL SHAME!!!!!

KAZ

[jcindaville]

Great story; what a bad ass!

[BigMike]

Great story and thanks for posting Joe. The "shame on the media" part is ludicrous however. His story was covered by the Associated Press, Washington Post, NBC Nightly News, CNN all the Boise papers and that's just to name a few. Very well covered and honestly, you can only run a story like that so many times. Really, you run it once, which many papers did.

And yes, the media runs to death stories about Woods and Jackson, because unfortunately, that's what sells papers. If no one picked up the National Enquirer, then it wouldn't be in business. TMZ broke those stories and they are thriving because this country has a younger generation that mostly cares about who's doing what in Hollywood. The media in general stopped covering hard news and real news and started giving the reader/viewer more and more of what they want. Which is gossip. Sadly.

THAT IS THE REAL SHAME!!!!!

KAZ

Shut up who the fuck reads the Boise paper?? The point is many people including myself missed this story but you cannot get away from some of these other stories involving Tiger and Jesse James. Thank you for the lesson though on why TMZ and the National Enquirer are able to survive.

[Stern162]

Awesome post Spark. Thanks

[tech fan]

Great post buddy

[KazDog]

Shut up who the fuck reads the Boise paper?? The point is many people including myself missed this story but you cannot get away from some of these other stories involving Tiger and Jesse James. Thank you for the lesson though on why TMZ and the National Enquirer are able to survive.

Glad to provide you with a lesson BigMouth! What part of, CNN and the Associated Press didn't you get? Yeah, you missed the story because he died almost two years ago. "duh....really? two years?"

He has been in and out of news stories for the past decade. He died well before Michael Jackson's death and way before anything happened with Tiger and like I said, many major news outlets have covered his story. CNN ran a special on him when he received a medal of Honor from Bush. Are they supposed to air it 24/7? But you're too fucking ignorant to get that.

[BigMike]

Glad to provide you with a lesson BigMouth! What part of, CNN and the Associated Press didn't you get? Yeah, you missed the story because he died almost two years ago. "duh....really? two years?"

He has been in and out of news stories for the past decade. He died well before Michael Jackson's death and way before anything happened with Tiger and like I said, many major news outlets have covered his story. CNN ran a special on him when he received a medal of Honor from Bush. Are they supposed to air it 24/7? But you're too fucking ignorant to get that.

To get what you dumbass??? You missed the fucking point which isn't a surprise. You had to ruin a great thread with your look at me bullshit. I've been in the Air Force for 12 years and work in a building that has CNN on 24/7 and I have never seen this story. I'm sure that makes me ignorant in your mind but the point still is you cannot get away from these other stories while this was on the back page some where. And I don't care how long ago he died you don't forget hearing about a story like this.

[KazDog]

To get what you dumbass??? You missed the fucking point which isn't a surprise. You had to ruin a great thread with your look at me bullshit. I've been in the Air Force for 12 years and work in a building that has CNN on 24/7 and I have never seen this story. I'm sure that makes me ignorant in your mind but the point still is you cannot get away from these other stories while this was on the back page some where. And I don't care how long ago he died you don't forget hearing about a story like this.

For you to get that it was aired on CNN when he died and when he got a medal of honor and that he has been in MANY papers and on MANY tv news shows. They simply don't run stories like that as breaking news or run it 24/7. It WAS on, and it was AIRED. But you know all about the media. Just because you missed it, don't mean shit. It wasn't on any back page. It was on the FRONT PAGES!

I didn't ruin a damn thing. it was you coming in here trying to torch me. I thanked Joe for posting it, but made a comment about the part at the bottom that claimed, shame on the media. That's just factually incorrect! period.

I also tried to explain why Woods and Jackson are covered extensively. It's what people want to read and hear. If you're too ignorant to get that, that's not my problem. This guy died well before any goings on with those two.

Try and learn something before you open your BigMouth.

[BigMike]

Those 2 stories were given as examples Mr Clueless. I mean you are so intelligent but you couldn't figure that out??? We all know you have no problems you are much more intelligent than all of us. Enjoy TMZ.....

[KazDog]

Those 2 stories were given as examples Mr Clueless. I mean you are so intelligent but you couldn't figure that out??? We all know you have no problems you are much more intelligent than all of us. Enjoy TMZ.....

If you had checked at all about this BigMouth, you'd find that the email had been sent out many times claiming "shame on the media" because they never reported on it. It was also found that it's factually wrong. The media did cover it and by more than just a few. They changed the email several times trying to dupe people into believing that his death was ignored in place of Jackson's death, Tiger Woods news, Chris Brown beating his girl. Would you like to read those findings? Go to Snopes.com It was sent out as a means of making people hate the media. It's Right Wing propaganda. That's why they put in big red letters at the bottom, SHAME ON THE MEDIA. So sheep like you buy right into it.

I knew exactly what they meant by examples, but their claim of shame on the media is factually incorrect. How many times can I say that before you understand it? I'm done arguing with you.

Don't let those facts cloud your thinking.....

[jcheckers]

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[Stern162]

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