Imagine if you will:

You're a 19 year old kid.

You're critically wounded and dying in
the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Vietnam .

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 Lindsay Lohan, Charlie Sheen,Tiger Woods and the bickering of congress over Health Reform.  Medal of Honor Winner Captain Ed Freeman

   You don’t hear this news in the main stream media

That's really true.. you never hear news about them. The 'unknown soldier'..always. That memorial represents all those who fought and died in wars for us. 

Thanks for reminding us of them.. 

hugs

From my point of view as someone outside the USA there always seems to be a patriotic sense of heroism about the US veterans amongst the american people.

But in contrast, in a political sense, to the rest of the world, the communication is almost as if vietnam never happened. It's simply ignored most of the time. I suspect the US government simply thinks not referencing vietnam too much in their foreign relations is in better political interest.

Problem with war is, you got hero's and victims on both sides. Once the war is over, you can treasure ur hero's in your own community, but treasure them too much to the outside world and the rest of the world might think you forget about the victims you made. That dilemma applies to both sides of the war ofcourse... its yet another reason why wars SUCK. Why dont we just figure out how to have civilized relations with each other?

The US Government acts as if the US pretty much gets to run the planet and it really is just bullshit. They lie to their own people, they lie to the rest of the world, they never take responsibility, they demand all sorts of things from other countries which they would never agree to themselves. If that is the way the US positions itself towards humanity that causes these problems. Once you screw too many people over in public too often in too many different ways, you cant brag about your good deeds anymore without pissing somebody off somewhere. And that is why they dont talk about vietnam. They acted too long like too many bad things didnt happen, untill finally they're not able to praise their own hero's openly and publicly.

To me therein lies the real shame, when your own governments corruption wont even allow your hero's to be praised anymore. It makes the work of many hero's unrewarded and in vain.

The dude was indeed heroic, tho blinded by his govt.'s aggressive stance...one that seriously thinned out a certain age group i their country and all for nothing but the munitions companies to make a wnack of cash...seems the underpinning reason for all the wars in the last 50 years have been monitarily motivated and not about the twin pillars of democracy and freedom that they always spout at the start....sigh...I friggin hate war even though I know hate just weakens one.. ...this was from a period when I still partcipated in the PhotoOps they still refer to as demonstrations or protests. The only thing that comes of them are more complete files on the activist leaders and nothing ever changes...O K...Egypt and Tunisia maybe a different story but by and large Demonstrations and Protest Marches have been suspect to me for years now.. ...

Thank you for commenting on your thoughts so far...    But isn't this about one guy who decided to put his own life on the line for his fellow soldiers..?  this is an Isolated event from politics and the hideous crimes of war,,,  He was shot and still came back over and over again ( 13 times in all) to pickup the living and near dead..  Then he dies and practically no one in the mainstream media gives him the notice his sacrifice for his fellow men and his country deserves..?

And yes, war does stick and the Military war complex has been too often behind the reason for starting and prolonging wars around the globe..  People are now beginning to suspect the meddling our foreign affairs has sown.. 2012 is near and world is changing..

Would you believe I agree with all of you.  War sucks. One country's heros are another's villans.  Wars suck. 

I also agree that when a person, no matter his uniform or citizenship, who so selflessly put his life on the line to save others and his passing is not saluted one final time to save print room for the more pressing stories about Hollywood "role models(?)" sucks big time also.

Ed Freeman.  I salute you.

I am a Vietnam war era veteran.  I don't know the name of a single Vietnamese ex-military fighter.  But I feel sure there was a Capt. Freeman counterpart on that side too.  To that person, I proudly salute you also. God, thank you for both of those people. God, forgive us for never learning to live with and love each other.

Don't get me wrong Tom...I'm in concert with your concern over the fact that his heroism was treated so shabbily....I just have a hard time with the reasons he had to perform these above the call rescues instead of mowing his lawn or playing with his children.. ...

I agree bobby...    I was not pushing war hero stuff and its patriotism...  It isn't my preferable topic...   Just his actions impressed me... and how lucky those that thought to die that day were..  Thought to compare that story to what's on the news instead.

Yes Tom, you’re absolutely right, you don’t hear about this in your main stream media. Although I do remember the stories of this great man I was outraged from reading in this post together with the anti-American rhetoric contained herein that his death wasn’t more prominent in the news.  But given the current international catastrophe in Japan and the never ending news coming from Libya and its heroic people fighting for democracy against a tyrant I thought it was possible that this extraordinary news of this great American hero should go un-noticed. So I looked all over the Internet to see who did follow the story:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/military/a/ed_freeman.htm

Look under analysis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Freeman

Look under Death and Legacy.

http://www.snopes.com/info/top25uls.asp

Under number 21.

And this one should be read straight through;

http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-ed_freeman_and_political_manipulation.html

Captain Ed W. Freeman died August 20, 2008. Nevertheless, I still praise and have the highest respect for Captain Freeman for being the great American hero he was and may God bless him, and God bless America.

Thanks for the links Quest...  I do remember Bush giving him the citation...

The e-mail I got was over the top as much as he did get attention... but sometimes it isn't enough...

You're quite welcome. My understanding is that he got lots of attention at the time as appropriate for his time. I would agree, it's never enough.