Senator Ed Freeman has died. His exploits as an Air Cav pilot were recognised in the movie "We were soldiers once, and young". Freeman was awarded the CMOH around 2001 and a finer recipient there could not be.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
As we enjoy our Labor Day weekend, please take the time and remember the loss of an American Hero and True Patriot.
Idaho Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Ed Freeman passed away at 8:30 am last Wednesday morning from complications of Parkinson’s disease, a family said. He was 80 years old and has lived in Idaho for the past 30 years. He was buried at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery.
Ed Freeman, who was born in November of 1927 in Mississippi, received the Medal of Honor for heroic actions he took as an Army helicopter pilot on November 14, 1965, in the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, in Vietnam. Mr. Freeman saved more than 30 men during the war.
Many of you have seen the movie “We Were Soldiers” which came out in 2002. It was based on the book “We Were Soldiers Once…and Young,” written by Lt. General Hal Moore and UPI reporter Joe Galloway – both of whom were in that first major battle of the Vietnam War in November 1965. The book has sold about 1.3 million copies since it was published and hen became a movie starring Mel Gibson as Moore and Barry Pepper as Galloway.
(Moore says the film is about 60 percent accurate; Galloway, 80 percent.) Later this year, Galloway and Moore will publish a sequel, “We Are Soldiers Still,” with fresh material from additional trips to Vietnam.
Two days later, Joe Galloway stood amid a hellish, seared landscape that would become one of the Vietnam War’s famous battlefields. From 14 to 16 November, fewer than 500 troops of the Army’s 1st Battalion, 7thCavalry Regiment (Airmobile), fought almost nonstop against a force of North Vietnamese regulars that outnumbered them 7 to 1. The Americans fought tenaciously, and suffered dearly. The unit’s casualty rate was 44 percent, 79 killed and 121 wounded. As Galloway was about to fly out to file his story, he faced Lt. Col. Hal Moore, commander of the 7th CAV BN. Tears bathed both faces. “Go tell America what these brave men did,” Moore said. “Tell them how their sons died.”
During a Veterans Day ceremony at The Vietnam Wall in November 2005, the living members of the 1st Battalion, 7thCavalry Regiment (Airmobile) marched down to the memorial to a standing ovation from the crowd. In the book and movie you might remember a pilot named Ed ‘Too Tall’ Freeman. Deemed ‘too tall’ to fly by the Army and not permitted to train in a fixed-wing aircraft, he became a helicopter pilot.
On the 14 November 1965, “Too Tall” flew over 20 missions into Landing Zone “X-Ray” in the Ia Drang Valley, bringing critical supplies to the troops on the ground and evacuating the wounded. Even when medical helicopters refused to fly into the “hot” landing zones because of heavy enemy fire, Ed Freeman flew 21 times. As a flight leader and second in command, of a 16-helicopter lift unit, he supported a heavily engaged infantry battalion. He flew 14 separate rescue missions, providing life-saving evacuation of an estimated 30 seriously wounded soldiers.
Ed Freeman’s heroics grew nation wide attention when his character was featured in the movie, “We Were Soldiers.” Actor Mark McCracken played the character of Ed “Too Tall” Freeman in the movie.
Ed Freemen was one of those men who made the march to The Wall in November 2005. Based on his incredible bravery and heroism that day in 1965, President George Bush presented him the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony in 2001. Bush pointed out that it should have been another president from Texas – Lyndon Johnson – who should have presented the medal – but it had taken more than 3 decades of effort by those who ‘Too Tall’ had helped save.
President Bush on Monday, July 16, 2001, presented the nation’s highest military honor to an Army chopper pilot who is credited with evacuating wounded soldiers and delivering supplies to a battle zone during the Vietnam War. “He served his country and his comrades to the fullest, rising above and beyond anything the Army or the nation could have ever asked,” Bush said.The president draped the Medal of Honor around the neck of Freeman, of Boise, Idaho, in a brief ceremony before other medal winners, Freeman’s family, government officials and members of Congress. Monday’s ceremony was the first time Bush has handed out the Medal of Honor.
http://blogs.fayobserver.com/hopemills/2008/08/30/farewell-to-an-american-hero-and-true-patriot/
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
As we enjoy our Labor Day weekend, please take the time and remember the loss of an American Hero and True Patriot.
Idaho Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Ed Freeman passed away at 8:30 am last Wednesday morning from complications of Parkinson’s disease, a family said. He was 80 years old and has lived in Idaho for the past 30 years. He was buried at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery.
Ed Freeman, who was born in November of 1927 in Mississippi, received the Medal of Honor for heroic actions he took as an Army helicopter pilot on November 14, 1965, in the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, in Vietnam. Mr. Freeman saved more than 30 men during the war.
Many of you have seen the movie “We Were Soldiers” which came out in 2002. It was based on the book “We Were Soldiers Once…and Young,” written by Lt. General Hal Moore and UPI reporter Joe Galloway – both of whom were in that first major battle of the Vietnam War in November 1965. The book has sold about 1.3 million copies since it was published and hen became a movie starring Mel Gibson as Moore and Barry Pepper as Galloway.
(Moore says the film is about 60 percent accurate; Galloway, 80 percent.) Later this year, Galloway and Moore will publish a sequel, “We Are Soldiers Still,” with fresh material from additional trips to Vietnam.
Two days later, Joe Galloway stood amid a hellish, seared landscape that would become one of the Vietnam War’s famous battlefields. From 14 to 16 November, fewer than 500 troops of the Army’s 1st Battalion, 7thCavalry Regiment (Airmobile), fought almost nonstop against a force of North Vietnamese regulars that outnumbered them 7 to 1. The Americans fought tenaciously, and suffered dearly. The unit’s casualty rate was 44 percent, 79 killed and 121 wounded. As Galloway was about to fly out to file his story, he faced Lt. Col. Hal Moore, commander of the 7th CAV BN. Tears bathed both faces. “Go tell America what these brave men did,” Moore said. “Tell them how their sons died.”
During a Veterans Day ceremony at The Vietnam Wall in November 2005, the living members of the 1st Battalion, 7thCavalry Regiment (Airmobile) marched down to the memorial to a standing ovation from the crowd. In the book and movie you might remember a pilot named Ed ‘Too Tall’ Freeman. Deemed ‘too tall’ to fly by the Army and not permitted to train in a fixed-wing aircraft, he became a helicopter pilot.
On the 14 November 1965, “Too Tall” flew over 20 missions into Landing Zone “X-Ray” in the Ia Drang Valley, bringing critical supplies to the troops on the ground and evacuating the wounded. Even when medical helicopters refused to fly into the “hot” landing zones because of heavy enemy fire, Ed Freeman flew 21 times. As a flight leader and second in command, of a 16-helicopter lift unit, he supported a heavily engaged infantry battalion. He flew 14 separate rescue missions, providing life-saving evacuation of an estimated 30 seriously wounded soldiers.
Ed Freeman’s heroics grew nation wide attention when his character was featured in the movie, “We Were Soldiers.” Actor Mark McCracken played the character of Ed “Too Tall” Freeman in the movie.
Ed Freemen was one of those men who made the march to The Wall in November 2005. Based on his incredible bravery and heroism that day in 1965, President George Bush presented him the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony in 2001. Bush pointed out that it should have been another president from Texas – Lyndon Johnson – who should have presented the medal – but it had taken more than 3 decades of effort by those who ‘Too Tall’ had helped save.
President Bush on Monday, July 16, 2001, presented the nation’s highest military honor to an Army chopper pilot who is credited with evacuating wounded soldiers and delivering supplies to a battle zone during the Vietnam War. “He served his country and his comrades to the fullest, rising above and beyond anything the Army or the nation could have ever asked,” Bush said.The president draped the Medal of Honor around the neck of Freeman, of Boise, Idaho, in a brief ceremony before other medal winners, Freeman’s family, government officials and members of Congress. Monday’s ceremony was the first time Bush has handed out the Medal of Honor.
http://blogs.fayobserver.com/hopemills/2008/08/30/farewell-to-an-american-hero-and-true-patriot/