I received this essay titled Courage as an email from my sister and Googled Captain Ed Freeman to verify the information.  I chose the Wikipedia site to compare the email with the biography of this American patriot.  The email has circulated since his death August 20, 2008, but it remains a testament to dedicated service men and women today.  The writer laments an overemphasis on media coverage of pop-heroes.  You will not find that on thecity1.com.

This feature concerns the Vietnam War.  But, I offer it also a tribute to the men and women who served in the United States military during the 20th century, in my father's, aunt's, uncles', cousins', and brother's wars, and to those who continue to serve into the 21st.

Courage
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 ["Too Tall"] 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 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!  Thirteen more times until all the wounded were out!  No one knew until the mission was over that the Captain had been hit four 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 [ August 20, 2008] at the age of 70, in Boise, Idaho.  May God bless and rest his soul.  

Editor's note from Wikipedia:  On November 14, 1965, Freeman and his unit transported a battalion of American soldiers to the Ia Drang Valley.  Later, after arriving back at base, they learned that the soldiers had come under intense fire and had taken heavy casualties.  Enemy fire around the landing zones was so heavy that the medical evacuation helicopters refused to fly into the landing zone.  Freeman and his commander, Major Bruce Crandall, volunteered to fly their unarmed, lightly armored helicopters in support of the embattled troops.  Freeman made a total of fourteen trips to the battlefield, bringing in water and ammunition and taking out wounded soldiers from what was later named the Battle of Ia Drang.

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.  Shame on the American media!