Give Us Liberty

Sunday, March 02, 2014

Why didn't the media note the passing
of Major Ed Freeman on Aug.20, 2008?
Feb. 23, 2014—I guess August was a busy month in 2008 for celebrity deaths. There were 178 of them around the world. For that reason it was easy to miss Ed Freeman because, with so many important people dying that month, it's really easy to skip the guy who never made it to the silver screen or the tabloid headlines. But, you would remember Ed Freedom if you ever saw the Mel Gibson movie, We Were Soldiers, and recalled a helicopter pilot called "Too Tall." Freeman was six and a half feet tall—too tall to fly, hence the nickname.

We Were Soldiers, a 138 minute film made in 2002, told the true story of the Battle for the Drang Valley and, in it, the exploits of a true American hero named Ed Freeman who was among the 178 notables who died in August, 2008. But he was the one no one remembered. But the media remembered to tell us that Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes died that month. And Jerry Reed, and Julius Carry, Jeff McCay, Sally Insu, Michael Pate and, and of course, everyone remembers the death that month of Sandy Allen, the tallest woman of the world. I know you remember because the mainstream media eulogized them. The mainstream media just forgot to eulogize a real American hero whose exploits were memorialized on the Silver Screen in 2002.

Then Capt. Edward "Too Tall" Freeman, who served first in the Navy and then the Army in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, earned the following medals for valor: the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star with Combat V, Purple Heart, Air Medal with three silver oak leaf clusters and one bronze leaf cluster, Army Commendation Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, American Area Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, National Defense Service Medal with one bronze cluster, Korean Service Medal with three bronze service stars, Vietnam Service Meal with two bronze service stars, Armed Forces Medal, and the Vietnam Campaign Medal.

In the Drang Valley battle on Nov. 14, 1965 Freeman, the second-in-command of a 16-helicopter lift unit, was supporting the heavily engaged 1st Calvary who were outnumbered 10-to-1 and taking the heaviest casualties in the entire Vietnam War. When the infantry commander, Lt. Col. Hal Moore, closed the landing zone due to deadly direct fire on the copters bringing in supplies and ammunition and leaving with wounded troopers from the 1st Calvary. When Moore closed the landing zone, it meant he was going to run out of ammunition and his position would be overrun. Four hundred men would die for virtually nothing. Flying through a gauntlet of bullets to bring the besieged 1st Calvary ammunition, food, water and medical supplies, Freeman flew 14 missions, saving the lives of 30 wounded troopers. At the end of his 14th run through the gauntlet, Two Tall's copter was riddled with holes. Several of the bullets that pierced the skin of the Huey also pierced Freeman. The rescue of the Drang Valley turned out to be the wounded saving the wounded. All of the survivors of Drang—well, the US survivors, anyway—owe their lives to Two Tall Freeman.

Freeman was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President George W.Bush in a White House ceremony on July 16, 2001. Freeman's commanding officer recommended him for the Congressional Medal of Honor—but not within the 2 year window for filing requests. Freeman was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross instead. When the two year window was removed in 1995, retired Army Major Edward W. Freeman.was 74 years old when he received the Medal of Honor for the acts of valor performed by Capt. Freeman in the Drang Valley on Nov. 14, 1965. And, as President Bush said as he awarded the Medal of Honor to Two Tall, he was presenting what another Texan president should have awarded to Freeman in 1965. Freeman lived six years with the highest award for valor this country can award. He died of Parkinson's Disease. His wife Barbara Jean met him in Heaven a year later. Now you have the short story the mainstream media forgot to tell you..