Ed W. "Too Tall" Freeman
November 20, 1927 ~ August 20, 2008
You're an 18 or 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in a massive bloodbath in the Ia Drang Valley, 11-14-1965. LZ Xray, Vietnam. Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own infantry Commander has ordered the Medi-Vac 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 1/2 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, and you look up to see a Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.

Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the hail of machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.

He's coming in anyway.

And he drops the bird in, and sits there in the middle of intense gunfire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.

Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses.

And, he kept coming back...... 13 more times..... and took about 30 of you and your buddies out, soldiers who would never have survived.

Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman died August 20, 2008 at the age of 80, in Boise, ID......May God rest his soul.....
Ed Freeman was a United States Army helicopter pilot who received the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in the Battle of Ia Drang during the Vietnam War. During the battle, he flew through gunfire numerous times, bringing supplies to a trapped American battalion and flying dozens of wounded soldiers to safety. Freeman was a wingman for Major Bruce Crandall who also received the Medal of Honor for the same missions.
  • In the 2002 film We Were Soldiers, which depicted the Battle of Ia Drang, Freeman was portrayed by Mark McCracken

A Patriot is issued the uniform.  A Hero earns it.