Thread: A hero dies and no one notices.

I intended on starting this thread when Ed Freeman died. I am not sure what kept me from posting it.
I was looking through my spam filters and ran across this email that a very good friend of mine, well known to the members here, sent me. I figured better late than never, so here is the email in its entirety:

Jackson dies and it's 24/7 news coverage. A real American hero dies and not a mention of it in the news. The media has no honor and God is watching
Ed Freeman
You're a 19-year-old kid. You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley , 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, 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 MediVac 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 and you look up to see an unarmed 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 machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs 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 2 or 3 of you on board.

Then he flies you up and out, through the gunfire to the doc tors and nurses.

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

Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman died on Wednesday, June 25th, 2009, at the age of 80, in Boise , ID. May God rest his soul.



Medal of Honor Winner
Ed Freeman!
Since the media didn't give him the coverage he deserves, send this to every red-blooded American you know.

THANKS AGAIN, ED, FOR WHAT YOU DID FOR OUR COUNTRY.
RIP

Here's some more about the man.

Ed Freeman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks for posting this.
Kent

Exactely the same thing happened here in OZ, Jacksons death = hours and hours of airtime. Our last surviving Victoria Cross recipient from WW2 Ted Kenna dies and it gets 2 minutes airtime. I like to think that humble heros like these blokes probably wouldn,t have wanted a big fuss made.

The email forward is a bit misleading since it sounds like the two had passed away in the same time frame when in fact Ed passed away nearly a year ago on August 20th.

The tribute still makes a good point. Our media is a joke, but what do you expect. Their biggest concern is raking & views to generate revenue for their shareholders, and not delivering us the most important news.

Dave

Came in to say what dkapp said.

The story itself is true and Ed Freeman was a hero.

But this has been sent out a few times in the last year, changed slightly depending on which celebrity died.

The hubbub over Jackson's death and the subsequent celebrity gathering was nothing compared to the Princess Di thing. That being a true demonstration of the shallowness of the media when Di got all the attention while Mother Teresa's passing the same week was almost totally eclipsed. When you've got a 24 hour news cycle to sell advertising for you have to go for whatever will sell regardless of merit.

I'm not American, but reading that actually gave me goosebumps, which surprised me! Some people are capable of truly amazing selflessness. What a deed!

that sort of personality is very strongly discouraged in poopular society nowadays

it was said that Jackson represented a sort of fame that would never be seen again

I say Major Freeman represents a kind of hero that will never be seen again.


let's hope he's flying a sortie into hell right now with a bucket of flame retardant
best of both worlds

It is very sad to find that people that have performed such heroic acts without regards to personal harm should not be noted in their passing and that people that were popular due to public opinion, such as royalty or entertainers, would gain the worlds attention.

Besides the people that have been recognized for their bravery there are probably scores more that have performed even greater acts of bravery that are unsung, some of whom are still with us and other that have passed away with the secret of their brave acts. These are war heroes, Law enforcement, fire personnel, people in the secret service agencies and the general public around the world. I too believe this is a bread of people that is fading away and discouraged in society.

Thank God for the people that perform these acts of bravery from their heart for their own piece of mind and the well being of the people they help.

Originally Posted by gratewhitehuntr

I say Major Freeman represents a kind of hero that will never be seen again.

Why is this? Usually I hear the opposite - how great the americans currently serving are great and selfless heros...