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You're a 19 year old kid, critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the La Drang Valley, 11-14-1965, LZ Xray, Vietnam . Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 to 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 un-armed Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because there are no MediVac markings on it.
Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not MediVac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the MediVacs were told 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 waiting doctors and nurses.
And he kept coming back...... 13 more times..... and took over 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.
Medal of Honor recipient Ed Freeman died August 20, 2008, in Boise, Idaho, at the age of 80.
"Deep in the human psyche there lies the need to believe in something fantastic, something powerful, something unknown."
"Touch what you cannot solve, and return to me. I'll give you hints, and I'll give you three..." Zork Nemesis "I eat asbestos and piss PCBs." | |
No man gets left behind!
Huey pilots whether it be in a Slick, Dustoff or Hog were truly some balls to the wall individuals. Some of the stories of the heroism involved raises the hair on the back of your neck.
"It's not a fanny pack, it's an exploring pouch!"
-"Yes it is, it has fanny written all over it" | |
I would love to hear about some more of these. Any names I could google? Recommended stories? I love this stuff!
"The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life." - T.R. | |
Here's a few books.....there is one that is about a Huey Cobra pilot that was excellent, only problem is that I lost my copy and cant think of the name for the life of me.
But here are some others you might like.
http://web3.unt.ed.../detail.cfm?ID=185
http://www.jump.co...ietnam-6793611.htm
And in the meantime:
http://25thaviation.org/id276.htm
http://www.war-sto...ueckler-1969-1.asp
Check out the poem:
http://www.25th-in...uey_pilot_poem.htm
****forgot this one, probably my favorite:
http://www.amazon....ason/dp/0140072187
[last edit 3/18/2009 10:37 PM by Bustedknuckle - edited 1 times]
"It's not a fanny pack, it's an exploring pouch!"
-"Yes it is, it has fanny written all over it" | |
my uncle who passed away a couple of years ago did three tours in Vietnam, two as a doorgunner on a Huey. He was a pretty out there guy and I barely knew him.Uncle Walt had this way of looking at you, like he knew how to go through you. It made me nervous as a kid. The last time we saw him was the summer of 1994 when my grandfather passed away. He had driven out from California in his truck, took care of all the loose ends and left. I wanted to ask him about what he did in Vietnam, but the opportunity just never really presented itself. To be honest, I doubt he would've answered any of my questions. He died of a massive heart attack in his home on the Mojave Desert just outside of Edwards AFB. The sad part was, no one found him for a couple of days.
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That guy was a Man.
He shat all over some fellow pilots who didn't follow his lead that day.
MedEvac'ing the wounded is a sacred duty to your soldiers.
Science flies you to the Moon. Religion flies you into tall buildings. |
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