I just got this in the inbox recently. If you seen the Mel Gibson movie "We Were Soldiers Once", you know who he is.....

quote:

A measure of heroism that is not so obvious in the Mel Gibson movie:'We Were Soldiers Once......And Young'

You're an 18 or 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, November 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 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 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 medevac markings are on it. Ed 'Too Tall' Freeman is coming for you. He's not a medevac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the medevac's were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway. And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, they load 2 or 3 of you onboard, as they drop off much needed water and ammunition. 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, who would never have gotten out. Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman died Wednesday Sept. 3, 2008 at the age of 80, in Boise, Idaho. Thanks Ed....... Blue Skies

If you're a helo pilot and wonder what it takes to get a MOH, there ya go....

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TVCJohn,

Is there any wonder we have problems with our junior folks using incorrect terms when we have Master Chiefs posting things about a Medal of Honor "WINNER"?? Come on, MC!! Recipient, awardee, anything but winner!

But, I have to say that the story brought a tear. Fair winds, Mr. Freeman, and following seas.

Hand Salute!



Ready, two.

quote:

Originally posted by B_12:
Is there any wonder we have problems with our junior folks using incorrect terms when we have Master Chiefs posting things about a Medal of Honor "WINNER"?? Come on, MC!! Recipient, awardee, anything but winner!

But, I have to say that the story brought a tear. Fair winds, Mr. Freeman, and following seas.

Good point and I stand corrected and corrected.

The MOH.com main page (the "Official Site") and the CMOH Society main page (Presidentially/Congressionally charted and listed in Title 36 U.S.C., Chapter 33) site categorizes them as "recipients", not winners or awardees. I will note there is a little confusion as to whether it's MOH or CMOH. I didn't research it past there.

Let's hope the junior folks didn't pick up any bad terminology habits from these error.

John,

Thanks for the post. I have read a great deal on that battle including Galloway and General Moore's books. A true American hero has passed and we are lesser for his passing.

At one time (within our memories), The Medal was indeed, known as The Congressional Medal of Honor because it could only be awarded by an act of Congress. Now, this is with no referrence at all - I'm just trying to remember stuff from awahile ago. At some point, for whatever reason, it was decided to drop "The Congressional" part because now, I think, for the most part The Medals are approved by the President. However, I believe I did hear the Congress still has the ability to award The Medal so I would reckon that if they should do so, it would then be once again the CMOH!

I know I should research this before posting but I'm in Jersey to bury my cousin and just don't have the energy. Roddy is younger than me and he and my other cousin, Joe, were the only 2 cousins I had to lean on growing up as a Coastie brat. Both were AF VN vets and both had heavy Agent Orange exposure. Joe was a helo gunner and AO "dumper". Roddy was a para-jumper who would go in behind the lines to mine the Ho Chi Minh Trail then take 2-3 days to get out and wait for extraction. The way they would "protect" the jumpers was to saturate the jump area with AO the day before.

So, I'm bummed out and just trying to keep my mind busy by working the site.

Look for a memorandum from 1944 between the Sec'y of the Army & Sec'y of the Navy, recommending shortening the name from CMOH to MOH.

A inguiry letter to the editor of "All Hands", a Navy magazine, asked the question, and that was the editors response.

quote:

Originally posted by Mastersmate:
Look for a memorandum from 1944 between the Sec'y of the Army & Sec'y of the Navy, recommending shortening the name from CMOH to MOH.

A inguiry letter to the editor of "All Hands", a Navy magazine, asked the question, and that was the editors response.

I think it was Bill Wells or Dennis Noble who said there is more recent policy guidence on the name currently being used. It might have been a Congressional product.

Here's sn interesting article on Maj. Freeman fom a local Idaho paper.
http://www.mtexpress.com/2001/01-06-20/01-06-20medal.htm
Medal of Honor winner visits local Legionnaires


By PETER BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer

The U.S. Army told Ed Freeman in 1953 that he was too tall to fly. But two years later, he was flying anyway.

In 1965, the army told Freeman that a landing zone in Vietnam was too dangerous to attempt a landing. But he flew into it anyway, 14 times, supplying embattled soldiers and bringing out the seriously wounded.

The army told Freeman’s commander that Freeman was ineligible for a Medal of Honor because a statute of limitations had expired. But on July 16, President Bush will hang it around Freeman’s neck anyway.

Retired Maj. Freeman was in town Wednesday night sharing stories and dinner with Wood River Valley veterans at American Legion Post 115 in Ketchum.

Freeman, a Boise resident who flew helicopters in the Big Wood Valley in the early 1970s for Intermountain Helicopter, knows the area and the local Legionnaires well. What he didn’t know was that they were going to recognize his upcoming induction.

Freeman was recommended for the Medal of Honor for flying 14 helicopter missions in 14 hours on Nov. 14, 1965, at the battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam.

The reason the recognition has taken so long, he said, is that "you lose track of people, of who did what in battle." And so he was not recommended for the medal until it was too late.

Then, in 1995, Congress lifted the statute of limitations on Medal of Honor recommendations. As soon as it did, Freeman’s commander at Ia Drang, Bruce Crandall, sent in the paperwork.

The citation of his actions reports that then Capt. Freeman, knowing the landing zone was already closed to helicopter operations because of intense enemy fire, but ignoring the extreme risk to his life, "flew his unarmed helicopter through a gauntlet of enemy fire time after time to deliver critically needed ammunition, water and medical supplies to the besieged battalion."

Without his supply flights, the citation reports, the battalion "would almost surely have gone down."

After dropping off supplies, he would load up with the seriously wounded, 30 in all, "some of whom would not have survived had he not acted."

Freeman said that at the time he had no thought of any kind of medal.

"That kind of thinking would just end you up in a body bag," he said.

Freeman was second in command of the 229th Assault Helicopter Company, which had 40 helicopters at the time. When the call came for volunteers to relieve the besieged men at Ia Drang, no one came forward except Freeman.

"I was thinking I was going to die," he said.

"But you know, there are only two rules of war. The first is that young men die. The second is that you can’t change rule No. 1."

He said he was humbled by the award, especially since there were a lot of young men who died that day who deserve the medal more.

Freeman joined the Army in 1948, and saw action in Korea at the battle for Pork Chop Hill. He was one of 14 men of a 257-man company to survive the initial fight for the hill.

In 1953 he tried to get into flight training school. He said he had seen what happens on the ground in war, so he wanted to get up in the air. But the Army told him he was too tall at 6 feet 4 inches.

In 1955 the Army changed its rules, and Freeman learned to fly helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. He also picked up the nickname "Too Tall to Fly."

Freeman’s story is part of the larger story of the battle of Ia Drang, which is the subject of the book "We Were Soldiers Once… and Young."

The book was written by Ret. Army Lt. Gen. Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway. Moore commanded the men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, who did most of the fighting at Ia Drang.

Galloway was the only reporter present throughout the battle’s 34 harrowing days.

Freeman’s copy of the book was inscribed by Moore.

"For Big Ed Freeman, the legend known as ‘Too Tall to Fly.’

"Your heroism will live forever in the history of the 7th U.S. Cavalry. With highest respect, my old, beloved friend."

When it came time for Freeman to speak to the Legionnaires, he said "I only did what I was supposed to do, what I was trained to do."

He said he didn’t have much more to say, and to emphasize this he recalled a story about an eighth-grader who was assigned to give a speech about a hero.

"Caesar was a great leader," the boy said. "Caesar won many battles. Caesar talked too much. They shot Caesar."

In all the laughter, Freeman went back to his chair.