Dare I...talk about Pop Culture? I do want to honor a real hero

It has now been better than three weeks since Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson all died. Then "pitchman" Billy Mays died unexpectantly as well. I have thought long and hard if I even wanted to blog about such things - like "pop culture". It is hard to believe that Michael Jackson is still so prevelant in the news even a month after his passing. I heard a news cast that stated it cost the city of Los Angeles between $1 and $2 million for all the security, etc. for Michael Jackson's funeral. So my question is and forgive me for being so blunt - "What did Michael Jackson really stand for?" "What difference did he make, if any?". They always say - "the King of Pop" - Michael Jackson and I am always very quick to editorialize - you need to say 'self-proclaimed' King of Pop. He called himself that and was allowed to get away with it.

What amazes me is that an authentic American hero died at the very same time and no one even mentioned who it was or what he did. So, I want to give honor here to someone who truly did make a difference and had a tremendous impact. I honor Ed Freeman by and through an email I received.



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 helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed 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 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, March 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,


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