AMERICAN HEROS.......

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Joe Ribaudo
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AMERICAN HEROS.......

Post by Joe Ribaudo »

A Vietnam Veteran and a friend sent me this:

http://home.comcast.net/~singingman7/TNOTW.htm
Joe Ribaudo
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An American Hero.........

Post by Joe Ribaudo »

"Michael 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 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 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
___________________________________________________

Joe Ribaudo
Joe Ribaudo
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FACT CHECK.......

Post by Joe Ribaudo »

Just received an email from Paul correcting one statement in the above post, which I checked out on Snopes.com prior to posting. Lots going on with me today, so I missed the fact that Ed Freeman died in August of 2008 rather than June 25, 2009.

Sorry for that slip-up, and my thanks to Paul for pointing it out. The fact only seems important from a political point of view.

Don't know why folks feel the need to massage the truth in these things, but it happens all too frequently. A family member sent me the information and said that she had checked it out on Snopes.com...I checked it myself, just to be sure.

Ed Freeman was one of those special people who need to be written about, talked about, create movies about and placed into every history book. Young people, and obviously some adults, need to know what a real hero is.

I feel deep shame for our country, that this man's death was not newsworthy. This was the stuff our founding fathers were made of.

I had my own ride in a Huey, and will never, never forget it. Those guys were truly setting ducks.

Belatedly, our prayers go out to Ed Freeman and his family.

Joe Ribaudo
LDM
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Ed Freeman

Post by LDM »

Joe,

Saw this as I was searching through some Dutchman sites and had to respond. First off, Freeman was everything and more the article makes him out to be. Most don't know he not only fought in VietNam but also WWII and in Korea also. I met Ed Freeman in Los Angeles at a reunion of the 1st Cav. and 101st Airmobile Divisions. He fought as an infantry soldier in Korea at Pork Chop Hill and in some of the worst fighting in the Korean conflict. If you looked up hero in the dictionary, Ed's picture should be beside the word.

But Ed did not die on June 25, 2009, he died almost a year earlier in August 2008 in Boise Idaho. Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009. I believe Ed may have died of Parkinson's disease.

He was very well honored upon his death. I remember reading about it in both the Phoenix and LA papers, both long articles and many radio and TV news stories aired with filmclips of his photo and achievements. At least 3 streets that I know of were renamed for Freeman, a school and a United States Post office in his home town in Mississippi. A fund was set up for a memorial honoring Ed and other 1st Cav. pilots that was circulated nationwide and within a week the memorial received 10 times the amount needed. His funeral was accorded full military honors and attended by so many people the Meridian church and cemetery could not even hold a fraction of those who came to pay their last respects. He may not have gotten the sendoff Michael Jackson did, but he did not die unnoticed and to many millions he was and still is, every bit the hero in death, he was in life.

Best,

LDM
Joe Ribaudo
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Good News......

Post by Joe Ribaudo »

My Friend,

Thank you for that wonderful post.

When it comes to someone like Ed Freeman, there never seems to be enough words or awards.

Your own words are making a hard day easier for me.

I hope all is well with you and the family and your recent problems are behind you now.

Take care,

Joe
Knun
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Post by Knun »

Ed was an amazing warrior.

For those that don't know, the movie and book, "We were soldiers once..and young" depicts the intense battle for which Ed received the medal of honor. It's an amazing story and well worth the read. The movie is good to.

I had the honor to meet Major Bruce Crandall a few years back. Ed was Bruce's wingman. Bruce also received the Medal of Honor for similar actions in that battle. In fact, their comendations read almost the same.

Major Crandall lives in Mesa and if your lucky maybe you will run into him. You will not be disappointed.

The battle in which Ed received his "Medal" was the first assault to utilize the "air mobility" doctrine. A major portion of air mobility utilized helicopters. All the newsreel photo's you see of soldiers being dropped into an LZ from "Huey's" are based on the concepts Ed and Bruce validated in the Central Highlands during the Battle of Ia Drang.

If you watch the news today you will recognise that same doctrine as you watch "Chinook" and "Blackhawk" helicopters performing the same role.

Even today these air regiments are traced back to the nineteenth century and are referred to as Calvary. The 7th Calvary unit for which Ed fought has been engaged almost constantly in Afganistan and Iraq since the start. Utilizing the very doctrine Ed proofed back in November of 1965.
lazarus
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NOT!

Post by lazarus »

(AP) Soldiers from an Army unit that had 10 infantrymen accused of murder, attempted murder or manslaughter after returning to civilian life described a breakdown in discipline during their Iraq deployment in which troops murdered civilians, a newspaper reported Sunday.

"Toward the end, we were so mad and tired and frustrated," said Daniel Freeman. "You came too close, we lit you up. You didn't stop, we ran your car over with the Bradley," an armored fighting vehicle.



And some call them heroes. What a travesty!
Joe Ribaudo
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Another Viewpoint.......

Post by Joe Ribaudo »

Brad,

What is a travesty would be the fact that there are too many people like you just waiting to hear these kinds of stories, in order to advance their anti-American agenda. Smearing all of our troops with the actions, and alleged actions of a few, is work best left to our enemies......would that include you?

In any war there are atrocities committed by all sides. Many soldiers are hardened to human suffering by what they see and experience on the battlefield. Some will let those experiences control their actions, others will let their own honorable intentions and morals take control.

There are people, like you, who will only see the evil that is done by a few and refuse to see the good that is done, on a daily basis, by the majority of our soldiers. The fact that you habitually alter your reality is a clue as to why you constantly take the negative side when it comes to the good that America does, seeing only the bad things that always come with any great enterprise.

It's a two-way street Brad, with four wide lanes on the good/positive side and a narrow single bike path in the opposing direction. You choose to always travel that one narrow lane in a single minded effort to reach a reality which only exists in your mind.

Spending some time looking only at the good side, without drugs getting in the way, will give you a clearer viewpoint of the overall picture of the goodness that is America. In time, you will be able to look at the bad things that always happen in any war for what they are......an aberration, far outweighed by the good that we do.

I choose to focus on the good that we are doing, realizing that bad things will ride along on the coat-tails of our hero's deeds. I see the evil that is also being done, but just put it in it's proper perspective. Seeing both side is what keeps me in the real world.

Take care,

Joe
lazarus
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Your Heroes

Post by lazarus »

HILLA, Iraq - Maytham Hamzah cast his eyes toward the remains of King Nebuchadnezzar's guest palace in Babylon, one of the world's first great cities. He smiled, bitterly.

"They destroyed the whole country," Hamzah, the head of the Babylon museum, said of U.S. forces in Iraq. "So what are a few old bricks and mud walls in comparison?"

How pathetic!
Joe Ribaudo
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War Sucks!!!!

Post by Joe Ribaudo »

Brad,

Your narrow focus on the damage that American troops have done, leaves no room for seeking out the good that has also been done. That is "pathetic". It also leaves you no time to study world history as it applies to the destruction of archaeological and holy sites.

It's no great feat to find people in Iraq who were once in the power loop of Saddam Hussein, and are now out of any power loop, who will be more than happy to point out every negative thing that happened in the war that freed the people of Iraq.

It's also no great feat to find enemies of America who are happy to pass that information along to anyone who can hear or read. That would, seemingly, include you.

The destruction of historical and religious sites has been going on since the beginning of time. In some cases it's foreign armies, in others it's opposing sects. It is not an American habit, as we have always tried to spare such places. I know, as I had personal experiences with such orders in Vietnam.

As in most things you have expounded on here, your knowledge is limited by your biases and pre-conceived conclusions. You need to make a conscious effort to seek out those facts that may directly contradict your beliefs. Learning both sides of any topic is where you will find real knowledge.

It is truly sad, as well a pathetic, that this kind of destruction takes place........and always has. It is the reality of man's efforts to control his social environment. Reality is the thing that some people constantly try to hide from or change.......chemically. That never works, it only warps the truth.

Your opinions here will always be colored by your expertise on the Salt River Mission, the false claim of being asked to research the San Jose Bell and your theory that the LDM is located in an old barite prospect hole on Coon's Bluff. All of those things show a reluctance to deal with reality and the real world.

I don't expect you to accept any of the things I have just written. That is part of your problem.

Take care,

Your old friend, Joe
Knun
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You are really sad Brad.....SAD BRAD...I like it!!!

Post by Knun »

So here we are. Everyone is having a rational discussion about an American Hero. Honoring in our own way the memory of a fellow American that was willing to do so much more than most of us for freedom. More than all the politicians put together and 99% of the people in this Country.

So then a little asshat has to try and hijack the discussion. It’s really sad. Poor little asshat has nothing to contribute and no topics to post. Yet he trolls for awhile and decides he can’t stand it anymore! This post about a fellow American is too much to stand. There is no way he can let this topic evolve without trying to derail it. It’s just too much for him to read! What a fucking asshole!!!

I posted before that this particular asshat was only able to memorize two of the ASSHAT rules. His posts in this thread encompass both.

Rule 4: Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. “You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.”

Rule 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.


Can any of you rational folks out there even imagine being used as a tool like this asshat is being used? Could you even imagine what your life would be like? He’s been programmed so well that “like a moth to a flame” he couldn’t stay away.

I gotta try and bait him some more. This is too fun to watch. This simpleminded asshat thinks he is some kind of anti-war advocate or something yet he passes on discussions about Afganistan. So to this anti-war asshat one war is bad but an ASSHAT war is OK. This is too easy. In case you hadn’t noticed no links are provide for his posts…no dates. What a tool!
lbj
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Post by lbj »

joe,
It is truly sad, as well a pathetic, that this kind of destruction takes place........and always has. It is the reality of man's efforts to control his social environment. Reality is the thing that some people constantly try to hide from or change.......chemically. That never works, it only warps the truth.
quite true that there are folks hiding from reality. brad may or may not be doing that with drugs. i really dont care either way. it has no relevance to his statements. either they are true or false and his state of lucidness is not an issue.

what is of issue is the state of the "american hero". in case you missed it the swift boat vets for truth destroyed the concept of the american hero. they brought into question the validity of EVERY medal received by an american soldier. if one medal can be bought - every medal can be bought. all us vets organizations should be ashamed for not standing up for a fellow vets medal. the swift boaters are just the latest, non govt group, to shit on us vets. before the swift boaters the pentagon shit on the 34as and the poor slobs that gave all they had for sog. there are no american heros. the self righteous right wingers killed them all.
Knun
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Post by Knun »

LBJ,
It's 2009. It's no longer 2004.

But try and focus for a moment. What are your thoughts about this man's passing? After all, that is what this post is about.
lbj
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Post by lbj »

knun, dont know why you pulled out 2004 out of your hat but what the hell. ok. whatever. if you get off the oxycodone you will notice the topic is "AMERICAN HEROS......." . i pointed out where you fucking right wing nuts killed the american hero so if you got anything to prove me wrong...shot.
Knun
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Post by Knun »

Hey dumbass,
i pointed out where you fucking right wing nuts killed the american hero so if you got anything to prove me wrong...shot.
With your simpleminded rational when Kerry tossed his medals over the White House fence the American Hero was done....checkmate. You poor tool.

Of course your whole rational is crap. The American Hero is alive and well in many places, not only the Military. But you've been taught not to see them. In fact, to chastise them.

But back to the actual post. What are your thoughts on the Great American that has passed? I keep trying to keep you focused but you simply flop around like a carp on the shore.
lbj
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Post by lbj »

knun,
With your simpleminded rational when Kerry tossed his medals over the White House fence the American Hero was done....checkmate. You poor tool.
they were his to do with as he pleases. i have no right to tell him what to do with his medals.

questioning and degrading the medal of any soldier smears every medal. if you cant see that its your problem not mine.

you tell me not to live in the past but you are talking about a nam "hero". when you abandon your comrades you are not a hero in my eyes. for me until the 34as get their dues there are no american heros.
Knun
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Post by Knun »

Truly sad.
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