A Hero
My friend told me an incredible, inspiring, true story about a hero:
The Above YouTube Music Video Captures the Essence of a Hero: Ed Freeman
A 19-year old soldier is critically wounded and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang valley, November 14, 1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam. His infantry unit is outnumbered 8 to 1. The enemy fire is so intense, from 100 to 200 yards away, that his own Infantry Commander had ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in. He’s lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and knows that he is not getting out. His family is half way around the world and will never see him again.
Then, over the machine gun blasts, he hears the sound of a helicopter, and looks up to see an Unarmed Huey. It doesn’t seem real because there are no MediVac markings are on it, and it’s flying directly into the machine gun fire.
Ed Freeman is coming for him. Ed is not MediVac, who were ordered to leave. It’s not his job, but Ed is coming anyway. Ed drops the Huey in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as 3 soldiers are loaded on board. Then, he flies them up & out to the Doctors and Nurses.
Ed kept coming back, 13 More Times, taking the 19-year old kid, and 30 other soldiers out, who would have been slaughtered.
Medal of Honor recipient, Ed Freeman, died on June 25th, 2009 at age 80, in Boise ID. Ed is a hero, deserving monumental, universal admiration and acclaim. But, we didn’t hear a word about Ed. Then, and when Ed died.
However, reporters wrote 24/7 breathless homage when Michael Jackson died. By comparison, Michael Jackson seems small and silly – a hologram of hoopla and self-indulgence. In the end, the icon of fame and fortune is reduced to the Vacuum of Vanity and the remnant of secular illusion.
Ed Freeman rests in the palm of God’s hand, and in the hearts of those he saved, and by those to which character matters. Ed Freeman loved others, as God had loved him. Ed cherished values that the Media and the Secular Culture can’t imagine.
BTW: The Word sacrifice does not mean “Loss“. The Word “Sacrifice comes from 2 Latin words: “Sacri” Faciam: To Make Holy. What Ed Freeman did was Holy. It was also an Act of Love.
Perhaps, someone reading this blog post, and watching & listening to the above music videos, will help someone hurting, not to far from here? Expecting nothing in return- realizing that the “Hero” that lies in you is the “Spirit of God”, who lifts you up to more than you can be.
(The Antecedent to “You” is God)
ALL Veterans Served their Country with Valor during Time of War.
This Blog Post is a “Prayer of Thanks” to All Veterans, on Veterans Day.