A nation NEEDS heroes. In Major (I now know) Freeman’s case, it isn’t flying into the teeth of danger when it wasn’t his job, in an unarmed wheely-floppiter. It was going back time, and time, and time again when Charlie HAD to have figured out he was coming back. Most acts of bravery (my husband was cited three times for valor, two Bronzes and a Silver star) are committed without conscious thought, which makes them no less heroic. It’s a one time thing, and the heroes will tell you abashedly that they didn’t think about it, they just acted. We honor them for that. What makes Major Freeman so very special is that with full knowledge of what he was doing and the risks he didn’t quit until the job was done. That is an act of such incredible selflessness and devotion above and beyond the call of duty that it will always give me goosebumps.

Smile…my husband, a Lieutenant then, was known throughout a fair portion of RVN as “Towel Traynham.” (I told him he would never make general with a nickname like that, and he didn’t! Generals get pet names like “Howling Mad” and “Stone Wall.”) He got that monicker as the lone foreward observer in an exceptionally nasty LZ providing cover for another a couple of clicks away. He was ALL they had to call fire, and when things got “dull,” John would pour a bucket of precious water over himself and flop down exhausted on his cot, rousing occasionally to say, “Okay, that’s ours…no problem…oh, m’gosh (or military talk for the same which ladies are not allowed to repeat!) INCOMING!!!”

He would leap up, shove his feet into his unlaced combat boots, clap a steel pot on his head, sling a towel–a WHITE towel, mind you–around his manly loins, and buckle on his side arm as he raced for the barricade. Up he would climb (you can’t adjust fire if you can’t see where the rounds are landing), bland as butter, the part we would not like shot off high-lighted, stand on the berm in plain sight, and deal with the crisis. What a nut! Nobody saw that as “heroic.” It was his job.

Heroic was running out on an open beach to rescue one of his men who had been wounded, carrying him to safety under devastating fire, for just one example.

John had SEVEN RTO’s shot out from under him and came home from an extended tour without a scratch, thank a gracious God. He went through Tet, the Ashau, and Pleiku, and if any of you knew him, have a bourbon in his memory, please. He was partial to Jack Daniels.

It took me five years to replace John, as he wanted me to do, and I wouldn’t settle for less than another warrior. John was a hell of a man, even if he was known to lean on the closed refrigerator door and ask plaintively, “Don’t we have any cheese?”

“I can’t see through steel, Dear, but if you’ll open the door we usually have seven kinds!”

He was well-known as a leader of mountain climbs, and as a minor pistol champion. A little more time and who knows what he could have done with IPSA?

Ah, Michael, thank you for bringing back good memories. We spent several years thirty clicks (about 18 miles) from a Soviet-occupied border. The mighty hero and company commander would wake me up and ask, “Where’s my hat?” I would open one eye, look at him sternly, and enquire, “Does Boris ask Natasha where his hat is?”

“Yes,” would come the sheepish reply.

“In that case, it’s on top of the refrigerator where you tossed it when you came in last night!” At about eleven. Company commanders left about five back during the “cold” war, were back by eleven lots of the time, and on good nights didn’t get called out at two a.m. to deal with drunks. We survived, we laughed…those were the days.

I miss you, John, but you would approve of my darling Charles. Thirty years in the navy and nearly twenty in Egypt, Kuwait, and Afghanistan, and he dotes on me.

I love getting comments, Michael, especially when I don’t have my facts straight, although I try my best. Thanks for writing.

Linda

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I think it’s been overlooked but the real tragedy in this story is how some people have the gall to prostitute the fine story of Mr. Freeman’s heroism and his passing away to attack the media. If you look, Mr. Freeman passed away on August 2008.

In previous versions of this email, 1)it cited that Mr. Freeman died the same day as Paul Newman (09/27/08), 2) corresponded with the Chris Brown beating of girfriend Rihanna (02/25/09) and now (WOULD YOU BELIEVE) 3) that his passing was ignored by the “liberal media” because he died the same day as Michael Jackson (06/25/09)!!!!!

Shame on anyone who would prostitute Mr. Freeman because they have an issue with the media. Do your part. Stop passing those ****** emails without checking the facts!!!!

The media need to be held to a spotlight — I agree. But don’t do it at the expense of trivializing the passing of this hero.

If you’d like to read more about Maj. Freeman, take a look at these links –

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Freeman

http://www.snopes.com/politics.....reeman.asp