View Full Version : Major Ed Too Tall Freeman
CPTAUSRET
08-21-2008, 09:00
We just lost a good man!
Blue Skies!
Rest In Peace!
http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/ktvbn-aug2008-freeman.179363f0.html
JumpinJoe1010
08-21-2008, 09:03
Rest In Peace sir.
You will not be forgotten.
Rest in Peace
and Thanks for your service
RIP
From an old Gary Owen Trooper, 2/7th Cav
CAVU, Major. Rest in Peace.
Pat
ZonieDiver
08-21-2008, 09:32
RIP - a true hero.
greenberetTFS
08-21-2008, 09:35
RIP.....
RIP.
Here are some good info links on his actions.
CMOH Society
http://www.cmohs.org/recipients/freeman.htm
President GW Bush's remarks at the ceremony in The White House.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/07/20010716-1.html
Richard
Rest easy, and enjoy the trade up on your set of "wings".
Goggles Pizano
08-21-2008, 10:22
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, Amen.
In pace requiescat Sir.
Rest in Peace Sir. You will never be forgotten.....
The Reaper
08-21-2008, 12:25
RIP, Too Tall.
Thank you for your service.
TR
Red Flag 1
08-21-2008, 12:31
Rest In Peace Major Freeman! Thank you for your service and dedication!
RIP and thank you for your service
Just finished watching "We Were Soldiers" yet again. Y'all did good 'Too Tall'...now enjoy that well earned nap and remember, "Custer was a pussy!"
Garry Owen.
Richard
RIP. It was my honor to meet you in Stuttgart in 2002 at the Army Ball.
Ambush Master
08-21-2008, 20:39
Thoughts and Prayers Out!!
Enigma0122
08-22-2008, 11:24
RIP, Thank you for your service.
Trip_Wire (RIP)
08-22-2008, 13:15
Farewell to an American Hero
By Joseph L. Galloway
McClatchy Newspapers
For the better part of 60 years, two old Army pilots who loved each other argued over many a meal and drink as to which of them was the second best pilot in the world.
The two shared the cockpits of old Beaver prop planes and Huey helicopters; they shared rooms in military hooches all over the world; they shared a love of practical and impractical jokes and they shared an undying love of flying and soldiers and the Army.
They also shared membership in a very small and revered fraternity of fewer than 105 men who are entitled to wear around their necks the light blue ribbon and gold pointed star that is the Medal of Honor, America’s highest decoration for heroism above and beyond the call of duty.
Their story was told in a book my buddy Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and I wrote 15 years ago titled "We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young" and in the Mel Gibson movie, "We Were Soldiers," released in the spring of 2002. Too Tall and Old Snake were ably portrayed in the movie.
Their argument over which of them is the Best Pilot in the Whole World sadly came to an end this week when our friend and comrade-in-arms Maj. Ed (Too Tall to Fly) Freeman slipped the surly bonds of earth and headed off to Fiddler’s Green, where the souls of departed cavalrymen gather by dispensation of God Himself.
Too Tall Ed was 80 years old when he died in a hospital in Boise, Idaho, after long being ill with Parkinson’s disease. He turned down a full dress hero’s funeral in Arlington National Cemetery in favor of a hometown service and burial in the National Cemetery in Boise, close to the rivers he loved to fish and the mountains he flew through in his second career flying for the U.S. Forest Service.
A few days before the end, his old buddy Lt. Col. Bruce (Ancient Serpent 6) Crandall came to the hospital to say his goodbyes to Too Tall Ed, and to enjoy one last round of arguing with Ed over that question of which of them was the best pilot in the world.
In a fine display of the sort of gallows humor that's always helped men who know the horrors of war keep some of their sanity, Bruce told Ed that he intended to settle the question once and for all by borrowing a helicopter, sling-loading Ed’s coffin below it and then lowering it into the grave where Too Tall will rest _ something that only the Best Pilot in the World could do. Something that only the best friend in the world could tell a dying man.
These two men received their Medals of Honor long after the deeds that earned them in the furious battles of the Ia Drang Valley in November of 1965 at the dawn of our long, bitter war in Vietnam. President George W. Bush presented Too Tall Ed with his medal in 2001 and hung the medal around Old Snake Crandall’s neck in 2007.
When their friends in the 1st Battalion, 7th U.S. Cavalry were surrounded and fighting for their lives near the Cambodian border and needed ammunition and water and helicopters to carry out the gravely wounded, Bruce and Ed flew their Huey helicopters, again and again, into a small clearing swept by North Vietnamese machine gun and rifle fire.
I rode into Landing Zone X-Ray sitting atop a case of hand grenades on one of Bruce Crandall’s missions after dark on November 14, 1965, wondering if one of those bullets might turn us all into a puff of greasy smoke. I rode out of X-Ray after the battle ended on November 16, again on Bruce’s helicopter.
In later years, he and Ed and I would joke about the love-hate relationship that I and the infantrymen had with the chopper pilots: Hated them for flying us into Hell and dumping us off; loved them for coming back to get us when it was time to leave.
Mostly we laughed ourselves silly as first Ed, then Bruce recounted tales of one escapade after another; of moonlight requisition raids against the U.S. Air Force for needed or merely desired goodies unavailable from the Army supply chain; of the time Bruce was caught trying to sling-load a 10 kilowatt generator off its pad on an airbase.
Now Too Tall Ed Freeman, a much larger than life-size hero at 6 feet 7 inches tall and a much better friend than we deserved, is gone, and we are left with too large a hole in our hearts and in our dwindling ranks.
Cleared for Takeoff, Ed!
(RIP Warrior — Gary Owen — 1st Team.)
CPTAUSRET
08-23-2008, 08:13
Trip Wire:
Joe G. is an old friend, and that is a nice tribute!
greenberetTFS
08-23-2008, 11:14
Born and raised in Mississippi...:) God bless and rest in peace....True warrior.
NousDefionsDoc
08-24-2008, 16:49
Rest In Peace
ZonieDiver
08-24-2008, 21:18
Farewell to an American Hero
By Joseph L. Galloway
McClatchy Newspapers
For the better part of 60 years, two old Army pilots who loved each other argued over many a meal and drink as to which of them was the second best pilot in the world.
The two shared the cockpits of old Beaver prop planes and Huey helicopters; they shared rooms in military hooches all over the world; they shared a love of practical and impractical jokes and they shared an undying love of flying and soldiers and the Army.
They also shared membership in a very small and revered fraternity of fewer than 105 men who are entitled to wear around their necks the light blue ribbon and gold pointed star that is the Medal of Honor, America’s highest decoration for heroism above and beyond the call of duty.
Their story was told in a book my buddy Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and I wrote 15 years ago titled "We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young" and in the Mel Gibson movie, "We Were Soldiers," released in the spring of 2002. Too Tall and Old Snake were ably portrayed in the movie.
Their argument over which of them is the Best Pilot in the Whole World sadly came to an end this week when our friend and comrade-in-arms Maj. Ed (Too Tall to Fly) Freeman slipped the surly bonds of earth and headed off to Fiddler’s Green, where the souls of departed cavalrymen gather by dispensation of God Himself.
Too Tall Ed was 80 years old when he died in a hospital in Boise, Idaho, after long being ill with Parkinson’s disease. He turned down a full dress hero’s funeral in Arlington National Cemetery in favor of a hometown service and burial in the National Cemetery in Boise, close to the rivers he loved to fish and the mountains he flew through in his second career flying for the U.S. Forest Service.
A few days before the end, his old buddy Lt. Col. Bruce (Ancient Serpent 6) Crandall came to the hospital to say his goodbyes to Too Tall Ed, and to enjoy one last round of arguing with Ed over that question of which of them was the best pilot in the world.
In a fine display of the sort of gallows humor that's always helped men who know the horrors of war keep some of their sanity, Bruce told Ed that he intended to settle the question once and for all by borrowing a helicopter, sling-loading Ed’s coffin below it and then lowering it into the grave where Too Tall will rest _ something that only the Best Pilot in the World could do. Something that only the best friend in the world could tell a dying man.
These two men received their Medals of Honor long after the deeds that earned them in the furious battles of the Ia Drang Valley in November of 1965 at the dawn of our long, bitter war in Vietnam. President George W. Bush presented Too Tall Ed with his medal in 2001 and hung the medal around Old Snake Crandall’s neck in 2007.
When their friends in the 1st Battalion, 7th U.S. Cavalry were surrounded and fighting for their lives near the Cambodian border and needed ammunition and water and helicopters to carry out the gravely wounded, Bruce and Ed flew their Huey helicopters, again and again, into a small clearing swept by North Vietnamese machine gun and rifle fire.
I rode into Landing Zone X-Ray sitting atop a case of hand grenades on one of Bruce Crandall’s missions after dark on November 14, 1965, wondering if one of those bullets might turn us all into a puff of greasy smoke. I rode out of X-Ray after the battle ended on November 16, again on Bruce’s helicopter.
In later years, he and Ed and I would joke about the love-hate relationship that I and the infantrymen had with the chopper pilots: Hated them for flying us into Hell and dumping us off; loved them for coming back to get us when it was time to leave.
Mostly we laughed ourselves silly as first Ed, then Bruce recounted tales of one escapade after another; of moonlight requisition raids against the U.S. Air Force for needed or merely desired goodies unavailable from the Army supply chain; of the time Bruce was caught trying to sling-load a 10 kilowatt generator off its pad on an airbase.
Now Too Tall Ed Freeman, a much larger than life-size hero at 6 feet 7 inches tall and a much better friend than we deserved, is gone, and we are left with too large a hole in our hearts and in our dwindling ranks.
Cleared for Takeoff, Ed!
(RIP Warrior — Gary Owen — 1st Team.)
Joe Galloway is a "throwback" to a very different era of journalism. When we discuss the war in Viet Nam, I make sure to show my students most of that movie, despite what my admin says. Freeman and Crandall are only two of many "chopper jockeys" who saved untold thousands of lives in those days. One of the best things the US Army ever did was decide to give young men control of a helicopter!
Stedfast
06-15-2009, 12:57
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 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 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 [August 20, 2008] at the age of 80, in Boise , ID. May God rest his soul. Ed Freeman!
Enigma0122
06-15-2009, 13:06
God bless you. Rest in Peace Warrior. A thank you, for what you have done, is simply not enough.
greenberetTFS
06-16-2009, 14:36
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 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 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 [August 20, 2008] at the age of 80, in Boise , ID. May God rest his soul. Ed Freeman!
Stedfast,
That's one of the finest posts I've read on this forum........ :lifter Well done Warrior Freeman....... :D He wasn't wearing a Green Beret but he certainly reflected what it's all about........;) God bless men like that...............
GB TFS :munchin
The Reaper
06-16-2009, 14:57
Stedfast,
That's one of the finest posts I've read on this forum........ :lifter Well done Warrior Freeman....... :D He wasn't wearing a Green Beret but he certainly reflected what it's all about........;) God bless men like that...............
GB TFS :munchin
I do not believe that he wrote that, though there is no attribution.
It sounds like something Joe Galloway would have written, and is a great epitaph.
RIP, Major!
TR
Geat post steadfast
-Lest we forget
Stedfast
06-23-2009, 19:19
I do not believe that he wrote that, though there is no attribution.
It sounds like something Joe Galloway would have written, and is a great epitaph.
RIP, Major!
TR
No, I did not write it, I recieved it from a retired Army First Sergeant, who happens to be an English Teacher now. But, I am not sure he wrote it either. So maybe Joe Galloway did. ;)
You left off the rest of the e-mail which continued to circulate long after Too Tall's death.
bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing, but we sure were told whole bunch about some Hip-Hop Coward beating his "girlfriend"
Medal of Honor Winner
Ed Freeman!
Shame on the American Media
http://www.2news.tv/younews/44198482.html
Too Tall's obit was published and did make the news - I even saw it on CBS. Although I think the 'meat' of the e-mail is a worthy reminder to us all of the sacrifices of Americans like Too Tall, I do get tired of the e-politicizing.
Richard's $.02 :munchin
Golf1echo
03-09-2011, 08:57
Something sent to me by one of the C-130 pilots that took part in the Iranian Hostage Rescue attempt
You're a 19 year old kid.
You're critically wounded and dying in
the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam .
It's November 11, 1967.
LZ (landing zone) X-ray.
Your unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense from 100 yards away, that your CO (commanding officer) 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 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.
You look up to see a Huey coming in. But.. It doesn't seem real because no MedEvac markings are on it.
Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you.
He's not MedEvac so it's not his job, but he heard the radio call and decided he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway.
Even after the MedEvacs 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 3 of you at a time on board.
Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses and safety.
And, he kept coming back!! 13 more times!!
Until all the wounded were out. No one knew until the mission was over that the Captain had been hit 4 times in the legs and left arm.
He took 29 of you and your buddies out that day. Some would not have made it without the Captain and his Huey.
Medal of Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman, United States Air Force, died last Wednesday at the age of 70, in Boise , Idaho
May God Bless and Rest His Soul.
Re: Post #38
Do you read anything before posting?
Have you read Post #31?
And in Post#38, how did this not catch your attention? :confused:
Medal of Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman, United States Air Force, died last Wednesday at the age of 70, in Boise , Idaho
I think you should read more and refrain from posting until your reading comprehension improves.
Richard :munchin
Golf1echo
03-09-2011, 09:14
Richard my apologies I missed post #31, point taken.