Our Real Superheroes

The top-grossing movie worldwide today is 'Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'. Dr. Strange is a Marvel Comics Superhero in the same vein as Superman, Wolverine, Spiderman, Ironman and the like. These fictional characters are otherwise regular human beings that through some odd scientific experiment or genetic mutation develop super human powers that can then be used to save humankind and make sure that good prevails over evil. As cool as they are, they’re all fantasies of our imagination. I’d like to introduce you to a real one. This is his true story.

Imagine you’re a 19-year-old kid. You’re critically wounded and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, November 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 Medi-Vac helicopters to stop coming in.

You’re laying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you’re not getting out alive. 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 you’ll die.

Then, over the deafening machine gun noise, you faintly hear the familiar 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. A soldier 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.

He drops the Huey in the firefight 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 have never gotten out alive otherwise.

This is the story of a real life Superhero. His name is Ed Freeman. He used his super human powers of love, courage and compassion for his fellow man to save their lives even while putting his at risk. Today, Monday May 30, 2022, is Memorial Day. It is a day to honor and celebrate our fallen soldiers that have served this great nation, The United States of America.

Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman, died on Wednesday March 25th, 2009 at the age of 80 in Boise, ID. Thank you Ed and all of the men and women of our armed forces that have given your lives so that ours remain free. You’re our real Superheroes.

Believe...