OT..but something to think about!

Well said. Amen.

 

my dad was at normandy, i did my time in vietnam republic of. my son is now at camp stryker, bagdad. we never figured anyone owed us a thing for our service.we just thought it gave us the right to live here in the U.S.A. raise our familys, love our friends

 

Definatly a hero. MY dad and several unkle's served in Vietnam. Rest in peace and godspeed.

 

Thank you Thank you Ed ( RIP ) and thanks to all who serve and have served.
Thank you!!!!!!!

 

Thank you for sharing. May he rest in piece.

I encourage everyone to find and meet these veterans, thank them, and if they will, share in their stories. Fewer and fewer of these veterans are left with us each year, and the stories and experiences they shared may never have been recorded.

Remember, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Let us all learn from the actions and experiences of those who have been there and served.

Major Freeman, may your pilots wings become angels wings. Godspeed to you sir.

 

Nor can I... Your statement struck a tone with me, I want so much to look in the eye of these veterans and shake their hand and Thank them but I would become a snifling idiot.
So many times I want to walk up to a man or woman in service at an airport, shake their hand and thank them for taking care of all us.
I would not be able to get out a single utterance.
My gratitude is overwhelming.

Mr Freeman you are a true hero. Thank You!

 

that was a kick ass read , thanks for posting that oldmanolds.

 

GOD BLESS all our troops. Our troops are over worked, under paid, and we would be no where with out them.

 

I was at the store the other day, picking up a box of Count Chocula, minding my own business, wearing my Vietnam Veterans cap, when a guy, about 25 or 30, walked up to me and said, "Thank you for your service to our country." All I could say was, "Yer welcome" After I went to my truck to head home, I found myself sitting there with tears rolling down my face. First time in 41 years that anyone said anything like that to me. Made it all worth while, somehow.
All gave some....Some gave all. I gave some. Not a hero, just did what I could.
1st Battalion 1st Marines Delta Co. 67-68 RVN.

 

And Ed Freeman probably didn't feel he did anything extrordanary, just doing his job. And there's thousands more like him out there, never got any credit, never wanted any. My old man, went in the Army before WWII; got out, went to work, the war was breaking out, he went back in. He fought all over Europe, England, Belgium, Franch, Germany, and Northern Africa. He was in the Battle of the Bulge. After we beat the Germans he got shipped to Okinawa, the long way, through the Panama Canal and helped finish that one too. I didn't know most of this till after he died. There's thousands more, a hunting friend died last year, he was shot down in a bomber in WWII and suffered a broken back. I don't know where because he didn't talk about it much, he was 19 when he went down, suffered the rest of his life with back probs. I will shut off the T.V. when the Brittney/linsay/Brad shit starts, please don't waste my life with that shit. The guys that made all this possible should be on the news every night.
Thanks for the original post, very appropriate.

 

God's speed to a great man hero's are few in this life. Rick.

 

Excuse my french but fuckin a brother!

 

I watch three things before each deployment. Band of Brothers, Blackhawk Down, We Were Soldiers.

Two quick stories about this vet and being in airports coming to and from Iraq.

In 2006 when I was on my way home on leave. I was in ACUs in the Atlanta airport riding up the escalator to get on my connecting flight back home. As I crested the top there was a cheer and lots of applause. Me being the dumb fuck that I am turned around to see who they were cheering cause I don't know these people. I look around and I'm it no one was behind me. I was like WTF??? and then it hit me. It was for me. I started to tear up, I remembered stories from my dad and other NAM vets that I've served with back in the day who never got that welcome home. I'll tell you what. I make it my personal mission to tell every single Nam vet I meet "welcome home" and I met them everyday here on Ft Campbell and I never feel better when I get that smile and handshake. Wearing the Double Eagle: "101st Airborne combat patch" sure makes them smile when you say it too.


story two Nashville airport July 4 2008
I'm sitting at the terminal waiting on my flight. There are a few of us waiting on the bird to take us back to Atlanta so we can get back to the job. I get a tap on the shoulder so I turn to look. Behind me is a teenage girl about my daughter's age we chat for a bit and she hands me a folded piece of paper. It was a poem that she had just written. It was so heart felt it crushed me. I shit you not I was so moved by it that I pasted it around to all the other guys in ACUs. Funny to watch a bunch of hard charging combat vets tear up. It is now in my building collection of thing's that go on my hooch wall while deployed.

Oh and while I was reading this some dude with a guitar walks by us. Fuck it's Nashville and my head's not in tune with the world because of what I'm reading. As I'm passing the poem around I notice that dude is taking pictures with some of us GIs. I don't have a clue. So I wait for the boarding of the plane. Dude boards first with "first class"in a small commuter jet(what is the point?) so as I board the plane and head to my in the tail end seat there sits Toby Keith greeting every single one of us in uniform with a handshake and a thank you for serving.

Moral of the stories It doesn't matter who you are if you approach us we will be thankful and maybe uneasy with your thoughts and support. Nothing boost our moral more.


Oh and you need to give thanks to Teachers like Missy DeLozier aka Mrs BenD who's class sent my company letters of support when I was in Iraq 2005-2006. People like her are making sure the next generation of Americans will be alright.

 

Salute.

R.I.P.

 

You've earned more than that, much, much more.

 

Ed's story would make a helluva good movie.
It's hard to convey how much we all own the ones like him who have fought for us.
My Father in law and his 2 brothers where all in WW2. He was in the USAAF in the Pacific. one brother was a tanker in Africa and Italy and a third, Joe was a radioman on a B-17 in England. Joe had done his 25 bombing missions and was set to go home.
He was also a radar operator. They needed someone to be in one of the pathfinders B-17s with radar. He volunteered. It was Jan 1945. Late in the war. Not much Nazi fighter opposition by then. His group got seperated from the escort fighters. You can almost guess what happens next. His plane is shot down. He never made it home. He's buried in a cemetary in Belgium. Another one that made the ultimate sacrifice for all of us. God bless all of them.

 

WOW 4 tours! I hope he is still with us, I worked with a crusty old WO that did two tours with the AATTV, then backed it up with two tours with 6 RAR and SAS.
Can you tell us a little more about your father. please? I would like to know.
Doc.

 

ditto i'm sucker for Nam vet stories..My Pops 3/4 Cav 25th ID 67-68 nam Chu-Chi Iron Triangle.

 

Agreed!!!

Resisting to get O/T, but reading this made me want to post. My great-grandfather, to speed up his citizenship in the U.S., signed and entered the Army in WWI. IIRC 9th ID. Came back, and never demanded a thing, He did it to become an American, not the other way around like it seems nowadays. Then there's my grandfather, a Marine, in WWII fighting in Peleliu, Guam, Guadalcanal, and Okinawa, my dad in the Navy during Vietnam, me in 1990-91. My wife's family goes back all the way to the Revolutionary war. I'm extremely proud of them all. That's all I have.

 

Two quick stories,

First, while deploying to Iraq, I was medivaced in a Blackhawk to Kuwait City Hospital. No I wasn't shot or blown up by a IED, rather attacked by a bacteria. I had 105.8 fever for 3 days. They packed me in ice for those three days. That was cold, until they gave me the Valium, then I was cold, but a happy cold...

While at the hospital I saw a Marine who had just came in with a bunch of wounded Soldiers. What caught my eye was he was beat and I mean beat to the point of not being able to stand, but he did. Then I noticed he had a beat up M16A2. I hadn't seen one of those in 3-4 years. We (Army) all had M16A4's and M4's. Then I looked in his eyes and that is when I realized that although I was in the hell hole of the world, he had seen the devil. I will never forget the Marines (Soldiers, Sailer's and Airmen included) I met and have worked with. They are the best when you need to get a job done, no questions asked. Period.

 

Amen to all the front line soldiers. I have nothing for respect for all the ground pounders out there past and present. If I run into any of you at a show beers on me.

 

What a shame. A true hero has succumbed to the inevitable. God rest his soul, he deserves it.

We were soldiers...fantastic movie! The scene where Mel Gibson sets his foot on the ground first, and is the last one to take his foot of the ground brings tears to my eyes every time.

I was lucky enough to walk the Korea and Vietnam memorial while in DC. As we were walking toward it I could feel the hair on the back of my neck standing up. I didn't make it past the first slab of granite before there were tears running down my cheeks. I don't know anyone that fought or died there, but as a former Marine I felt like I knew all of them.

I was in Harrisburg, PA one year on a job. It just happened to be the weekend of Veterans day. As I was walking through downtown there was a Huey sitting by the capital building and it was surrounded by Nam vets. There were probably 15-20 of them sitting on the flower bed wall talking. I took off my sunglasses and shook every man's hand and thanked them for serving while looking them straight in the eyes. All of them started to get red eyed. One of them showed me a bumper sticker of an M1 carbine and said "That was my Woodstock in 69." I lost it at that point, and so did several others. I sat there and talked to most of them for a while longer and offered to buy them lunch, but none of them would accept.

My hat's off to all the men and women who didn't ask why, instead they DID.

 

great post,thanks for that info. I agree with you 100% about the media too. I had my own brush with greatness on Monday morning here in South Philly. I was at a little mom and pop breakfast place and a little old guy with one leg sits next to me. I strike up a conversation and find out the guy is "Wild Bill Guarnere". If any hambers have seen the miniseries "band of brothers" he's the tough guy that had his leg blown off at Bastogne while trying to same Joe Toye, who'd also had his leg blown off . The sight of both of them lying in the snow covered with blood is really intense. 65 years later I'm having coffee with the guy.

 

I was just surfing across the military.com website and came across this. You have to see the video regarding several interviews with Medal of Honor winners.

http://shock.military.com/Shock/videos.do?displayContent=187582&page=6

 

I feel the same way. I see what's happening in this country and it breaks my heart. We are damn fortunate the Greatest Generation lived when they did. Any one that has made the ultimate sacrifice.
I worry how it will be when my girls grow up. What will it be like for them and everyone else's children.
I grew up in the 50's and 60's. I remember the way things were. I know a lot of others on here do too. God help all of us.

 

Thank God for people like him and all of our Heros. I have 2 uncles that were in Vietnam, and 3 cousins, a sisiter in law, and several friends that have gone to Iraq. Two of my wifes great uncles were part of the Frozen Chosin in Korea, and her Grandfather was a Marine in WWII. I am not afraid to tell you that I get a tear in my eye thinking of these people and the sacrafice they have given for me. May God bless them all and keep them close.

 

Oldmanolds--thanks for posting. It IS a shame that the media never reported this. It was mentioned that some guys have a hard time viewing The Wall and I am one of them. I did visit the memorial in D.C. and traced some of my buddies names ( it wasn't easy) and have them on my garage wall and think about each and every one of them each time I go out there. (actually more often than that) A fellow Nam vet I know was a Huey pilot and has some good stories,links and pictures on this site http://www.frontiernet.net/~flewhuey/index.html

 

The media is in it for the money. It's a business. They sell more ads by giving the people what they ask for. It is unfortunate.