HIGH FIVE THURSDAY

ED W. FREEMAN

Captain, U.S. Army Company A, 229th Assault 

Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry 

Division (Airmobile)

By the time the Korean War broke out, Ed Freeman 

was a master sergeant in the Army Engineers, but he 

fought in Korea as an infantryman.

He took part in the bloody battle of Pork Chop Hill and 

was given a battlefield commission, which had the added 

advantage of making him eligible to fly, a dream of his since 

childhood. But flight school turned him down because of 

his height: At six foot four, he was “too tall” (a nickname 

that followed him throughout his military career). In 1955, 

however, the height limit was raised, and Freeman was 

able to enroll.

He began flying fixed-wing aircraft, then switched to 

helicopters. By 1965, when he was sent to Vietnam, he had 

thousands of hours’ flying time in choppers. He was assigned

 to the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), second in command 

of a sixteen-helicopter unit responsible for carrying infantrymen

 into battle. On November 14, 1965, Freeman’s helicopters 

carried a battalion into the Ia Drang Valley for what became 

the first major confrontation between large forces of the 

American and North Vietnamese armies.

Back at base, Freeman and the other pilots received word 

that the GIs they had dropped off were taking heavy casualties 

and running low on supplies. In fact, the fighting was so fierce 

that medevac helicopters refused to pick up the wounded. 

When the commander of the helicopter unit asked for 

volunteers to fly into the battle zone, Freeman alone stepped 

forward. He was joined by his commander, and the two of them 

began several hours of flights into the contested area. Because 

their small emergency-landing zone was just one hundred 

yards away from the heaviest fighting, their unarmed and 

lightly armored helicopters took several hits.

In all, Freeman carried out fourteen separate rescue missions,

 bringing in water and ammunition to the besieged soldiers and 

taking back dozens of wounded, some of whom wouldn’t have 

survived if they hadn’t been evacuated.

Freeman left Vietnam in 1966 and retired from the Army the 

following year. He flew helicopters another twenty years for 

the Department of the Interior, herding wild horses, fighting

fires, and performing animal censuses. Then he retired altogether.

In the aftermath of the Ia Drang battle, his commanding 

officer, wanting to recognize Freeman’s valor, proposed him 

for the Medal of Honor. But the two-year statute of limitations

on these kinds of recommendations had passed, and no action

 was taken. Congress did away with that statute in 1995, and 

Freeman was finally awarded the medal by President George 

W. Bush on July 16, 2001.

Freeman was back at the White House a few months later for

 the premiere of We Were Soldiers, a 2002 feature film that 

depicted his role in the Ia Drang battle. As he was filing out of 

the small White House theater, the president approached him, 

saluted, and shook his hand. “Good job, Too Tall,” he said.

Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Ed Freeman of 

Boise died Wednesday morning 20 Aug 2008, according 

to a friend of the Freeman family. He was 80 years old.