Paying tribute to a decorated war hero

I have no idea where this originated, and for that, I apologize for not giving credit to the original author.
However, when this made it’s way into my e-mail inbox this week, I felt it more than appropriate to run in my column space, after verifying it’s accuracy.
I hope you enjoy it.
“Courage.
 You're a 19-year-old kid.
You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Vietnam .
It's Nov. 11, 1967.  
Your unit is  outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 yards away, 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.
Capt. 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 three 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 (in August, 2008) at the age of 70, in Boise, Idaho.
May God Bless and Rest His Soul.”
Gregory Orear is the General Manager/Editor of the Red Oak Express. He can be reached at publisher@redoakexpress.com.