Memorial Day 2025

I ran across this article in several places. I have heard of this before and decided it would be appropriate to post on Memorial Day.

 

World War I Memorial, Gallipolis, Ohio

 

"You're a 19 year old kid.

You are critically wounded and dying in the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam .

Its November 14, 1965 . 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.

Korean War Memorial, Washington, DC

                                                      

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.

World War II Memorial, Washington, DC

 

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 Army, died at the age of 81, in Boise, Idaho.

God bless our vets."

I don't know exactly whom to credit for this, I found it in a reprint from Stars and Stripes, Face Book, Wikipedia, and several other places. 

Thanks and kudos to the originator.

So, there are 29 whose names you will not find on The Wall or any other memorial thanks to the bravery of Ed Freeman and his crew. 

More than one million have died defending our country or our allies and this is the day we honor them.

And here is a reminder:

Armed Forces Day, the third Saturday of May and it honors those serving.

Memorial Day, Last Monday in May and it honors those that died while serving.

Veterans Day, November 11 and it honors those who served.It is said that they "hung up their uniforms."

 

So, as I always end these posts, I will ask you to enjoy the weekend/holiday but take just a moment to recall exactly why we carve out this time every year .

 

Vietnam Memorial, Washington, DC

     

Next time, on the 1st of June, we will venture, again, to Nebraska to honor some different heroes and to honor a few of the fallen, so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Montana VIII

 

Some years back, I happened upon a roadside memorial in Dillon, Montana with quite a remarkable story. Take a couple of minutes and check it out here and here.

Today, as I have been doing lately, I want to put a few more faces with names. I have been calling this subset of posts "Faces of Remembrance " and you can find examples throughout these pages, some lost and some not. So honor these from Montana with me today.

I note that this is the same hero honored in Bedford, PA. You can see that post elsewhere on this site.

I did a search of VVMF's Wall of Faces and, happily, found none of these names and while there are still a few pictures missing from the Wall Of Faces, I choose to believe that these men made it home.

Next time, on the 26th of May, Memorial Day this year, we will honor all of the fallen, so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Mississippi X

Mississippi was the state that started it all. I tell some of that story here if you care to take a look at the earliest posts on A Means To Heal.

While visiting I noticed that there were a number of names listed without actual photos, so now all these years later, I decides to see if any of those photos had been found through the efforts of the VVMF's efforts to put a face to every name. According to WLOX there are still 65 photos missing from the memorial. This seems high to me so i will post any new info if I run across it.

This project, originally intended to present a picture of every face at the (now defunct) Education Center at The Wall in DC.

 

 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, when I took these photos I was not thinking about posting individual faces, so I did not properly record the names. If you know these men, please let me know and I will gladly update. 

These faces and most of the 669 lost from Mississippi can be found at the Ocean Springs Memorial, about 10 miles East of Biloxi, Mississippi on Rte 90. Watch for it on the right as you head East.

Next time, on the the of May 21, we will venture, again, to  Montana to honor a few of the fallen, so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Next time, on the 21st of May, we will venture, again, to Montana to honor a few of the fallen, so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Minnesota X

In a past post I told the story of asking for directions in South Dakota and ended up in Minnesota, I recount that story here if you would care to check it out.

Among the other features of the Jasper Cemetery are, of course, names and here are a few of them today.

I was unsure if these names were of the lost or among the millions that served due to the way they were listed at the site.. I went to The Wall of Faces ( https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/ ) and determined that these, blessedly, are among those that served. One of them is the husband of the nice woman who took me to this site.

Next time, on the 16th of May, we will venture, again, to Mississippi to honor a few of the fallen, so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Michigan XVII

I return to Michigan to honor a couple more of those lost in our efforts in 'Nam. These three were among those listed at a memorial I chanced upon in Macomb County. 

You can see the original posts here and here.

It saddens me to say that this is the only picture VVMFs Wall of Faces seems to have. It will have to do, I suppose, but it in no way diminishes his sacrifice, service or heroism.

 

These are but three honored here. I will post others in the not too distant future.

These are all located in Freedom Hill County Park, along 16 Mile Road in Macomb County, Michigan.

Next time, on the 11th of May, we will venture, again, to Minnesota to honor a few of the fallen, so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.

Massachusetts XXXVII

I have written about the memorial i found in Charlestown, Massachusetts before, you can find those posts here and here.

As The Wall of Faces project progressed, more and, more actual photographs of the faces of the names on The Wall became available. This, of course, was the point.

The brick and mortar Education Center at The Wall was never completed but the on-line Wall of Faces isn available and I have referenced here a number of times. ( THE WALL OF FACES - Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund)

I got thinking about the fact that in the second of my posts from the site in Charlestown that I had used the images on the memorial as the base for my Faces of Remembrance post about these lost heroes. I decided that they should be properly honored by using their actual photos.

The following are the six men from Charlestown who faces are represented non their memorial.

Edward Lee Johnson

Lawrence Thomas Borden

William James McNamara

These photos were all taken directly from the official portraits at VVMF and have been lightly processed by me. The quality of the available pictures varies greatly as is obvious here. Never the less, I will use photos at every opportunity to honor our lost brothers and sisters.

Next time, on the 6th of May, we will venture, again, to  Michigan to honor a few of the fallen, so, join me, as always, at 9:00 am.

If you are following along at all, you will have seen that a number of you, like Joan from Wisconsin, Tony from Texas, Mike from Maryland, Ron from Florida, Tim from Virginia, Molly from Florida, Colleen from Pennsylvania, Elli from Maryland, and Peg and Ray from Florida, among others, have responded to my request to send me memorials you have seen in your area or where you may have traveled. I even got one from Ireland! These submissions help expand the knowledge of how we have remembered the men and women who served and/or were lost in 'Nam and you help to honor them. If you have any such photos, I would love to see them. Please send them along to the email at the left and I will gladly share them here.

I hope all those listed here will encourage you to send along photos.