CAN YOU HELP?

By Ed Cooney

Just last Thursday morning, one of my readers sent me a piece that’s obviously been traveling around the internet for some time concerning U. S. Army Captain Ed Freeman’s extraordinary rescue mission during the battle of the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam. It all took place on September 14, 1965.

On that bright Vietnamese morning, Captain Freeman had flown several troops into the Ia Drang Valley to confront enemy forces known to be in the area. Soon the enemy fire became so intense that not even Medevac helicopters were permitted to fly in supplies. Hence, “Too Tall” Ed Freeman came to the rescue. Armed with a sense of duty or perhaps personal obligation—take your pick—as a substitute for orders, Captain Ed flew fourteen missions bringing in needed water and ammunition and carrying out some thirty gravely wounded soldiers. His unarmed helicopter, you can be sure, took many, many hits. Captain Ed took four bullets in the legs and arm.

In March of 2001, President George W. Bush would justly honor Captain Ed Freeman in the East Room of the White House. However, if he was honored primarily for courage, as the citation reads, Captain Freeman was honored for the wrong reason. Sure, there was a strong element of courage in his deed, but, as I see it, courage and even bravery are but secondary motives behind incredible deeds.

What, you ask, is courage? My favorite definition for courage is John F. Kennedy’s definition as offered in his “Profiles in Courage.” JFK defined courage as “grace under pressure.”

“Ah, then,” you may well ask, “what is grace?”

As you might guess, there are several definitions. The first two have to do with physical movement, charm and beauty. However, grace is most compellingly described as one of the most admirable human attributes.

Grace can be defined as “a sense of fitness or propriety, a disposition to be generous or helpful, a sense of good will,” and, most compellingly of all, “a favor rendered by someone who need not do so.”

All of the above certainly described Captain Freeman. So what lies at the root of Ed Freeman’s courage?

The late, great Edward R. Murrow (one of my heroes) used to assert that courage is a “cheap commodity in wartime.” As an example of what he meant, Murrow often emphasized how courteous the British people were to one another during air raids. “People,” he observed, “who still remember to thank you for asking them to do you a favor, even under the bombs, aren’t greatly afraid.”

My difficulty with the piece this lady sent me lies not with Captain Freeman as a man of courage; he was certainly that and more. It seems to me that military types assign “courage” as the greatest human attribute when courage is only a facet of what is really our highest attribute.

Next to military heroes, probably the group of people most often assigned badges of courage are the terminally ill and the permanently disabled. Yet these are often the people with whom many able-bodied individuals avoid association. Countless times, I – and others – have been labeled “courageous” by observers just because we dare to cross the street aided by only a white cane. Yet, many of our admirers consciously, socially, professionally, and most certainly romantically separate themselves from us.
I, too, have avoided contact with other disabled persons and the terminally ill out of a set of my own fears. Like those who would award high honors to the brave men and women who defend America, I know that the terminally ill and disabled I occasionally avoid are courageous -- and yet I avoid them.

On September 14, 1965, Captain Freeman obviously did not avoid the very vulnerable. That he was courageous, there isn’t the slightest doubt. However, I insist that courage was only a small factor of the deed he performed that day.

That’s where I need your help. Eliminating courage and patriotism as satisfactory answers to my inquiry, what would you ascribe as lying at the root of Captain Freeman’s valor? What energized Ed Freeman’s courage and bravery?

As I asserted above, military types along with social and political conservatives insist on celebrating Captain Freeman’s admirable virtue -- courage -- but his courage is really only secondary. A mother who goes into a fire to rescue her baby is only secondarily courageous. A disabled college student who attends school doesn’t do so because he or she is brave or courageous. So, I insist that Captain Ed W. Freeman was far more than merely courageous on Tuesday, September 14, 1965.

If we as a people celebrate only our secondarily most powerful or significant human traits, how can we ever expect to live righteous, prosperous, peaceful, and secure lives in this uncertain world?

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY