National Hero Day - October 8th

Here is a Canadian Hero, Terry Fox. Imagine a young guy, who had lost a leg to bone cancer, hopping 26 miles a day, for 146 days, to raise awareness about Cancer ? From the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, on one good leg, and one artificial leg ? Yes. Unfortunately Terry's cancer came back, but this time in his lungs, and he was forced to stop his Marathon Of Hope at Thunder Bay, Ontario. He died at home in B.C. surrounded by his family and his many friends. Here is the Terry Fox story.

link. Let's fight cancer together- Terry Fox Foundation If anyone deserves to be called a Hero, he does. JImB.
 

To quote the title of a book written by Christopher Harvie, there are "No gods and precious few heroes". I recall the radio DJ and presenter John Peel once saying that these days "anyone who could hold their instrument the right way round, was hailed as a musical genius".
This was very much reflected in the vastly overused term, "Hero" during the Covid pandemic to describe almost anyone doing the job they were paid to do. These were no Terry Fox or Sir Tom Moore. I do not in any way want to belittle the great job that people did, but let's not devalue the term "Hero" and reserve it for those who truly deserve it.
 
Simple for me.
On November 14, 1965 Captain Ed W. "Too Tall" Freeman risked his own life by flying his unarmed helicopter through a gauntlet of enemy fire at Landing Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley time after time, delivering critically needed ammunition, water and medical supplies to the besieged battalion. His flights had a direct impact on the battle's outcome by providing the engaged units with timely supplies of ammunition critical to their survival, without which they would almost surely have gone down, with much greater loss of life. After medical evacuation helicopters refused to fly into the area due to intense enemy fire, Captain Freeman flew 14 separate rescue missions, providing life-saving evacuation of an estimated 30 seriously wounded soldiers – some of whom would not have survived had he not acted. All flights were made into a small emergency landing zone within 100 to 200 meters of the defensive perimeter where heavily committed units were perilously holding off the attacking elements.

Ed Freeman.jpg military-salute.gif
 


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