When The Med-a-vac comes
 

After all the smoke has cleared and the guns have gone silent, a White cross on the side of a Huey shows up. The medic has stopped or slowed the bleeding of your friend who was in the wrong place. We never carried stretchers so a poncho was used. The guy at the head would go inside the huey and drag the poncho into the huey and then step out the other side. The Chopper could take 8 GIs. 8 guys that would be taken to a medical hospital in some base camp somewhere. Medivac??????? Sounds nice, But had a very different meaning to a infantry guy, You didn't want to ride a medivac. at all, ever, in Vietnam.
I can't remember any Medivac unit or medivac crew, although I would see them many times. I just blocked them out. The chopper would land and the guy would say, bring me the wounded, and off they would go, Your friends, Never to be seen or heard from again.
When the Med-a-vac comes. Step back.

Ron

I agree, Ron. Never seemed to know what happened to guys. "Where`s Hodges?" "Don`t know..Long Bihn, I guess??" "How `bout Tito???" "Don`t know. Heard they took him to a burn center in Japan??? Who Knows?" I hated that. Coulda been me, I guess.

Could have been you for sure Griz. Welcome Home Brother

Same to ya, Lt.

Speaking of meddevac's I just heard about this: (Rest in Peace My Brother)

Ed Freeman

You're an 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam . Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac 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 1/2 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, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.
Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs 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 2 or 3 of you on board. Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses.
And, he kept coming back.... 13 more times..... And took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.

Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman, died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise , ID . . . May God rest his soul!

I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing, but we sure were told a whole bunch about some Hip-Hop coward beating the crap out of his "girlfriend.”

Medal of Honor Winner
Ed Freeman!
Shame on the American Media

Medevac
 

I rode a lot of MEDEVAC's for the 1st Cav. C/E door gunner and we didn't know where anyone were sent to after they disembarked our birds. saw a lot of grunts, can't say I remember any of their smiling faces either.

Jimferg
 

Doc Fred was with 15th Med and I was 2/8th. Welcome aboard 1st Cav Brother. Thanks for all the support! You guys saved our lives. Where do you live near "The burg"? I have a buddy who was on 2 Super Bowl Steeler teams. IX and X.

Pack

Hey Jimferg, Good to have you aboard. As my title says, I was with Charlie Company 15th Med as a 91P x-ray tech. When were you with Medevac? Are you a member of the 15th Med Association. It was started by the Medevac crews and many are members.

http://www.15thmedassociation.com/index.html

Gentlemen, i apologize for being away for so long. I usaully check the site when I am giving a Pre-alg test. Schools back in, so is testing.

I was an original charter member of 15th Med. Batt. Assoc. Sherman Breeden started it back in 98 or 99. The first reunion was held at his house, and yes I was there. Smitty(Mike Smith from Idaho along with Dave Parks) were also instimental in its inception. I flew with MEDEVAC from May 70 -April 71.

Packo, I cheered those teams on.

A lot of our evacs were made in heavy bush and they used jungle penetrators or rigid litters they would winch up. Penetrators had little seats and they were for less seriously wounded.

I rode a litter up. The ship took some hits, but kept flying.
1st stop Hon Quon medivac for stabilization, then to 3rd field Hospital, Saigon.

My experience, anyway.