Whatever was wrong with your day, this will fix it.

Major Ed Freeman was real, and he was an honest to Betsy war hero. He was a veteran of WWII as well as Korea and Vietnam, things we don't even qualify with the words Conflict or War anymore when we mention them casually.

He died on August 29th of last year.

He was eighty.

According to Snopes.com and other easily accessible internet sources, his Medal of Honor citation reads as follows:

Captain Ed W. Freeman, United States Army, distinguished himself by numerous acts of conspicuous gallantry and extraordinary intrepidity on 14 November 1965 while serving with Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile).

As a flight leader and second in command of a 16-helicopter lift unit, he supported a heavily engaged American infantry battalion at Landing Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley, Republic of Vietnam. The unit was almost out of ammunition after taking some of the heaviest casualties of the war, fighting off a relentless attack from a highly motivated, heavily armed enemy force.

When the infantry commander closed the helicopter landing zone due to intense direct enemy fire, Captain Freeman risked his own life by flying his unarmed helicopter through a gauntlet of enemy fire 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. Captain Freeman's selfless acts of great valor, extraordinary perseverance and intrepidity were far above and beyond the call of duty or mission and set a superb example of leadership and courage for all of his peers.

Captain Freeman's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.

Ed Freeman lived, and was real, and saved uncountable human lives. Some of the things he did to save those American soldiers may very well have resulted in the deaths of other human beings, because among the supplies he airlifted were cases of ammo for those engaged.

This fact does not lessen or qualify his heroism. But in an honest assessment, it must be acknowledged.

None of this is meant to denigrate the contributions and sacrifices of Mr. Jackson (I wonder how many lives he saved? And the media spotlight he endured almost certainly cost him his own.), but to make a simple point.

When you repurpose someone else's narrative, their heroism and their sacrifice, for a didactic purpose, you are already on shaky moral ground.

When in order to do so, you lie--sir or madam, you become a monster.

For whoever habitually suppresses truth in the interests of tact will produce a deformity from the womb of his thought.

                   --Captain B. H. Liddell Hart*

Thank you, Major Freeman. And thank you too, Mr. Jackson. I very much hope you are both now at peace.