Vets Day: Time to listen

Not all of America’s veterans’ storylines are retold on the big screen, but it doesn’t make them any less heroic or significant. They all have a proud heritage to share. On Veterans Day (Nov. 11), let’s make a chance to listen. Recently aboard Columbus AFB, Miss., Bradford Freeman, one of the members of the renowned WWII unit known as the "Band of Brothers" paid a visit. He is one of 18 surviving members of the Army's 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment – “Easy Company” – of the 101st Airborne Division. The unit was made famous by the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers." Freeman, born in Artesia, Miss., in 1925, lived and fought through it all beginning on D-Day 1944. Easy Company pushed through France and into Germany fighting in every major conflict - including the Battle of Bastone - and playing a key role in the rescue of 125 British paratroopers and five American pilots in Holland. The 501st fought all the way to Hitler's mountain fortress (Eagle's Nest). Fifty years later he was in a preview of the movie sitting next to Tom Hanks. Freeman served as a narrator and advisor for the film. “They kept us busy over there" in WWII, he told members of the 14th Flying Training Wing at CAFB. (Source: Columbus AFB, 11/07/14)