Bradford Clark Freeman was born in Mississippi. When he was a freshman at Mississippi State University, he joined the military. He joined the army and volunteered to be a parachutist.
Freeman joined the Easy Company in England. He parachuted into Normandy on June 6, 1944, better known as D-Day. He told Janis Allen of the Veterans History Museum of the Carolinas. “We had to take the place and get the big guns so [the Germans] couldn’t interfere with the soldiers who were coming ashore.” He added, “We secured the area and let the Army go through. They had come ashore and now they got on with their business.”
The book about Easy Company called “Band of Brothers” written by Stephen E. Ambrose was turned into a mini-series by the same name in 2001. HBO describes the series as follows: “They were ordinary men, swept up in the most extraordinary conflict in history.” The series depicts “the remarkable achievements of an elite team of U.S. paratroopers whose World War II exploits are as incredible as they are true.”
He claimed that he shared memories from WWII with Ambrose. There was a lot in the book that he didn’t know about.
The Band of Brothers had one member left. There are no survivors. The man died on July 3, 2022. He was 97.
After the war, he married Willie Louise Gurley. He worked as a mail carrier for 32 years. He has 2 daughters, 4 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.
In the obituary, his daughters wrote, “Our dad was always astounded that a country boy from Mississippi was able to see so many places and meet so many interesting people.”
There is a video about the life of the Band of Brothers.
