Brad Freeman was one of eight children who grew up working on the family 410-acre farm near Artesia, Mississippi. Brad was an 18-year-old freshman at Mississippi State studying agriculture when he was told that if he joined the Army he could avoid being drafted. They let him finish out that year. Both Brad and his brother wanted to be paratroopers. The Freeman Brothers joined the service together. Brad's brother was sent to the Pacific. "Brad entered the US Army on December 19, 1942. After training at Camp McClellan, Alabama, Camp Shelby, Mississippi and Camp McCall, North Carolina, he was sent to England to join the 101st Airborne, E Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

"We were at a camp in Alderborne, in southern England on June 5, 1944. They had us under guard until they told us when we would go. We were supposed to jump the 5th of June, but it was raining and they cancelled it. We jumped at midnight on June 6. We were one of the first three planes. I was in the mortar squad. My job was to carry the base plate of the mortar. Sergeant Malarkey was my squad leader. He carried the other part. We were on maps. I set the sights. We had three other boys who carried the ammunition." “I landed in a pasture where there were beautiful white cows. I was told that when I got there I was supposed to stay right where I was and wait till I got somebody else with me. I saw a man come down. He was my buddy, Lewis, from Atlanta, Georgia, and he had broken his leg. I helped him into the bushes and I took his things and put them in the woods. We were supposed to help a fella if we could, and then go, because we had something else to do. We had to get the big guns. I went on and joined some other boys and we gathered at a place"-Brad Freeman Easy Company 2021 Janis Allen interview.

Freeman would remain with Easy Company until the end of the war. Despite being injured during the Battle of the Bulge he remained with his Brothers. Brad played an influential role in the filming of HBO/Playton Band of Brothers. Both Brad and his brother returned to Mississippi after the war. He continued to work on the family farm and married his childhood friend Willie Louise. The couple had two daughters. Brad would go on to work for the US postal Service for a total of 32 years. After the passing of his wife in 2008 he remained a resident of Caledonia until his passing on July 3, 2022 at the age of 97 years old. Courtesy of World War II uncovered