Ed Osborne was born on October 7, 1930, to Arlie Graydon Osborne and Lillie Eulalah Eller. He had seven brothers and five sisters. His father and four brothers, John, James, Dayton, Fred, and Arlie Jerome were all in the military. Ed married once and had an adopted son.
Ed enlisted in the Army in February 1948 and became a military policeman at the Panama Canal. He remained in the Army and went to the Korean War, where he served as an assistant platoon sergeant in the 5th Regimental Combat Team. Ed was captured in April 1951, after being outnumbered and pinned down by the Chinese and Korean forces. Along with around 75 other soldiers, he was taken as a prisoner of war (POW).
During his captivity, Ed was taken to an old Korean mining camp where the POWs were given contaminated water and subjected to harsh living conditions. He was also held in solitary confinement for 17 months and later sentenced to two years of hard labor for opposing communism. However, when peace negotiations commenced, Ed was at a prison work camp at Songnay. When the peace treaty was signed, he got a truck with some other men, was taken to the front lines, and turned loose. They had made the mistake of letting him get on the wrong truck. He was supposed to have been put to death. Ed and his friend were together when they reached the American Forces in September of 1953. Ed was examined by doctors and put on a troop ship with other returning soldiers at Inshon, Korea and taken to San Francisco, Ca. Ed was discharged soon after returning to the U.S. He weighed 160 pounds when he went in to the Army and he weighed 75 pounds when he returned home. He was captured for 29 months.
Ed reenlisted in the Army in November 1953 for his third tour of duty in an administrative role with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, NC.
Ed was a devout Christian man who was proud to have served his country. He considered his service a necessary contribution to his country and never referred to himself as a hero. Instead, he believed that the true heroes were the ones who sacrificed their lives for American freedom. It took Ed over 40 years to receive his POW medal, which he finally got at the age of 64.
Ed started street preaching in 1960 for 10 years, then, then went to work in the factories. After work, he started preaching again. He loved his country and his family, but most of all he loved God. He would say “I am a Christian and an old street preacher.” He said his experience in the war strengthened him as a Christian.
Ed lived a long life to the age of 70. He passed away on September 21, 2000, and was buried in the Osborn Cemetery at Union United Methodist Church in Wilkesboro.