Bruce P Crandall
Bruce P Crandall was born on the 17th of February, 1933 in Olympia, Washington and during high school became an All-American baseball player. Before attending the University of Washington in Seattle, Bruce graduated from William Winlock Miller High School and was then drafted into the US Army in 1953. He was selected for Engineer Officer Candidate School and proceeded to graduate from the school in Fort Belvoir, Virginia in 1954. Bruce was then sent to fixed wing and helicopter training and after graduating he was assigned to the largest flying military aviation unit in the world at the Presidio of San Francisco.
After flying for military topographic studies in Alaska, Bruce's first overseas assignment was in Libya where he would map the desert for two years. His next assignment was to fly over thousands of square miles of previously unmapped jungles and mountains of Central and South America. During this time Bruce was stationed in Panama and Costa Rica with the 11th Air Assault Division and also helped develop air-assault tactics. Early in 1965, Bruce was the liaison to the 18th Airborne Corps with the Dominican Republic Expeditionary Force and later that same year was then deployed to Vietnam. Here he commanded the 1st Cavalry Division's Company A, 228th Assault Helicopter Battalion under the call sign Ancient Serpent 6. This flying unit supported eight ground battalions. It was his actions during the battle of la Drang that would earn Bruce the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty: Major Bruce P. Crandall distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism as a Flight Commander in the Republic of Vietnam, while serving with Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). On 14 November 1965, his flight of sixteen helicopters was lifting troops for a search and destroy mission from Plei Me, Vietnam, to Landing Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley. On the fourth troop lift, the airlift began to take enemy fire, and by the time the aircraft had refueled and returned for the next troop lift, the enemy had Landing Zone X-Ray targeted. As Major Crandall and the first eight helicopters landed to discharge troops on his fifth troop lift, his unarmed helicopter came under such intense enemy fire that the ground commander ordered the second flight of eight aircraft to abort their mission. As Major Crandall flew back to Plei Me, his base of operations, he determined that the ground commander of the besieged infantry battalion desperately needed more ammunition. Major Crandall then decided to adjust his base of operations to Artillery Firebase Falcon in order to shorten the flight distance to deliver ammunition and evacuate wounded soldiers. While medical evacuation was not his mission, he immediately sought volunteers and with complete disregard for his own personal safety, led the two aircraft to Landing Zone X-Ray. Despite the fact that the landing zone was still under relentless enemy fire, Major Crandall landed and proceeded to supervise the loading of seriously wounded soldiers aboard his aircraft. Major Crandall's voluntary decision to land under the most extreme fire instilled in the other pilots the will and spirit to continue to land their own aircraft, and in the ground forces the realization that they would be resupplied and that friendly wounded would be promptly evacuated. This greatly enhanced morale and the will to fight at a critical time. After his first medical evacuation, Major Crandall continued to fly into and out of the landing zone throughout the day and into the evening. That day he completed a total of 22 flights, most under intense enemy fire, retiring from the battlefield only after all possible service had been rendered to the Infantry battalion. His actions provided critical resupply of ammunition and evacuation of the wounded. Major Crandall's daring acts of bravery and courage in the face of an overwhelming and determined enemy are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.
Several months after this battle, Bruce had just finished a full day of supporting the 1/12th Infantry Battalion during the first combined American and South Vietnamese Army operation, called Operation Masher, when he learned that X Company of the 1/7th had 12 wounded soldier that needed to be evacuated and were pinned down in heavy enemy contact. Bruce finished refueling and flew to the area and he learned that even during daylight, medical evacuation helicopters would not land in this area and he was going in at night when it was pitch black and overcast. To prevent giving away any ground troop positions, Bruce had his friend Captain Tony Nadal place a single flash light straight up in the center of the landing zone. He was able to land twice under intense fire and successfully evacuated all twelve wounded soldiers.
Bruce would head to Colorado for an assignment, attend the Armed Forces Staff College, and soon enough, he was back in Vietnam. This time he was flying in Huey gunships in support of the 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Squadron, 1st Cavalry Division. After four months into his second tour, his helicopter was downed during a rescue attempt. He spent five months in the hospital recovering from a broken back and other injuries and once released Bruce resumed being a student at the University of Nebraska and then earned a bootstrap degree in 1969.
Bruce's flying career came to an end when he suffered a stroke but after his recovery, he and his wife Arlene were sent to Caracas, Venezuela as the Defense Mapping Agency's director for the Inter-American Geodetic Survey. His final Army assignment was as the senior engineer adviser to the California Army National Guard and he then retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel in 1977. Bruce then went back to school and earned a Master's degree in Public Administration from Golden Gate University and went on to work in public service jobs including three years as the city manager of Dunsmuir, California, and 17 years in the Public Works Department of Mesa, Arizona.
Initially, his actions during the Battle of la Drang earned Bruce the Distinguished Service Cross but this was later upgraded to the Medal of Honor on the 26th of February 2007 and Bruce then received the Medal of Honor from President Bush in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. He was then promoted to colonel after being retired for more than 30 years on the 15th of April 2010. Bruce has been inducted into the US Air Force's Gathering of Eagles, the US Army Aviation Hall of Fame, and as an honorary member of the 1st Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment. He also received the Aviation and Space Writers Helicopter Heroism Award for 1966 and received the honor of having the Olympia High School Baseball Field named after him in 2003. In 1992, Harold G Moore and Joseph L Galloway wrote a book called We Were Soldiers Once...And Young which depicted Bruce's and others' actions during the Battle of la Drang and he was later portrayed by Greg Kinnear in the 2002 movie, We Were Soldiers. It was determined that by the end of the Vietnam War, Bruce P Crandall had flown more than 900 combat missions.
