At Last, His Medal Of Honor
Philadelphia Inquirer
February 26, 2007
Pg. 1
At Last, His Medal Of Honor
Copter pilot braved intense gunfire in one of Vietnam's fiercest fights.
By Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Bruce Crandall was a soldier once... and young.
As a 32-year-old helicopter pilot, he flew through a gauntlet of enemy fire, taking ammunition in and wounded Americans out of one of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam War, Army records say.
Now, a week after his 74th birthday, Crandall will receive the nation's highest military honor today in a White House ceremony with President Bush.
"I'm still here," he said of his 41-year wait for the Medal of Honor. "Most of these awards are posthumous, so I can't complain."
Crandall's actions in the November 1965 Battle at Ia Drang Valley were depicted in the Hollywood movie We Were Soldiers, adapted from the book We Were Soldiers Once... And Young. At the time, Crandall was a major commanding a company of the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, First Cavalry Division (Airmobile).
"We had the first airmobile division... the first one to use aircraft as a means of transportation and sustaining combat," Crandall said. His unit was put together earlier that year to go to Vietnam and "wasn't as thought-out as things are today." He didn't have gunners for his aircraft. That's why he flew unarmed helicopters into the battlefield.
The unit had "minimum resources and almost no administrative people" - thus the lack of help to do the reams of paperwork that had to be sent to Washington for the highest medals, Crandall said.
Generals in-theater could approve nothing higher than the Distinguished Flying Cross, Crandall said in a phone interview from his home near Bremerton, Wash., so he received that award. Through the years, he was able to get that upgraded to a Distinguished Service Cross and now to the Medal of Honor.
Crandall was leading a group of 16 helicopters in support of the First Cavalry Division's First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry Regiment - the regiment led by George Armstrong Custer when he met his end at the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Without Crandall's actions, the embattled men at Ia Drang would have died in much the same way - "cut off, surrounded by numerically superior forces, overrun and butchered to the last man," the infantry commander, Lt. Col. Harold Moore, wrote in recommending him for the medal.
Moore, now a retired three-star general, later wrote the book about the battle along with Joseph L. Galloway, a former war correspondent now with McClatchy Newspapers.
"This unit, taking some of the heaviest casualties of the war, out of water and fast running out of ammunition, was engaged in one of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam war against a relentlessly attacking, highly motivated, vastly superior force," said Army documents supporting Crandall's medal. The U.S. forces were up against two regiments of North Vietnamese army infantry, "determined to overrun and annihilate them," the documents said.
The fighting became so intense that the helicopter landing zone for delivering and resupplying troops was closed, and a unit assigned to medical evacuation duties refused to fly. Crandall volunteered for the mission and with his wingman and longtime friend, Maj. Ed Freeman, made flight after flight over three days to deliver water, ammunition and medical supplies. They are credited with saving more than 70 wounded troops by flying them out to safety, and Freeman received the Medal of Honor in 2001.
Paperwork and other parts of the process delayed Crandall's medal until now, officials said.
Thinking back to the Vietnam battle, Crandall remembers the first day was "very long... . We were in the air for 141/2 hours." He also thinks of how impressive and calm the unit on the ground remained, saying Moore and his commanders were "solid as rocks" throughout the fight.
And of course, he says, he's proud of his own performance.
"I'm so proud that I didn't screw it up," he said.
February 26, 2007
Pg. 1
At Last, His Medal Of Honor
Copter pilot braved intense gunfire in one of Vietnam's fiercest fights.
By Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Bruce Crandall was a soldier once... and young.
As a 32-year-old helicopter pilot, he flew through a gauntlet of enemy fire, taking ammunition in and wounded Americans out of one of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam War, Army records say.
Now, a week after his 74th birthday, Crandall will receive the nation's highest military honor today in a White House ceremony with President Bush.
"I'm still here," he said of his 41-year wait for the Medal of Honor. "Most of these awards are posthumous, so I can't complain."
Crandall's actions in the November 1965 Battle at Ia Drang Valley were depicted in the Hollywood movie We Were Soldiers, adapted from the book We Were Soldiers Once... And Young. At the time, Crandall was a major commanding a company of the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, First Cavalry Division (Airmobile).
"We had the first airmobile division... the first one to use aircraft as a means of transportation and sustaining combat," Crandall said. His unit was put together earlier that year to go to Vietnam and "wasn't as thought-out as things are today." He didn't have gunners for his aircraft. That's why he flew unarmed helicopters into the battlefield.
The unit had "minimum resources and almost no administrative people" - thus the lack of help to do the reams of paperwork that had to be sent to Washington for the highest medals, Crandall said.
Generals in-theater could approve nothing higher than the Distinguished Flying Cross, Crandall said in a phone interview from his home near Bremerton, Wash., so he received that award. Through the years, he was able to get that upgraded to a Distinguished Service Cross and now to the Medal of Honor.
Crandall was leading a group of 16 helicopters in support of the First Cavalry Division's First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry Regiment - the regiment led by George Armstrong Custer when he met his end at the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Without Crandall's actions, the embattled men at Ia Drang would have died in much the same way - "cut off, surrounded by numerically superior forces, overrun and butchered to the last man," the infantry commander, Lt. Col. Harold Moore, wrote in recommending him for the medal.
Moore, now a retired three-star general, later wrote the book about the battle along with Joseph L. Galloway, a former war correspondent now with McClatchy Newspapers.
"This unit, taking some of the heaviest casualties of the war, out of water and fast running out of ammunition, was engaged in one of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam war against a relentlessly attacking, highly motivated, vastly superior force," said Army documents supporting Crandall's medal. The U.S. forces were up against two regiments of North Vietnamese army infantry, "determined to overrun and annihilate them," the documents said.
The fighting became so intense that the helicopter landing zone for delivering and resupplying troops was closed, and a unit assigned to medical evacuation duties refused to fly. Crandall volunteered for the mission and with his wingman and longtime friend, Maj. Ed Freeman, made flight after flight over three days to deliver water, ammunition and medical supplies. They are credited with saving more than 70 wounded troops by flying them out to safety, and Freeman received the Medal of Honor in 2001.
Paperwork and other parts of the process delayed Crandall's medal until now, officials said.
Thinking back to the Vietnam battle, Crandall remembers the first day was "very long... . We were in the air for 141/2 hours." He also thinks of how impressive and calm the unit on the ground remained, saying Moore and his commanders were "solid as rocks" throughout the fight.
And of course, he says, he's proud of his own performance.
"I'm so proud that I didn't screw it up," he said.
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Thank you, man. 0 -
He finally got the recognition he deserved... CMOH 0 -
Great to see such a hero getting his just desserts. Too bad it took so long. 0 -
Although it took way, way too long to acknowledge his extraordinary bravery, this is testimony that the U.S. government, though excruciatingly slow-to-move at times, does eventually get some things right in the end. In this case, it only took 41 years. Thankfully, he's alive and well enough to receive it and enjoy it. 0 -
One more true American Hero gets recognized. I'm glad he finally got it. The problem is that there are so many from that war who deserved it and never got it. 0 -
It's MOH, not CMOH. I think there was one MOH awarded to a Lt at IaDrang, but, can't recall the name. We Were Soldiers is a compelling read and a pretty decent movie. 0 -
I was glad to see that Fox News could break away from their in depth coverage of the Anna Nicole Smith story to show the ceremony yesterday. This man deserves the medal and the recognition of everyone in the Nation for his service and bravery. 0
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