Medal of Honor recipient - Bruce Crandall - Forgotten History

by Panzer
foreign
The most iconic image of the Vietnam War was the helicopter
whether used as an observation medical evacuation troop transport or gunship. The primary aircraft
was the Bell Iroquois UH-1 Huey of which 3,254 were lost due to combat. Helicopter Crews also had high
casualties both killed and wounded and the men who flew these missions were made of steel; they had to
be and as a result a few became some of the most highly decorated airmen in our nation's history.
Who was Bruce P. Crandall? What actions did he perform to receive the Medal of Honor?
Why did it take so many years for his bravery to be recognized with the Medal of Honor?
Hello I'm Colin Heaton former soldier Marine Corps
scout sniper history professor historian and book author and we will answer these
questions and other issues on this segment of Forgotten History [Music]
In the film We Were Soldiers adapted from the book written by Lieutenant General Harold G. Moore and
Joseph L Galloway, Bruce P. Crandall was depicted by actor Greg Kinnear who flew multiple missions
into Landing Zone X-ray during the battle of the Ia Drang valley which commenced on November 14, 1965.
Crandall would play a major role. Bruce Perry Crandall was born on February 17, 1933 and raised
in Olympia, Washington state. He attended public schools and became an All-American baseball player
in high school. Later he attended the University of Washington in Seattle and was hoping to
get drafted by the New York Yankees but he was drafted instead into the U.S. Army in 1953 during
the Korean War but did not deploy there. Crandall graduated from the Engineer Officer Candidate School,
Fort Belvoir in Virginia in 1954 and assigned to the fixed wing and helicopter training program
conducted by the Army and the Air Force. He started flying the Cessna L-19 bird dog and de Havilland
Canada DHC-2 Beavers after being transferred to Alaska performing military topographical studies.
His first overseas flying assignment was to Wheelus Air Base and Tripoli, Libya where he
spent two years mapping the Sahara Desert. He then became an instructor pilot and unit test pilot.
Crandall then transferred to Howard Air Force Base Panama also flying out of Costa Rica
He flew over thousands of square miles of previously unmapped mountains and
jungles in Central and South America. He then helped to develop air assault tactics
as a platoon leader while assigned to the 11th Air Assault Division.
His next assignment was a major to South Vietnam where he commanded the 1st Calvary
Division's Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion at Camp Radcliffe An Khe, Vietnam.
He led a flying unit supporting eight battalions on the ground using the call sign Ancient Serpent 6.
This was where he earned his nickname "snake" The Vietnam War was not yet a major conflict. Most
of the engagements had been between U.S. Army Special Forces advisors and contacts with the
Viet Cong and a few NVA units but on a very small level rarely exceeding platoon-sized engagements.
This was the first major engagement of the war between regular U.S and North Vietnamese
forces when elements of the 3rd Brigade 1st Calvary Division Air Mobile positioned themselves
as an interdiction force. The Army soldiers fought a four-day pitch to battle against
the Communist North Vietnamese 33rd Regiment in the Ia Drang Valley of the Central Highlands.
This first contact between large forces in Vietnam which set the pace for the rest of the war.