Vietnam Vet to Receive Medal of Honor 41 Years After Battle [Monday, February 26, 2007]

Fox News ^ | Feb 24, 2007 | Staff

[TADSLOS]

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 Monday 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."

[piasa]

Crandall served in the Dominican Republic and two tours in Vietnam

He served in the Dominican Republic, eh? Wonder if he ran onto this way too active little Clintonista:

1964 : (DOMINICAN REPUBLIC : HAROLD ICKES ASSISTS CASTRO-BACKED THUGS --- See CLINTON ADMINISTRATION, THE MOB, EUGENE MCCARTHY, GEORGE MCGOVERN, DNC, CHINAGATE) Recruited by New Left icon Allard Lowenstein in 1964, [Harold] Ickes turned up on every major battlefront of leftwing activism during the Sixties and early Seventies. He registered black voters in the Deep South for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); assisted Castro-ite rebels in the Dominican Republic; organized resistance to the Vietnam War and campaigned for "peace-at-any-price" candidates Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern.
Ickes subsequently began practicing labor law, representing a long list of gangsters, labor racketeers and Mob-run unions, many with ties to major New York crime families, among them the Lucchese, Colombo, Genovese and Gambino organizations. In his Mob law practice, Ickes often went beyond the call of duty, skirting if not actually crossing the line from attorney to accomplice. ------- http://tinyurl.com/k3c7u via 42 posted on 03/07/2006 10:55:19 PM PST by kcvl

1965 : (HAROLD ICKES) At [Professor Allard Kenneth] Lowenstein's urging, [Harold] Ickes spent the summers of 1964 and 1965 registering black voters in Mississippi and Louisiana respectively, for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Vicksburg, Mississippi and for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Tallulah, Louisiana. White vigilantes in Louisiana beat Ickes so badly in 1965 that he lost a kidney. Undaunted, Ickes went that same year to the Dominican Republic, where — according to the Boston Globe — he sought to "help deposed leftist president Juan Bosch return to office." After spending two years in Communist Cuba, the socialist Bosch had returned to the Dominican Republic and won the support of a group of leftwing colonels, who sought to place Bosch in power through an armed coup. (John Aloysius Farrell, "The President's Get-It-Done Guy," The Boston Globe, 15 October 1995, p. 14)
Only the arrival of 22,000 U.S. Marines stopped the Bosch coup. According to the Boston Globe, Ickes was present on the island when the Marines landed, on April 29, 1965. ------- http://tinyurl.com/k3c7u via 42 posted on 03/07/2006 10:55:19 PM PST by kcvl

APRIL 29, 1965 : (DOMINICAN REPUBLIC : US MARINES LAND & STOP ARMED COUP BY LEFTIST JUAN BOSCH --- See HAROLD ICKES ) According to the Boston Globe, Ickes was present on the island when the Marines landed, on April 29, 1965. He subsequently left the country and began "touring Latin America," until his mentor Lowenstein summoned Ickes back to New York to begin work on the anti-Vietnam War movement. ------- http://tinyurl.com/k3c7u via 42 posted on 03/07/2006 10:55:19 PM PST by kcvl

1966 : (HAROLD ICKES - See CUBAN-BACKED DOMINICAN REPUBLIC COUP ATTEMPT) Returning to the USA in 1966, Ickes joined [Professor] Allard Lowenstein in New York. Lowenstein was then running for Congress. He introduced Ickes to the rough-and-tumble world of New York politics. (David Saltonstall, "Harold Ickes Knows All the Secrets But Won't Tell Any," Daily News [New York], 10 October 2000, p. 30) ------- http://tinyurl.com/k3c7u via 42 posted on 03/07/2006 10:55:19 PM PST by kcvl

[mason-dixon]

DEEDS NOT WORDS = AMERICAN HERO

Mason Dixon

[Fierce Allegiance]

AWESOME ping.

[Fierce Allegiance]

Looks like he's an engineer, too.

[PISANO]

Great stories from 281st AHC, Sgt Major. Thanks for sharing a great website for us old timers to 'remember'.

[robowombat]

A bit more here from DefenceTalk.com:

From DefenceTalk.com

Land Forces
Army Aviator to be Awarded Medal of Honor
By US Army

URL of this article:
http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish/index.php
Feb 12, 2007




WASHINGTON: The White House announced today that President Bush will present the Medal of Honor to Bruce P. Crandall in recognition of his actions at Landing Zone X-Ray during the Battle of Ia Drang, Vietnam, in November 1965.

Crandall will receive the medal during a Feb. 26 White House ceremony for repeatedly flying into a landing zone under intense enemy fire to rescue and resupply 1st Cavalry ground troops - even after the LZ had been closed.

"Due to policy at the time, medevac pilots weren't allowed to land on a landing zone until it was 'green' for a period of five minutes, meaning it wasn't being relentlessly attacked," Crandall said.

Then a major, Crandall decided to fly the medevac missions, and was joined by his friend of 10 years, then-Capt. Ed Freeman.


Bruce Crandall's command photo taken at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. in 1971 as the 5th Engineer Battalion Commander. Photo by The Crandall Family
Witnesses said the actions taken by Crandall and Freeman on the first day of the battle, Nov. 14, kept the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, resupplied and reinforced, and gave wounded Soldiers a chance at life.

The two aviators flew 14 missions, encountering intense enemy fire to bring the much-needed aid and fly more than 70 casualties to safety. For his actions that day, Freeman was awarded the Medal of Honor in July 2001.

Retired Col. Ramon Nadal was an eyewitness and former commander for the 1st Bn., 7th Cav. Regt. Of the pilots' bravery, he said: "Without their support, both by resupplying us with ammo and bringing the reinforcements, we might well have been over-run.

"X-Ray was not the only time Bruce did good things for A Co.," Nadal said. "Months later, in Bong San, he volunteered to evacuate some of my Soldiers from a nighttime battle in the middle of a Vietnamese village when no one else would fly into the tiny landing zone under enemy fire."

A grateful ground commander, retired Lt. Gen. Harold Moore, who was a lieutenant colonel leading the Ia Drang battle, said that without Crandall's "extraordinarily heroic effort" that day, "we on that field would have gone down."

In 1966 Crandall received the Aviation and Space Writers Helicopter Heroism Award for rescuing a dozen Soldiers from another battlefield under fire. In 1996 he was inducted into the Air Force's Gathering of Eagles, an association of aviation pioneers and distinguished flyers. In 2004 he was inducted into the Army Aviation Hall of Fame.

Crandall retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1977, and in civilian life served as city manager for Dunsmuir, Calif., and in other public works positions in Arizona. The package nominating him for the Medal of Honor was forwarded by Senator John McCain.

[ChEng]

Well done LTC Crandall! Forty one years ago and I was over there....geezz, I am old!!! Ch/Eng, H&HS1, 1StMAW 65-67..

[ChEng]

P.S., Makes me proud to have been a bit player to heroes, and there were many, the like of LTC Crandall.

[Nam Vet]

A well deserved honor that's better late than never. I feel honored just having served around men of this caliber.

Nam Vet

[HighWheeler]

Retired Maj. Bruce Crandall, of Manchester, Wash., stands outside his waterfront home with his original flight jacket and helmet, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2007. Crandall, who turns 74 Saturday, is to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his acts Nov. 14, 1965, in Vietnam as a Army chopper pilot. His exploits were recounted in the 2002 film 'We Were Soldiers.' A change to the laws surrounding the Medal of Honor in 1995 allowed recommendations from beyond the standard two-year statute of limitations.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

NEVER FORGET



Battle of IA DRANG-1965 (Photos)

http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set1.htm

http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set2.htm

http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set3.htm

http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_collection.htm




NEVER FORGET

.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

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..BRUCE CRANDALL = Medal of Honor..

http://www.ArmchairGeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48215


.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

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NEVER FORGET



Vietnam pilot to recieve Medal of Honor

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-02-22-vet-honor_x.htm?POE=click-refer



NEVER FORGET


.

[Soaring Feather]

WE Will NEVER FORGET.

Thank You, Ronnie, for the link.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

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February 26, 2007 - Medal of Honor Day


The White House - 2:30 pm Eastern, 11:30 pm Pacific Time


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[BulletBobCo]

[TADSLOS]

AWESOME!!