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Army Maj. Bruce Crandall earned the Medal of Honor in 2007 for actions he took to save dozens of soldiers’ lives in Vietnam in 1965.
Episode 2729 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Army Lt. Col. Bruce Crandall and his Congressional Medal of Honor award. The featured story comes from The U.S. Department of Defense website and was titled: Medal of Honor Monday: Army Lt. Col. Bruce Crandall. It was submitted by Katie Lange, a writer for DOD News.
Lange, in her story, reported that Army Lt. Col. Bruce Crandall led more than 900 combat missions during two tours in Vietnam. His heroics were numerous, but it was his quick thinking during an aborted mission in 1965 that led him to save the lives of dozens of soldiers — something for which, four decades later, he earned the Medal of Honor.
Lange added this about Crandall; he was born on Feb. 17, 1933, in Olympia, Washington. He grew up like many boys his age, enjoying the game of baseball, and playing it well enough to become a high school All-American.
Crandall had dreams of being drafted by the New York Yankees, but instead, he was drafted by the Army in 1953. He went to aviation school and received his commission as an officer a year later.
For roughly the first decade of his military career, Crandall’s job was mapping. He flew fixed-wing aircraft for topographical studies in Alaska, then headed to Libya, his first overseas assignment, for two years to help map the desert as an instructor and unit test pilot.
In 1963, Crandall reported to Fort Benning, Georgia, to help lead a new air cavalry unit. He was the liaison for the 18th Airborne Corps in the Dominican Republic Expeditionary Force in early 1965 before he left to be a commanding officer on his first deployment to Vietnam.
Listen to episode 2729 and discover more about Vietnam Vet Army Lt. Col. Bruce Crandall and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.
