I was born and raised in a very small town where
all the neighbors had the right to discipline you.
And no one had locks on their doors.
And it was just before the Second World War.
And of course, my dad went off to serve
and my mother became a welder in a shipyard.
Those of us that stayed home, even
you had to learn what the Japanese airplanes looked like.
And you would participate in night watches for aircraft.
I graduated in 1951.
In 1952 I got a letter in the mail that said:
"Greetings, you've been selected by your friends and neighbors."
And I was being drafted.
And I went outside and kicked the hell out of my two friends.
And then checked my neighbors and none of them had done that.
So if they ever do start the draft again they've got to change that letter.
That was a terrible way to find out that I was going in the service.
NARRATOR: Washington native, Bruce Crandall
was drafted into the army in 1953.
He went through officer candidate school in the Corps of Engineers
and was commissioned an officer just before his 21st birthday.
Crandall signed up for flight school
where he learned to fly fixed- winged aircraft as well as helicopters.
Serving for over a decade
as both an engineer and an aviator
Crandall entered the air assault business.
By 1964, he was developing helicopter assault techniques
that would soon be used in Vietnam.
Crandall arrived in Vietnam in 1965
as the commanding officer of Company A,
229th Assault Helicopter Battalion in the First Cavalry Division.
In November...
the NVA hit a camp called Plei Me.
And it was the beginning of an effort to try to cut the country in half.
They came out of Cambodia and they hit the special forces camp at Plei Me.
Then on about the 13th of November
we had lifted that siege.
But we wanted to now hit the enemy
that was trying to get out of the country, we thought.
And General Moore, who was a lieutenant colonel at the time,
and had the 1st of the 7th Cav.
He was told by his boss that this place would be a good place to go.
And they put their hand up on the map.
And it was very close to the border of Cambodia.
And we would catch the enemy before they could get out of the country.
Now, these assaults were beautifully planned.
It was like the ballet.
Because everything was timed down to the second.
We got airborne, two eight-ship formations.
And one's right behind the other one.
The first thing that has to happen
is the artillery hits the target.
And they go for 12 minutes, or whatever.
When the artillery lifts...
they say "Splash," that means that the last round gets in the landing zone.
And that's going to be white smoke.
On the fourth lift in
my second eight aircraft started receiving fire pretty heavy.
So, up to there, we were...
We were not receiving any.
And one of my aircraft, in the last flight
got hit bad enough so it had to be grounded when we got back to Plei Me.
Well, we refueled and then came back.
And I'm leading that first eight aircraft.
As I'm coming in...
we catch all sorts of hell.
As I'm flaring, there's enemy shooting at us
from just outside of our rotors.
They're in the wood line, and they're in trees...
and they're hitting people before they can get off the aircraft.
They shot my crew chief through the throat.
One of my lieutenants got hit in the back of the head.
And, generally...
--generally speaking
it couldn't have been worse.
We pulled out of there and Colonel Moore closed the landing zone.
Well...
Somebody closed the landing zone.
I wouldn't have let my next eight aircraft come in
under any circumstance at that time.
Four out of my eight aircraft had to be grounded back at Plei Me.
On the way back I realized
that there was a real problem in here.
And we weren't going to carry troops in any further
but I'd better take a look at what's going on.
Personally.
And I asked for another aircraft to go with me
once we got on the ground.
And I knew we'd go back with ammo.
And I knew that with that amount of firefight going on
they would be running short because I knew what they carried in.
We averaged two miles a minute.
So it's seven minutes to go, and to come back there's another seven.
And that's too long between.
So I...
decided to go to the fire base which was Falcon
which was only five miles away.
I had the ammunition moved to fire base Falcon.
And I would do the medevac to there.
We go back and I get out close to the area
and I call the commander, Moore, on the radio
and said, "I'm out there."
And I said, "I've got ammo."
And he said he needed the ammo.
And I said, "Okay. We'll bring it in."
He says, "We'll cover you as much as possible."
So we did come in and as we're making the approach in
we get heavy fire.
In the lift before that, when I came out
I had three dead and three wounded on my aircraft.
So...this time we don't have any people.
But I start carrying wounded out.
And on the next lift in, I had gone to Falcon.
And I found two medevac aircraft were there.
And I knew
that those are the guys that should be carrying out the wounded
because my crew chiefs and gunners knew first aid.
But they're not medics.
As they were loading the boxes of ammo on for the next lift
I went over to the two medic aircraft
and said, "Follow me." And I had my...
Of course, I'm field grade. And they paid attention.
And we took off and I told them:
"You land exactly where I did. You come in exactly the way I did."
So we went in, unloaded the ammo, and got the hell out of there
And in comes the medevac.
Well, first off, they came in too high.
And then the first one got on the ground
and the second one starts receiving fire.
And he screams that he's been hit.
The most he got out was two people and they're gone.
And they don't go anymore the rest of the day.
So then we came back around and started the medevac.
NARRATOR: Despite the unremitting enemy fire
Crandall continued to fly re-supply and evacuation missions
in and out of the landing zone until long after sundown.
By the time he'd completed his 22nd flight,
he and his wingman had evacuated more than 70 wounded.
And helped to ensure the survival of the entire battalion.
The Medal of Honor is beyond description for a military man.
And it was a fantastic experience.
The president is so down to earth. I wore my hat during the ceremony
because I thought it was the thing to do.
And one of the generals in the office there
said he didn't think I ought to do it.
And I said, "You know General, not to be..."
"I'm gonna wear it."
"But you gotta remember where this president comes from.
He wears Stetsons.
And I think he'll love it."
"And the First Cav is at Fort Hood. And the president knows that.
So he's going to like that."
And he did.
He made a comment about it.
I've talked to a lot of young people
and when I'm talking to them about heroism, and about the Medal,
and about service in the country,
I try to bring it down to their level
so they understand that, even if they're not going into the military,
they still have some responsibility for service.
Responsibility for the country. Responsibility to be good citizens.
Responsibility to help where there's help needed in a community.
And I think that the military brotherhood
and looking out for each other
is shared in the civilian sector.
A fireman sees another fireman going into a building
will go with him.
Whether they're in the same department or not.
And they'll help each other, and the police will do the same thing.
So there's a lot of that kind of thing.
There's a relationship that...
you just can't explain.
But everybody who has ever been in that situation knows what it is.