Medal of Honor going to Vietnam vet from Kitsap County

WASHINGTON — Bruce Crandall was a soldier once ... and young.

As a 32-year-old helicopter pilot, he flew through a gantlet 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, the Kitsap County resident 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 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, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile).

Crandall was leading a group of 16 helicopters in support of the 1st Cavalry Division's 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment. Without Crandall's actions, the embattled men at Ia Drang would have died — "cut off, surrounded by numerically superior forces, overrun and butchered to the last man," the infantry commander, Lt. Col. Harold Moore, wrote in recommending Crandall for the medal.

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 and with 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 soldiers by flying them out to safety. Freeman received the Medal of Honor in July 2001.

Paperwork and other parts of the process delayed Crandall's medal, officials said.

The unit had "minimum resources and almost no administrative people" — thus no one to do the reams of paperwork that had to be sent in 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, 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.

Thinking back to the Vietnam battle, Crandall remembers the first day was "very long ... we were in the air for 14 ½ 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, Crandall says, he's also proud of his own performance.

"I'm so proud that I didn't screw it up," he said.