Home>History>Snakeshit Gets the Medal of Honor

Snakeshit Gets the Medal of Honor

by on February 12, 2007 in History

Forty years after the fact:

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Feb. 9, 2007) – 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.

….

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.

…..

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.”

crandall.jpg

Crandall’s love for low-flying earned him the callsign “Snakeshit.” If the name sounds familiar, it might be because you caught Greg Kinear play Crandall in the movie We Were Soldiers.

Here’s his Medal of Honor citation.

Very cool story.

Hotel Tango: Crittenden

Comments (0)

Comments

  1. Ben Bauman says:
    February 12, 2007 at 9:31 pm

    Excellent decision and long overdue.

  2. John says:
    February 13, 2007 at 5:26 am

    yeah, agreed Ben.

    I might just be saying that cause I loved We Were Soldiers though, heh.

  3. Sarge says:
    February 13, 2007 at 5:45 am

    Those “dust-off” guys deserve every medal we

    have. Extrodinary valor was common place.

    I suggest a UH-1 memorial in Washington to

    honor these brave men.

    Sarge

    Indianapolis, In

  4. Gil Roy says:
    February 13, 2007 at 7:23 am

    Love the Huey memorial idea Sarge! I did not know this, but apparently the US Air Force still maintains a small fleet of the birds for CSR missions. Interesting.

  5. Stefan says:
    February 13, 2007 at 4:29 pm

    And the USMC maintains a large force as their primary small airborne transport.

  6. Charles Petty says:
    February 26, 2007 at 7:57 pm

    I had the privilege of serving under Colonel Crandall at Ft. Carson when I was a 1LT. He was one of the reasons I had the background to end my career as a COL. He well deserves the Medal of Honor.

  7. randy ruble says:
    February 9, 2008 at 7:39 pm

    about time, been a long time comin, after ia drang,and when everybody got called up, i went to camp halloway as well in may 66