The Association of the United States Army (AUSA) is back with the latest installment of their incredibly popular Medal of Honor comic book series, in which each issue highlights the bravery of a different Medal of Honor recipient.
Born in Washington state, Bruce P. Crandall was drafted into the Army in 1953 during the Korean War. He learned to fly both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft with the Army, and as a pilot, he traveled all over the world on various assignments.
In 1965, Crandall was flying for the 7th and 5th Cavalry Regiments, inserting infantrymen on his Huey helicopter into Ia Drang Valley. When the soldiers came under heavy enemy fire, Crandall repeatedly flew into harm's way to evacuate over 70 troops.
During the battle, Crandall had to utilize multiple helicopters because of the amount of gunfire that his Huey was being pounded with.
During his two tours in Vietnam, Crandall flew 900 missions. For his heroic flying during the battle of Ia Drang, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. In 2007, his award was upgraded to the Medal of Honor and presented to him by President George W. Bush.
The new comic book about Crandall's bravery under fire is available to the public free of charge at the AUSA website, and like the other volumes in this series, has the potential to reach out to a younger audience who may not be familiar with America's Medal of Honor recipients.
Reach Jack Murphy: jack@connectingvets.com or @JackMurphyRGR.
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