He commanded the 1st Cavalry Division's Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion at Camp Radcliff, An Khe, Vietnam. He led a flying unit supporting eight battalions on the ground, using the call sign "Ancient Serpent 6".

Later that year, he would command the 1st Cavalry Division's Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion at An Khe, Vietnam. Using the call sign "Ancient Serpent 6," he led a flying unit ...

May 20, 2015 · Crandall led 16 helicopters that transported troops of the 7th Cavalry and 5th Cavalry regiments into the valley. His unarmed helicopter had the call sign "Ancient Serpent 6." The cavalry troops encountered fierce enemy reaction.

Colonel Bruce "Snake" Crandall flies his UH-1 Huey, "Ancient Serpent 6," into Landing Zone X Ray during the 1965 battle for the Ia Drang Valley. He later earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism and bravery under fire, flying over 22 missions and evacuating 75 wounded soldiers in a single day.

Dec 7, 2020 · 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...

Using the call sign "Ancient Serpent 6" he led a flying unit supporting eight battalions on the ground. On 14 November 1965, he led the first major Division operation of air mobile troops into Landing Zone X-Ray in Vietnam's Battle of Ia Drang and is credited with evacuating some 70 wounded comrades with his wing man and fellow Medal of Honor ...

Over the course of the Vietnam War, Bruce Crandall flew over 900 combat missions in both transport and attack roles – not bad, considering that there are some stories out there claiming that the average lifespan for a helicopter pilot in Nam was about three days.

On 14 November 1965, his flight of sixteen helicopters was lifting troops for a search and destroy mission from Plei Me, Vietnam, to Landing Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley.

Nov 13, 2020 · Two years later, then-Maj. Crandall arrived in Vietnam as the commanding officer of the 1st Cavalry Division's Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion at An Khe, Vietnam. Using the call...

Wounded by shrapnel when his EB-66C aircraft was shot down by surface-to-air missiles on February 4, 1967, he recounts his seventy-three months of captivity, which brought him face-to-face with mistreatment and deprivation and Communist charge that he was a war criminal and subject to tribunals.