Crandall graduated from Engineer
Officer Candidate School,
Fort Belvoir, Virginia, in 1954. He was sent to fixed-wing and helicopter training conducted by the air force and army, then he was assigned to an Army Aviation mapping group headquartered at the
Presidio of San Francisco. It was then "the largest flying military aviation unit in the world". Crandall and Freeman were also credited with flying in the ammunition needed for the 7th Cavalry to survive. The craft that he was flying was unarmed. but this was upgraded to the
Medal of Honor, awarded by President
George W. Bush in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on February 26, 2007.
Operation Masher Crandall had just finished a full day supporting the 12th Infantry Battalion on January 31, 1966, during the first combined American and
Army of the Republic of Vietnam operation called "
Operation Masher". He returned to refuel and shut down for the night when he learned that a company was in heavy enemy contact and had 12 wounded soldiers who needed evacuation. The soldiers were pinned down in a tight perimeter. The unit was led by Captain Tony Nadal, his friend and fellow veteran of the Battle of la Drang. Crandall refueled and flew to the area. He learned that the pick-up zone was surrounded by trees on three sides, and he was told that the Medevac had refused to land there. To minimize the chances of hitting the trees, he decided to descend vertically. The night was pitch dark with an overcast sky, making flying extremely difficult. He wanted to avoid giving the enemy an illuminated target and risk back-lighting the soldiers defending the landing zone and the wounded soldiers. Instead of using search or landing lights, he instructed Nadal to point a flashlight up in the center of the touchdown area. He landed twice under intense enemy fire and successfully evacuated all 12 wounded soldiers.
Later service After an assignment in Colorado, Crandall attended the
Armed Forces Staff College. Soon he was back in South Vietnam, this time flying
UH-1 Huey gunships and supporting the 1st Battalion,
9th Cavalry Squadron, 1st Cavalry Division. Crandall's helicopter was shot down during another rescue attempt in January 1968, four months into his second tour, due to air force bombs going off too close to where he was flying. He spent five months in the hospital recovering from a broken back and other injuries, then resumed his career as a student at the
University of Nebraska, graduating in 1969. He became a facility engineer assigned to Bangkok, Thailand where he managed 3,800 people. He subsequently served as deputy chief of staff, deputy installation commander, and commander of the 5th Engineer Combat Battalion, all at
Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. South America was to be his next assignment, and he and his wife Arlene attended the
Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, as Spanish-language students in preparation. He was to be aviation and engineering adviser to Argentina, but the assignment did not take place as Crandall suffered a stroke which ended his flying career. After his recovery, the Crandalls found the language training useful when he was sent to Caracas, Venezuela, as the
Defense Mapping Agency's director for the Inter-American Geodetic Survey. In his final army assignment, he served as senior engineer adviser to the
California Army National Guard. In 1977, he retired from the army as a
lieutenant colonel. ==Later life==