02-10-2007, 09:34
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#1
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Red State
Posts: 3,774
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RVN MOH
__________________
Don't mess with old farts...age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill! Bullshit and brilliance only come with age and experience.
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BMT (RIP) is offline
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02-10-2007, 09:44
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#2
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland
Posts: 24,781
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IIRC, that would be "Snake Shit" from "We Were Soldiers Once".
Well done, Sir.
Congratulations, sorry for the delay.
TR
__________________
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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The Reaper is offline
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02-10-2007, 13:33
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#3
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Area Commander
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Colorado
Posts: 1,205
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I read the book, twice! Freeman and Crandall are two fearless and unselfish individuals. From what I read, their actions saved the lives of numerous soldiers. True Heroes!
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CoLawman is offline
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02-10-2007, 17:49
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#4
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Area Commander
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Midwest
Posts: 7,107
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Glad to see a formal recognition after all these years.
__________________
My Heroes wear camouflage.
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Gypsy is offline
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02-10-2007, 20:07
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#5
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Guerrilla
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: FWB
Posts: 101
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Congrats Sir! Well earned and deserved!
__________________
Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms - sounds like good bar rules to me
"O Lord bless this thy hand grenade that with it thou mayest blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy. and the Lord did grin and people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orang-utans and breakfast cereals and fruit bats and..."
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spectre919 is offline
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02-11-2007, 06:25
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#6
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: LA
Posts: 1,653
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Lest we forget
__________________
Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimal food or water, in austere conditions, training day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon and he made his web gear. He doesn't worry about what workout to do - his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. This True Believer is not concerned about 'how hard it is;' he knows either he wins or dies. He doesn't go home at 17:00, he is home.
He knows only The Cause.
Still want to quit?
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NousDefionsDoc is offline
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02-11-2007, 10:26
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#7
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Currently FT. Bragg
Posts: 622
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Congrats Sir,
Iam glad to see that the men and women who served in Vietnam are finally starting to get the thanks this Nation owns them. To all who served in the Republic of Vietnam Thank you.
Proud son of a Vietnam Veteran
Jeremiah
__________________
There is only one tactical principal which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wounds, death and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time.
Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.
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Jgood is offline
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02-11-2007, 10:29
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#8
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Red State
Posts: 3,774
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RVN MOH
What about the crew chief and medic?
BMT
__________________
Don't mess with old farts...age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill! Bullshit and brilliance only come with age and experience.
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BMT (RIP) is offline
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02-12-2007, 18:59
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#9
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Potomac River
Posts: 925
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Quote:
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What about the crew chief and medic?
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+1
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Buffalobob is offline
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02-12-2007, 21:29
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#10
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In transit somewhere
Posts: 4,044
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True Studs, all of them. Congrats Major.
__________________
In the business of war, there is no invariable stategic advantage (shih) which can be relied upon at all times.
Sun-Tzu, "The Art of Warfare"
Hearing, I forget. Seeing, I remember. Writing (doing), I understand. Chinese Proverb
Too many people are looking for a magic bullet. As always, shot placement is the key. ~TR
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x SF med is offline
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02-17-2007, 19:31
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#11
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland
Posts: 24,781
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From Joe Galloway.
Thanks!
TR
By Joseph L. Galloway
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)
In a few days — 41 years after the events of a long-ago November — a white-haired retired guy named Bruce Crandall will receive the nation’s highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor, from President George W. Bush.
He’s always been a hero to the men of the 1st Battalion 7th U.S. Cavalry who counted on Crandall and his wingman, Ed (Too Tall to Fly) Freeman, when the chips were down in a fire-swept clearing called Landing Zone X-Ray in the remote Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam’s Central Highlands.
American wounded were piling up and the only thing keeping 2,000 determined North Vietnamese soldiers from overrunning and slaughtering the trapped and badly outnumbered cavalrymen was firepower and an air bridge maintained by Crandall and his 16 Huey helicopters of A Company 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion.
The 7th Cavalry commander, then-Lt. Col. Hal Moore, was often on the radio and out in the open directing the flow of helicopters that brought in badly needed ammunition and carried out the wounded.
The man he talked to and depended on was then-Maj. Crandall, whose radio call sign was Ancient Serpent 6, giving rise to the nickname Snake.
When the fighting was at its worst, on the afternoon of Nov. 14, 1965, Moore had to close the football field-size clearing to the helicopters because two of them had been shot up so badly they couldn’t be flown out. Crandall’s own chopper had been riddled, his crew chief shot in the throat and an infantry radio operator killed before he could unbuckle his seat belt.
Old Snake knew his buddies on the ground were in dire danger and asked for a volunteer to join him in hauling more ammunition and water to them. His best friend, then-Capt. Ed Freeman, didn’t hesitate.
Together Crandall and Freeman flew right into the jaws of hell over and over, sitting up behind the thin Plexiglas and looking out on the chaos of close-quarter combat while the troopers flung off crates of M-16 rifle and M-60 machine gun ammo, mortar rounds and hand grenades and just as swiftly loaded the wounded whose only hope of life was that ride to the field hospital at Camp Holloway in Pleiku.
On that Sunday in November, Crandall flew 22 missions during 14 hours, and carried 70 wounded soldiers to safety and a chance at life.
Hal Moore, now a retired three-star general, wrote in his recommendation of Crandall for the Medal of Honor: “If the air bridge failed, the embattled men of the 1st Battalion 7th Cavalry would certainly die in much the same way George Armstrong Custer’s cavalrymen died at Little Big Horn — cut off, surrounded by numerically superior forces, over-run and butchered to the last man.
“I asked Bruce Crandall’s brave aircrews for the last measure of devotion, for service far beyond the limits of duty and mission, and they came through as I knew they would.”
On Crandall’s last flight of the day he carried a passenger sitting on a case of hand grenades in the back of his Huey — a 24-year-old war correspondent for United Press International named Galloway. Several lifetimes later, on Tuesday, Nov. 16, Old Snake flew me out of LZ X-Ray and I’ve loved the guy ever since.
President Bush presented the Medal of Honor to Too Tall Ed Freeman soon after he took office in 2001. Crandall’s paperwork and the selection process delayed his recognition until now.
Crandall and Freeman have been best friends for over half a century, debating endlessly the question of which is “the best damned helicopter pilot in the world.” Each refers to the other as “the second best helicopter pilot in the world.”
Crandall was portrayed by Greg Kinnear in the 2002 movie “We Were Soldiers,” based on the book “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young,” which Hal Moore and I wrote. Kinnear was arguably better looking than the actor who portrayed Ed Freeman.
Ancient Serpent 6 really is now, at 72 years of age. He and his wife, Arlene, live in Manchester, Wash., across the sound from Seattle, when they aren’t on the road wandering around America in their big RV.
There are a couple of hundred homes of 7th Cavalry veterans of LZ X-Ray out there, and Bruce is welcome to park his RV in their driveways and drink and eat free anytime he turns up.
We just figure it’s payback time and sit back and listen to Snake’s extravagant tales of real derring-do involving things like a foiled attempt at theft by helicopter of a 5,000 kilowatt Air Force generator urgently needed to cool down the cavalry’s beer. Or the time on his second Vietnam tour when his Huey was blown out of the air by a U.S. air strike and Bruce lay there with a broken back watching American and Viet Cong soldiers running a foot race from different directions to see which side got to him first.
This we know is true: Bruce Crandall is a real American hero, one of the best helicopter pilots in the world and will wear that sky-blue ribbon on behalf of all Army aviators past, present and future.
__________________
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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The Reaper is offline
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02-17-2007, 20:42
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#12
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Gun Pilot
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Iowa and New Mexico
Posts: 2,143
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Truly well deserved!
Good account by Joe!
__________________
E7-CW3-direct commission VN
B model gunship pilot 65-66 Soc Trang, Cobra Pilot 68-69-70 Can Tho Life member 101st Airborne Association
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CPTAUSRET is offline
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02-26-2007, 13:16
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#13
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland
Posts: 24,781
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Award ceremony live on FoxNews right now.
Crandall is wearing his Stetson.
Snake Crandall and Too Tall made 14 sorties into LZ XRay, flew 14 hours that day, and had three Hueys shot up so badly they could not fly again until repaired.
Great ceremony!
TR
__________________
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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The Reaper is offline
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02-26-2007, 14:49
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#14
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
Posts: 273
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Well Done!
Snake 6:
Well Done, Sir and thank you!
__________________
Hipshot
11B4S - Sgt, 5th SFG(A)
11B4S - S/Sgt, C/3/10th SFG(A)
11F4S - S/Sgt, B/2/12th SFG(A)
a.k.a. Sheep Dog Daddy
God whispers in your soul and speaks to your mind.
Sometimes when you don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at you.
It's your choice: Listen to the whisper, or wait for the brick.
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Hipshot is offline
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02-26-2007, 19:18
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#15
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Newnan, GA
Posts: 273
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Well done, Sir!!!
__________________
Tony
Newnan, GA
W1AJO
De Oppresso Liber
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Aoresteen is offline
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