Valor Friday

Bruce McCandless II

Military runs in the family. My dad was a Navy pilot, my son was Air Force, for example. For today’s Valor Friday Mason introduces us to the McCandless clan. He starts with the incredibly impressive story of Bruce McCandless II.

Mason
Something that comes up somewhat commonly in my research here are relatives that have received high valor awards. I’ve already discussed some, such as; Ted Roosevelt (MoH, DSC) who was discussed here https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=87771. Ted was the son of President Theodore Roosevelt, who also received the MoH (82 years after he’d died and more than 100 years after the act for which it was awarded).

It shouldn’t be surprising that service to your nation runs in families. Many of us were inspired into our years of service by family members. While searching for a candidate for the article this week I stumbled across a name that was very familiar. As a big time space geek, I knew Bruce McCandless as the NASA astronaut and US Navy aviator who was the first man to ever conduct an untethered spacewalk. However, the name that came up in research wasn’t the astronaut. His father, also Bruce McCandless, had received the Medal of Honor for actions at Guadalcanal. That was just the start of the Wikipedia hole I jumped into head first on the McCandless clan.

Let’s start with the astronaut. Bruce McCandless II was born in 1937 in Boston, MA. He attended Annapolis, graduating second in his class in 1958 (same class as John McCain) and went on to get his wings of gold. He trained as an F-4B Phantom II pilot and was aboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65) during her participation in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In 1966, as part of NASA’s Astronaut Group 5, of which he was the youngest member at 28, McCandless joined the space program. He’d recently completed graduate work in electrical engineering and was part of NASA’s expansion of the astronaut corps to include more pilots with scientific and engineering backgrounds.

Because McCandless wasn’t a test pilot, he didn’t join the flight rotation immediately. His early years at the space agency did see him take on the job of Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) for Apollo 11’s takeoff and their first moonwalk. The CAPCOM serves as the only voice from ground control to the spacecraft. It was a job at the time that was restricted to fellow astronauts.

He was part of mission support operations for later Apollo flights to the moon and the Skylab missions. He was classified as a Space Shuttle Pilot, but had been part of the technical exploration of the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) that would allow an astronaut to spacewalk without being tethered to the spacecraft. McCandless elected to switch to the role of a Mission Specialist in the Space Shuttle Program. This would allow him to continue working on the MMU and increased the likelihood of an orbital mission for him.

McCandless got his first chance to go into space almost 18 years after becoming a NASA astronaut. He launched aboard STS-41-B in February 1984. This mission, after launching two satellites, saw McCandless conduct the first orbital use of the MMU. In a more than six hour spacewalk, he was the first human to fly untethered in space. The photo of him floating askew over the blue marble of Earth is one of NASA’s most iconic photographs.

McCandless returned to space once more in 1990 aboard Discovery for STS-31 (Space Shuttle missions are numbered very strangely sometimes). This mission saw the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope, one of the most impressive feats of human engineering.

After his second spaceflight, McCandless retired from NASA and the Navy in 1990. He then went to work for Lockheed. He’d received the Legion of Merit and Defense Distinguished Service Medal before he retired as a captain. He received many accolades and awards in aerospace engineering circles for his contributions to the MMU, including the prestigious Collier Trophy.

Legion of Merit

McCandless passed away in December 2017. He is buried at the Naval Academy Cemetery.

Bruce McCandless I

Bruce McCandless’ II father is Bruce McCandless I. As with his son, McCandless also matriculated at the US Naval Academy, graduating in 1932. He joined the fleet and was communications officer aboard the heavy cruiser USS San Francisco, berthed at Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941.

USS San Francisco had been undergoing significant repairs at the time the attack started. A signalman aboard San Francisco was the first American to recognize the attack and sound the alarm. The men of San Francisco sprang into action and secured the ship for movement, but since the guns were out of commission many of the men moved to the USS New Orleans moored beside them and helped handle ammunition for New Orleans’ gunners.

On November 13, 1942, McCandless was now a lieutenant commander as the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal was underway. During a large nighttime engagement, the bridge of San Francisco was struck, wounding and knocking McCandless unconscious.

When McCandless came to, he was the only surviving man on the navigating or signal bridges. The captain, navigator, the admiral in command, and their staff had all been killed or seriously wounded.

McCandless took up command and fought his ship through the rest of the harrowing battle. He directed the ship’s course and effective gun fire. The other ships in the task force had no idea the admiral had been killed, so when McCandless took San Francisco into the enemy, the rest of the column followed.

For gallantry and exceptionally distinguished service during the battle McCandless was awarded the Medal of Honor. He also received a meritorious promotion to commander. He remained aboard San Francisco until 1944.

U.S. Navy Medal of Honor

McCandless took command of the newly commissioned destroyer USS Gregory in July 1944. On April 8, 1945, while participating in the Battle of Okinawa, the ship was attacked by kamikazes.

Four enemy planes dove in to attack the destroyer. McCandless led his men as they downed two planes, forced one off, but were hit by the fourth. Through the subsequent explosion, fire, and damage McCandless continued to calmly and cooly direct his crew, ensuring they would be able to repel any further attacks.

McCandless received the Silver Star for these actions. He retired with a terminal promotion to rear admiral in 1952. He died in 1968 and is buried at the Naval Academy Cemetery.

Silver Star

Byron McCandless

Byron McCandless was the father of Bruce McCandless I and grandfather of Bruce McCandless II. Byron graduated from Annapolis in 1905.

After commissioning, he was with the Great White Fleet aboard USS Maine. He was a gunnery officer and then flag lieutenant, the personal aide to the commander of the Atlantic Fleet.

During World War I, McCandless commanded USS Caldwell (DD-69), the lead ship of her class of destroyers, from her commissioning in July 1917. As part of the Atlantic Fleet, Caldwell was tasked with providing escorts in the U-boat infested waters of the Northern Atlantic.

During the war, McCandless and his ship were given an urgent tasking in which they conducted underwater listening experiments to help locate enemy submarines. At the conclusion of the war, USS Caldwell transported troops to Brest, France and was part of the naval escort for President Wilson when he arrived there aboard USS George Washington (ID-3018).

For his service as captain of USS Caldwell, McCandless was awarded the Navy Cross. During the war he’d undertaken the dangerous and taxing work of escorting much needed supplies and troops across waters patrol by enemy U-boats and heavily mined.

Navy Cross

Byron McCandless remained in the Navy after the war. From 1937 he was commanding officer of Destroyer Base San Diego. He served in that post, with the rank of commodore (a 1-star rank equivalent to rear admiral [lower half] today). He oversaw a massive increase in the size and capabilities of the base. During the war, they repaired, converted, and serviced more than 5,000 ships.

Byron retired in 1946 after receiving the Legion of Merit for his command of the San Diego base.

Legion of Merit

During his naval career, McCandless had been something of an inventor. He invented a vehicular contraption known as the Jeheemy, which was used to salvage swamped landing craft from beaches, and held several patents

He also had a hobby in vexillology, the study of flags. National Geographic called him one of America’s foremost experts on flags, and in 1917 he nearly single-handedly authored the magazine’s “Flag Number” in which almost 1,200 flags of the world were printed, in color, with a detailed history of the American flag.

In 1915 McCandless, aide to the Secretary of the Navy, designed a new flag for the President of the United States. Franklin Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of the Navy at the time and also involved in the process. President Wilson wanted a single presidential flag, replacing the separate Army and Navy versions. After drawing up a draft flag that used the Navy’s blue version with the Great Seal in the middle, adding four stars around the seal. Wilson’s only critique was to use the eagle from the presidential seal instead. So it was that McCandless designed the President’s flag, which went into use in 1916.

March 1945, now President Franklin Roosevelt, wondered if the presidential flag needed to be updated from its four star design now that he had created several 5-star flag officers. Roosevelt wrote to his old comrade and flag aficionado Commodore McCandless. Unfortunately FDR passed away before Byron could reply, but the new President, Harry Truman, was still interested in updating the design.

McCandless drew up several designs, preferring one in which the Presidential Seal would be surmounted by six stars, indicating a higher rank. Truman, a veteran but not a career military man, prefered one that didn’t try to denote a military rank to the commander in chief. Eventually a design was settled on, updating McCandless’ 1916 version with a circle of 48 stars encircling the eagle. It went into use in 1945 for the first time at the commissioning ceremony of the USS Franklin Roosevelt.

President Truman’s Flag

Byron McCandless died in 1967. By the time of his death, the rank of commodore was no longer being used. He was listed as a rear admiral on the retired list.

Byron’s father Julius McCandless (picture not available) had been born with the last name spelled McCanles. He’d changed the spelling after his father David McCanles had been involved in a gun battle with “Wild Bill” Hickok. In what would become part of Hickok’s reputation as a legendary Wild West gunfighter, he took down the “McCanles Gang” who he said were bank robbers, train robbers, horse thieves, and cattle rustlers. Historians aren’t sure how much of that is true, but David McCanles was in fact gunned down by Hickok in 1861 in the Nebraska Territory.

David McCanles

So the family tree, as we’ve explored so far, goes something like this;

David McCanles -> Julius McCandless (nee McCanles) -> Byron McCandless -> Bruce McCandless I -> Bruce McCandless II, in a story that has so far taken us from 1861 into the 1990’s.

There’s a bit more to the story here. The mother of Bruce McCandless II (the astronaut) was Sue Worthington Bradley. Her father, Bruce II’s maternal grandfather, was Willis Bradley.

Willis Bradley

Bradley was a US naval officer like all the other men discussed here. Graduating from Annapolis in 1906 he joined the fleet, receiving his commission in 1908.

In 1908, while aboard USS Culgoa (AF-3), he was a part of a rescue and humanitarian operation in Italy after the devastating 1908 Messina earthquake. Bradley worked so hard and tirelessly that his efforts were rewarded with a medal from the Pope.

During World War I, Bradley was a gunnery officer on USS Pittsburgh (CA-4). On July 23, 1918, as Pittsburgh while entering the harbor at Buenos Aires, Argentina, a 3-inch saluting cartridge suddenly exploded in one of the gun casemates. Two men in the gun compartment were wounded, Seaman C.T. Lyles mortally so. The other man, Gunner’s Mate Ora Graves was knocked unconscious. Bradley, then a lieutenant, was just about to enter the casemate when it exploded. Bradley was blown back from the force of the blast and also knocked briefly unconscious.

Inside the casemate, Graves came to and found the compartment filled with noxious black smoke and material on the deck was on fire, threatening the rest of the ship’s armaments the explosion of which would likely destroy the ship. Graves began to put out the fires on the deck by hand.

Lieutenant Bradley, coming to, despite still being dazed from the explosion, crawled into the compartment and assisted Graves in putting out the fire manually.

Graves and Bradley, through their bravery in the face of the danger of a burning compartment sitting on a literal powderkeg, saving the ship and its men. They both received the Medal of Honor.

U.S. Navy Medal of Honor

Bradley served after the war and through the Second World War. He ultimately retired in 1946 as a captain. He was elected for one term to the House of Representatives in 1947, then worked in the private sector for two years, and then was elected to the California State Assembly in 1952. He held that post until his death in 1954.

Imagine being born into a family like that. Bruce McCandless II had two children. The McCandless children had quite a high bar set for them with a pioneering astronaut father, a grandfather who received the MoH, a great-grandfather who received the Navy Cross, another great-grandfather that received the MoH, and all four of those ancestors having attended the US Naval Academy. That the whole clan traces itself directly to an Old West outlaw gang (possibly) that was in a gunfight with Wild Bill Hickok would be an interesting historical footnote on the family tree, but it’s not even the most noteworthy!

Cut this post and it bleeds Navy Blue. Amazing story, Mason, Thanks!

Hand Salute. Ready, Two!

Category: Navy, The Warrior Code, Valor