Hometown: Spokane, WA
Branch: U.S. Army
Unit: Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division
Military Honors: Medal of Honor, Silver Star, Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: May 18, 1967 - KIA in Pleiku Province, Republic of Vietnam
Age: 32
Conflict: Vietnam War, 1959-1975

Bruce Grandstaff was born on June 2, 1934, to parents Jesse and Jean (McMath) Grandstaff. Along with older sister Elizabeth, Bruce’s family lived in Spokane, Washington where his father worked for the Pacific Fruit Company.

Bruce attended Garfield Grade School, then North Central High School—where he was an athlete and played trumpet in the band. After graduating with North Central’s class of 1952, Grandstaff attended Spokane Technical School and Eastern Washington State College, studying military science.

He left school in August 1954 to join the United States Army. Grandstaff was sent to Fort Ord in Monterey Bay, California for basic training, then to Fort Lewis outside of Tacoma, Washington, where he was assigned to the 7th Infantry Division.

Leaving the Army in 1957, Grandstaff returned to Spokane, where he met Deanna Dyer at the YMCA. The two dated, married, and later welcomed daughters Heather and Tami. According to Tami, Grandstaff held jobs at a grocery and at the U.S. Post Office.

With a wife and two young children to support, in November of 1961 Grandstaff decided to re-enlist and make a career out of Army service. He returned to Fort Lewis for training, and was later sent to Fort Benning, Georgia, where he completed Airborne School in July 1962.

Grandstaff served two tours in Korea before returning to Fort Lewis and being assigned to the 4th Infantry Division.

As with many military families, Army life took its toll on the Grandstaffs’ marriage. After a difficult divorce, Bruce had primary responsibility for raising his two young daughters while balancing his Army assignments. With help from his parents, he managed to navigate being both a father and full-time soldier.

Bruce Grandstaff remarried in December 1964 to Claudia Stiff, a nurse from Canada. With his daughters, the family lived at Fort Lewis beginning in the summer of 1965. In 1966, Grandstaff achieved the rank of Sergeant First Class.

Vietnam

Now assigned to Company B, 8th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division, he and his unit stepped up training in preparation for deployment to Vietnam—which came in September 1966. It would not take long for SFC Grandstaff to display extraordinary courage under fire.

On March 22, 1967, SFC Grandstaff’s unit came under heavy attack from a large force of the North Vietnamese Army. Grandstaff’s leadership would earn him a Silver Star citation—which reads, in part:

When his platoon became separated from the rest of the unit and pinned down by enemy machine-gun fire, Sergeant First Class Grandstaff moved through the rain of hostile fire to rally his men and position them in a defensive formation. He delivered an extremely telling volume of fire into the enemy positions, neutralizing a number of them. Then, ordering his men to move to rejoin the main unit, Sergeant First Class Grandstaff remained behind and used his weapon to lay down a deadly sheet of covering fire.

Seeing one of his men wounded and lying in the open, he ran to the man’s aid, all the while maintaining his devastating fire, and began carrying him to safety. Several times, Sergeant First Class Grandstaff was temporarily pinned down by heavy fire as the enemy tried to thwart his rescue attempt, but he doggedly moved onward until he finally reached the relative security of the perimeter. His unmitigated courage and spirit of absolute determination heartened his men, eliciting their best efforts throughout the arduous battle.

Sergeant First Class Grandstaff’s extraordinary heroism in close combat against a numerically superior force is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.

Two months later, Platoon Seargeant Grandstaff’s unit was on a reconnaissance mission in Vietnam’s Pleiku Province. For a second time, he demonstrated selfless courage in facing impossible circumstances. His actions are described in his Medal of Honor citation:

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Platoon Sergeant Bruce Alan Grandstaff (ASN: RA-56240242), United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, in action against enemy aggressor forces in Pleiku Province, Republic of Vietnam, on 18 May 1967.

Platoon Sergeant Grandstaff distinguished himself while leading the Weapons Platoon, Company B, on a reconnaissance mission near the Cambodian border. His platoon was advancing through intermittent enemy contact when it was struck by heavy small arms and automatic weapons fire from three sides. As he established a defensive perimeter, Platoon Sergeant Grandstaff noted that several of his men had been struck down. He raced 30 meters through the intense fire to aid them but could only save one. Denied freedom to maneuver his unit by the intensity of the enemy onslaught, he adjusted artillery to within 45 meters of his position.

When helicopter gunships arrived, he crawled outside the defensive position to mark the location with smoke grenades. Realizing his first marker was probably ineffective, he crawled to another location and threw his last smoke grenade but the smoke did not penetrate the jungle foliage. Seriously wounded in the leg during this effort he returned to his radio and, refusing medical aid, adjusted the artillery even closer as the enemy advanced on his position.

Recognizing the need for additional firepower, he again braved the enemy fusillade, crawled to the edge of his position and fired several magazines of tracer ammunition through the jungle canopy. He succeeded in designating the location to the gunships but this action again drew the enemy fire and he was wounded in the other leg. Now enduring intense pain and bleeding profusely, he crawled to within ten meters of an enemy machinegun which had caused many casualties among his men. He destroyed the position with hand grenades but received additional wounds.

Rallying his remaining men to withstand the enemy assaults, he realized his position was being overrun and asked for artillery directly on his location. He fought until mortally wounded by an enemy rocket.

Although every man in the platoon was a casualty, survivors attest to the indomitable spirit and exceptional courage of this outstanding combat leader who inspired his men to fight courageously against overwhelming odds and cost the enemy heavy casualties.

Platoon Sergeant Grandstaff’s selfless gallantry, above and beyond the call of duty, are in the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

One of the surviving American soldiers, PFC Clifford Roundtree from Anderson, California, later told reporters that Grandstaff hadn’t arbitrarily called artillery fire down on his platoon. “We reached complete agreement that the artillery be brought in on us,” Roundtree said. “We all realized that this was the only hope to prevent us from being overrun.”

PSG Grandstaff was lost at age 32. In letters home to his wife Claudia, he wrote about the baby they were expecting together, and about how his homeland was worth fighting for as a place for his family to live and for his children to thrive.

Memorials

At Fort Lewis, in his home state of Washington, the PSG Bruce A. Grandstaff Memorial Library was built and dedicated to his memory. In September of 2010, a granite monument was dedicated in Grandstaff’s honor at the Greenwood Memorial Terrace in his hometown of Spokane, and the Mann-Grandstaff Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center was renamed in recognition of his service to his country.

Grandstaff is honored at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., where his name is inscribed on Panel 20E, Line 28.

PSG Bruce Grandstaff’s daughter Heather turned 8 years old the day before he was lost, Tami was 6 years old. Four days before his death, Claudia Grandstaff gave birth to their daughter, Jeanne.

Sources
Details submitted by Tami Grandstaff-Chamberlain, PSGT Grandstaff’s Gold Star Daughter
Congressional Medal of Honor Society: Bruce Alan Grandstaff
The Spokesman-Review, Nov. 10, 2004: His heroism should never be forgotten
The Spokesman-Review, Sep. 9, 2010: Monument to honor bravery of Spokane soldier and father
Military Times—The Hall of Valor Project: Bruce Alan Grandstaff
The Bremerton Sun, May 22, 1967: Tacoma Sergeant Called Artillery on Platoon
Fairmount Memorial Association: SFC Bruce Grandstaff: Vietnam War Medal of Honor
Washington State HistoryLink.org: Bruce Alan Grandstaff is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony on July 10, 1969
The News Tribune, May 22, 1967: Hero of 4th Division Platoon Died 4 Days After Daughter Born
Burial Site: Find a Grave