Catching up with a soldier
More than a decade later, Bryce Crandall talks about Afghanistan
The Front Page
Morning Update
Wednesday, April 6, 2022
By Ken Tingley
It had been more than a decade since we talked.
Actually, now that I think about it, I’m not sure if we ever talked, at least not on the phone or face to face. After all, he was in Afghanistan at the time.
Bryce Crandall, a 22-year-old Lake George kid I did not know, sent me an email out of the blue before Thanksgiving in 2010. He said he was an Army private serving in a heavy armored division in the mountains of the Wardak province just south of Kabul in Afghanistan.
He was looking for my help.
From Afghanistan.
He wanted to find a way to help needy kids and families back home during the holidays. He had read my column in the newspaper growing up, so he wanted to know if I could help.
I imagined a lonely private, missing his family, missing his home in the Adirondacks and looking for a connection to the real world during the holidays.
I didn’t imagine the daily terror.
His company’s mission was to cut off a Taliban supply line funneling weapons through the mountain valley.
“It was an interesting dynamic,” Bryce explained. “The contrast between how beautiful the landscape was (during the quiet of the day) and how violent the events were on the ground was striking. It was just about daily combat. Our outpost was shelled every morning and every evening.”
Knowing that now makes his request to help others even more remarkable.
I tried to do my part.
“Making a difference from half a world away,” was published on Nov. 30, 2010. I told the story of this lonely private on guard duty in the mountains of Afghanistan. A second column pushed the idea further, asking readers to donate what they could. Bryce’s mother set up an account at the local bank and Bryce primed the pump with a $500 donation - on a private’s pay.
The plea touched hearts all around the region. After Christmas, I contacted Bryce’s mom and and she told me they had raised $7,000 and she had dispersed the funds to a variety of local charities.
I may have emailed Bryce again. I may have thanked him for his heart and soul and service. I honestly don’t remember. Life went on for both of us.
When I was putting together my book of columns in 2020, I knew that Bryce’s story had to be included. When I tried to find out where Bryce was and how things had turned out, I came up empty-handed.
Until last month.
I was speaking at a packed house at the Greenwich Public Library. Because of Covid, attendance was limited and one woman could not get in, so she waited outside for more than an hour.
As we were preparing to leave, the woman began banging on the library door, hoping to speak with me. The woman walked up to me and thrust a photo of solider in full combat gear. She asked me if I recognized the man.
It immediately clicked.
“I wrote about that young man,” I said.
“Bryce Crandall is my nephew,” Gail Crandall said.
I signed the book she had bought for Bryce and asked her to get me Bryce’s contact information.
Bryce and I finally talked Sunday.
Bryce completed his first deployment in Afghanistan successfully. His company had completed its mission, but there were not enough replacements after they left and the position they held that past year was overrun.
“All that hard work over the previous year did not amount to anything,” Bryce said.
Still, he volunteered to return in 2013. The mission was smaller and lasted just six months, but this time he was in a leadership position.
“From my own perspective, I told myself that nothing I ever do will be as hard as this,” Bryce continued. “I will never be as tired, as excited, as terrified, as bored as this.”
Bryce came home to Lake George afterward, spent time with his family and friends for a few months, but he had a plan.
One visit to San Diego convinced him he wanted to live there.
He enrolled in San Diego State and completed his undergraduate degree, then enrolled at California-San Diego and got his master’s degree. He was hoping to go into politics and work in Washington, D.C. but the pandemic derailed those plans. He stayed in San Diego with his girlfriend and dog Mango. He now works in software sales.
But as Bryce talks, you realize there is something else.
You notice he is talking more slowly when he tries to describe the experience for him and his colleagues.
He tells you he couldn’t be around fireworks for five years after he returned.
There was a tremor in his voice.
He told me about how the men in his company had a rough time of it, too.
Eleven of his colleagues died in Afghanistan, but that is not even the worst of it.
“Some guys had serious issues when they came back,” Bryce said. “A number of them took their own lives.”
He reports that his company has now lost more men since it came back than when it was in Afghanistan being shelled night and day.
“When you are over there, you rewire your brain,” Bryce said. “Sometimes, it is tough to uncross those wires.”
That is the cost of war on young men.
Bryce said he had his own battles, but he has a good support network and he reached out for help when he needed it.
In some ways, life is better Bryce said.
“Suddenly, sitting in traffic is easier,” Bryce said. “Day to day life was easier. Nothing was quite as challenging.”
When the United States pulled out of Afghanistan, Bryce tried to reconcile the decision with his own sacrifices. He is still wrestling with it.
“I’m trying not to take the position that it was all in vain,” Bryce said. “For me that means that everyone that died or came back a little less whole…”
Bryce pauses.
You know, he doesn’t want to think that. He can’t think that.
College event
It has been awhile since I spoke to a college journalism class. On Monday, I made the drive to Utica University where I spoke to a dozen or so journalism and mass communications students in Mary Christopher’s class.
I came away impressed by their passion and knowledge of the craft they are studying. I’m hoping I gave them a few pointers to help in their journey. I hope they get an opportunity. I told them it was worth it. We need more young people in journalism. Actually, we need more journalists period.
Ken, I was going to ask you to tell Bryce Thank you for his service on my behalf, but I see he's here, so Thank You for Your service, soldier. I'm pleased you're back safe & sound.
Thank you, Ken - and thank you all for the kind thoughts! I couldn't be more appreciative of my family & friends, as well as the community that I grew up in. All of those folks gave me something to come home to and helped me stay on my feet when I returned.
I have to give a huge shoutout to everyone at the Brain Treatment Foundation. They were able to help me when I absolutely needed it most. If you're looking for a worthy charity to support, check them out!