Ships
- USS Gregory (DD-802) Captain, 29 July 1944 – 9 October 1945
Bruce McCandless was born in Washington, D.C., on 12 August 1911. Appointed to the United States Naval Academy from Colorado, he was commissioned an ensign in June 1932. His early sea duty included the cruiser Indianapolis and the destroyer Case. He finished postgraduate study at Annapolis in September 1939, reported to the heavy cruiser San Francisco, and was promoted to lieutenant the following month.
He was still in San Francisco, serving as communications officer, when the Pacific war opened. Through 1942 the cruiser was tied to the long fight for Guadalcanal. On the night of 12–13 November, off Savo Island, Japanese gunfire swept her bridge. Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan, Captain Cassin Young, and the other officers there were killed or wounded. McCandless, a lieutenant commander since June, was hit and knocked unconscious. When he recovered he took the conn and, working with Commander Herbert E. Schonland, kept the damaged cruiser in action and brought her out of the battle.
For that night he received the Medal of Honor. The award recognized the initiative and seamanship that helped save San Francisco so she could fight again. Admiral Ernest J. King presented the medal aboard the cruiser at San Francisco on 12 December 1942. McCandless was promoted to commander soon after the action and remained in the ship into 1944.
On 29 July 1944 he placed the new Fletcher-class destroyer USS Gregory (DD-802) in commission at Tacoma, Washington, and became her first commanding officer. After shakedown along the West Coast, Gregory reached Pearl Harbor on 23 October. Training there ran into the new year. In January 1945 she sailed for Iwo Jima and, by way of Eniwetok and Saipan, arrived off the island on D-day, 19 February. For about a month McCandless kept her there under frequent fire, screening transports and shooting in support of the troops ashore.
Gregory then joined the Okinawa assault. She left Saipan on 27 March and was off the island on 1 April 1945. Her task group, under Admiral Jerauld Wright, made a demonstration landing on the southeast coast to pull attention away from the main landings in the west. She stayed on patrol and radar-picket duty. On the afternoon of 8 April, Japanese aircraft came in out of the sun. Gregory's guns struck the attackers, but one suicide plane crashed into the port side amidships, just above the waterline, and tore the hull open. McCandless directed the damage control, kept the ship able to beat off further attacks, and brought her back to port. For his command off Okinawa from 1 to 8 April 1945 he received the Silver Star.
He left Gregory on 9 October 1945 and joined the staff of the naval operating base at Terminal Island, California. In November 1946 he went to Washington for duty in the Naval District Affairs Division, Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations. He retired on 1 September 1952 and was advanced to rear admiral on the retired list. McCandless died on 24 January 1968 and was buried in the Naval Academy Cemetery. His son, Bruce McCandless II, later served in the Navy and flew as an astronaut.