Scope and Contents

The collection consists of a blood chit and 6 8mm films documenting Colonel Harry Candler's service as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam that includes footage of the Battle of Ap Bac. The materials are dated 1963 and 1966-1968.

It also contains approximately a quarter of a linear foot of materials documenting Colonel Harry Candler's military service, including his time as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam and as Advisor to the Royal Thai Army Aviation from 1968 to 1970. the materials include articles and clippings; certificates; memos and correspondence; service records; photographs and images; letters of commendation and appreciation; military orders; genealogical information; a eulogy honoring Warrant Officer Welch; Veterans: Allies of Freedom by Joseph Sujka (7th grade essay); film timestamps; flight records; award citations; earnings statements; military pay vouchers; documents regarding retirement from the U.S. Army; an artifact; educational and training records; medical records; enlistment papers; and ephemera. The materials are dated 1960-1985.

Biographical / Historical

Colonel Harry Winston Candler, Jr was born in Fort Knox, Kentucky. He graduated from Texas A&M where he received his commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Army. After Infantry School, he was sent to Flight School in helicopters and then to the 101st Airborne Division. He became the Army’s first Maintenance Officer on the UH-1 series helicopter. His next assignment was to Vietnam where he took the nation’s first armed helicopters into combat, served as an instructor pilot and gunnery instructor pilot in Vietnam and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Army Commendation medal and nine awards of the Air Medal. The Defense Department sent him to Presidio of Monterey, California for a year where he taught the Thai and Laotian and Vietnamese pilots how to fly helicopters. Thereafter, he was assigned to Thailand to serve as the first advisor to the Royal Thai Government in helicopters, teaching in their native language.

Then he went back to Vietnam, where he was liaison officer to the US for the Royal Thai Army Volunteer Division, served as a Commander of an Aviation Company and then as the Executive Officer for an Aviation Battalion. The selection board then sent him to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to the Command and General Staff College. He then went to New Mexico for a Master’s Degree in Business, taught Data Processing and Personal Management at the New Mexico University in the evening, and was an instructor at the University in Management and military subjects during the day. The Inspector General of the Army assigned him to the Pentagon where for three years he was entrusted with the sensitive investigations of allegations of nonfeasance and malfeasance on the part of General Officers and equivalent raking civilians. He was one of three officers to receive The Legion of Merit during this tour. Another selection board next gave Colonel Candler the command of an Aviation Battalion. He was then selected to attend the school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He had already agreed to serve the University of Texas at Arlington, Texas when the Board results were announced and, although he had the liberty to pick either assignment, elected to continue to the University. He took over an ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) program. He taught Law, Management, and Ethics during this period, obtained his salesman and then Broker’s Real Estate license, and taught Contract Law, Real Estate Law, Mathematics, Federal Housing Law Seminars and State Boards Licensing Preparation in the real estate program for the University.

Colonel Candler left military service with 29 years credited service and at retirement was asked by the University to take over ownership and management of the Real Estate School. In 1988, he was recruited by a Medical Group in Orlando, Florida, to assume management of another organization in jeopardy. Thereafter he was appointed Administrator of a 5-Surgeon medical group and for 15 years was responsible for all facets of the company other than the direct care of patients. At that time, Valencia College appointed him as Adjunct Professor of Business and Real Estate Law. From 1991, Harry Candler worked as a Professor of Business, Management, Real Estate, and Real Estate Law at Valencia College, and a frequent consultant in matters of Real Estate and Medical Management. In 2017, he moved back to Boerne, TX.