Oral History: Errol Kellum

[0:00] when you came on the aircraft carrier uh you if you didn't have a a eagle on your shoulder that that designated what your job was was you were just a seaman as I was you could be put anywhere and that's what they did especially in Vietnam time uh uh the numbers weren't what they should have been for for the crew so when everything when when anything was low you were picked and you were told where to go where you going to work at and when I first start came on to the intrepret my first job was in the bakery and then later on I was putting a deck crew I even had the experience of

[0:43] for uh as you as uh uh what is the word uh check offs for for training for for emergency training I even had the a great experience I'm talking about experiences on helicop and all that I actually as to make it easy I drove the ship I I held the Helm of yeah it was a half hour training that I had to go through and that was one experience that you start to realize and appreciate how weight is and how you just don't turn it like you turn a car the the captain is calling the course you got a navigator not Navigator uh quartermaster who who's plotting it out but uh the Helmsman is is a a

[1:33] seaman and you have the Helman and then you have the uh I forget the name the guy on the gears talking talking to the engines how much speed we need how much so yeah that that's until you do it you don't realize how I mean you have to stay on course it's it's it's it's not like driving a car at all because you have so much weight and you also have the ship in the and in the water being controlled so I mean it's it's something that I I see why they had you experience that ahead of time so that when you had to do it you respect it and you know that you just don't pull it too hard you

[2:17] just got to keep and and you would think that like in a car where you're sitting there and looking out the window and enjoying it it doesn't work that way you got a compass right in front of you and you got to keep on that he called what okay you repeat back okay this is he wants such and such okay that this is what you do and you got to stay on it and the the weight of the ship the tilt of the ship the bcy of the ship it's a job it's not a it's not

[2:53] play that's the problem it's too easy to turn and you have to keep it on he said one 60 it stays on 160 but the ship itself drifts to 161 and you don't you don't hardly you don't do a hard turn on it you gently take because when that weight starts to move yeah it's a lot of weight and you just don't turn it back that quick so in the first uh uh 15 10 to 15 minutes you realize you got to respect what you doing you got to pay attention to that Compass there's no looking around to enjoy the ride you're the main important person here holding this ship and you got to keep it on at

[3:33] 160 he as for and it's not doing it for you the ship is always killing one way or the other and going the way it wants to go and you got to and I mean gently cuz too much and you feel it everybody feels it yeah everybody's looking at you the captain's looking at you why is it tilting so much the guy know what he's doing you know so in 10 to 15 minutes you realize yeah this is not uh uh a fun this is a job that you got to pay attention what you're doing and you can tell also too you can tell when someone's new on the helm you can feel it on the ship you can feel it Twi from

[4:12] one side to the other oh this guy got to be new you know so you get to respect it and and uh like everything in the na Navy training is the key and you you hold a Helm you you realize that it does take good training you

[4:38] yeah temporary quarters M the things are just going it's it was on the line so things were already hopping when I got on and uh I don't know when I don't know seemed like it was the same day or that I was assigned to to the uh Bakery so then they explained to me that's how goes we put you where you need you right now and uh we'll find you a division later on that we're going to have you in I even had a uh what made me decide to break out the books and want to be a radar man cic uh is when I was told that uh because of your size you're pretty strong looking and

[5:26] you're small you're not very big but you're strong uh we got a thing called a a tunnel rat that we need in Vietnam and I'm going to put you on that list this was a it was also a threat too because uh I had uh voiced my opinion too much to a third classman who was in charge of us so uh Osborne never forget him from uh uh Boston he was our uh on the Intrepid yeah yeah he was a chief that had got busted down the first class he was a rough guy but he told me K him I heard you talking to my man right here and you were giving him a whole lot of grief uh I'm putting you on

[6:13] the list for tunnel rat I said you said what and without him knowing it I said I've been thinking about this I'm not really enjoying this division that much anyway and I secretly got the broke out the books for radar and right away and I got so serious about the Navy from that point on I said yeah I've been enjoying it too much on the on the easy side I said now it's time to get serious and when I had finished my course there nothing he could do when I asked for the for the uh transfer and there I went the radar

[7:04] the radar scope itself is going to pick up everything surface wise ships air everything is taken picked up with the the radar anytime you anytime you're out at se you're covering 200 miles that's you get see the importance of that too and and anything moving 200 miles you start plotting their their their their course of speed and their Direction so that you know how close and how much time before it gets to you that's why you defend yourself at 200 miles always 200 miles Vietnam we didn't expect anything coming but we still covered 200 miles that's just the protocol secondly now you're saying different Radars no no no a radar is going to pick up everything so there's not different

[7:57] types of Radars it's just in in that different sections in that R in cic is he's doing he's plotting the ships he's plotting this he's plotting that that's it's the same radar Scopes all of them are the same uh but this they're just they're just they're just assigned to different areas of different jobs but the same thing whatever is on his scope is on my scope that's why I picked up this plane okay because uh I I could see the ships around us I could see the planes coming in but we don't pay attention to that because the Squadron falling but since I wasn't assigned to uh surface I wasn't assigned to this I wasn't assigned anything I was

[8:44] just plotting everything you know and just sort of get myself back in the realm because I know uh in a week or two I'm going to be back here again I'm going to be uh relieved from uh the chief scarters so I was just plotting as I said I wasn't assigned anything so I was just plating everything just to get back in the groove again and that's why I I saw the plane when it blipped off it wasn't there again force of habit is because you know your job it blipped off you mark where it blipped off it didn't mean anything cuz I I what's my job I know his Squadron had him it could have been nothing good

[9:27] thing he did yeah yeah and that's why huh the captain's calling for what hey I got something felt good that I had something you know and like I said you only had 20 minutes we know that sharks don't mess

[9:50] around even uh when I speak about it I do speak about the fact that uh my carer is a museum now and still it's in New York Harbor and I find myself saying those words and and and and being proud of it but I was also proud of it at in in the day because uh as I I was always proud of the fact that we kept that e for efficiency in our divisions because we worked as a good group and interpret has that name uh most salers you talk to about the interpret was uh even with our little Stripes here and there and our differences and some people slower than others to adjust to life as it changed uh we all

[10:40] worked as a good unit and I was proud of that and sometimes when I come back to the ship from Liberty I look up and see that LE and I was proud of that and then I see the E efficiency on the side of the uh uh uh ship and I say boy yeah I those things you are proud of and it makes you feel good that you're part of a a tight unit that does a good job