Some Oriskany Related Finds

A lot of my hobby time is spent cruising around eBay for U.S. military collectibles from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Within the past week I came across these two items up for auction. I didn't bid on the jacket and the patch got too pricey for my wallet. But I pulled both of the item photos to share with you on the blog. The patch is a near mint condition 1960 USS Oriskany cruise patch. Pretty cool design with some great color. The jacket is one of the highly-prized MA-1 "WEP" nylon flight jackets which became famous with frontline naval aviators in Vietnam. The jacket has an Oriskany connection with the VFP-63 photo recon patch on the jacket's right front shoulder. Enjoy!!!

The Hunters' Helmet Revisited

A while ago I posted that I should add a few more photos of my VF-162 helmet. So here are some additional pics of the helmet from the back and above. I took these photos with an original set of duck hunter camo fatigues as the backdrop and I threw in a set of Survival Cards and a Pilot's Survival Knife to set the mood. I have always loved the design of this helmet... pretty awesome and inspiring!!!!

Aboard the USS Intrepid

I was in New York City for a business trip from February 14-17. On the last day of our trip, we each got to hit the city on our own to do whatever we wanted to do in a few hours. So of course, I booked my way over to the USS Intrepid right away!!! I got there when the museum opened at 10:00 and immediately hit the hanger bay. They have so many great exhibits, lots of restored aircraft, interesting artifacts, some great videos and an amazing veterans interview collection. I somehow found my way through some back corridors and up a few stairways and magically ended up in CIC. I was so excited to be there that I called my dad. I said, "Hey dad, you'll never guess where I am!" He was pretty thrilled that I had made it out to see the Intrepid, which he was supposed to see last summer but didn't quite make it there. I eventually got out on the flight deck and saw my first F-8 Crusader up close and personal. All I could do was smile and admire the ole' gunfighter - all covered in snow, she still looked amazing. I also got to check out some of the rooms up in the island of the ship and take in all the great views from above. It was a really fun time and I definitely squeezed as much as I could into my two hour stay as possible. I really hope that I can make it out to see the Intrepid again some day, maybe even with my dad.

Armed Forces Day Display 2009

WOW!!! It has been a whole year since my last post on this blog. The good news is I have spent a good deal of this past year collecting items related to the USS Oriskany and her pilots. On Saturday, May 16th I finally had the chance to proudly display my collection at my group's annual Armed Forces Day exhibit at the Strategic Air & Space Museum. All of the time, money and hard work that went in to putting this display together was 100% dedicated to my dad, William "Bill" Krelle. I was so happy to do this for him to honor him and his Navy service. The first photo is of me and my dad at the display. I was dressed as a fighter pilot from VF-162 "The Hunters" and you can see my dad is wearing his favorite Oriskany ballcap.
This is my amazing family (which has grown in the past year.) My wonderful wife Tracy and I had our second child, Grant William Krelle, on Sunday, March 15th. His big sister Tatum was pretty excited to hang out at the museum and run around all the airplanes!
Here is a framed photo of the USS Oriskany and a grouping of several Oriskany patches. All of the patches framed in the photo are from my dad's collection. The patches on the table are some of the ones I have recently collected. The middle one is a 1971 Oriskany Cruise patch - a tough patch to win on eBay, but I got it!
Here is a grouping of some of my dad's navy uniform items. This is his set of gabardine blues that have some awesome custom embroidery done inside them. There is a rainbow colored dragon inside the top and some cool patterns down the inside of the pant legs.
Here is a grouping of plaques and paper items from the estate of the late Captain John Iarrobino, who was one of the skippers of the Oriskany when my dad was aboard. I was fortunate enough to pick these up a while back when a lot of his estate items were being auctioned off. You can also see a framed photo of CIC (where my dad worked on the ship) and a ceramic mug that belongs to my dad as well.
This is a grouping of items that I am really proud of! Pictured here (clockwise from front) are a bunch of Oriskany squadron patches, a signal light, a shroud knife, a signal mirror, a shark repellant pack, a sea dye marker pack, a whistle, signal foil strips, ammunition bandoleers, a strobe light, a deck of survival cards, a pilot's survival knife and leather sheath, a framed photo of VF-162 in 1967, a Vietnam-era angle head flashlight, an APH-6 helmet with VF-162 markings, and a U.S. Navy pilot's dead reckoning computer. All of these items (other than the patches) are actual original Vietnam dated equipment. A lot of this stuff is getting pretty hard to come by these days.
Well, here it is!!! My pride and joy!!! Last November I was able to purchase an APH-6 helmet from a company called flighthelmet.com. When I received the helmet it was originally white with several crumbling orange reflective tape strips on the back and sides. The helmet itself was in decent shape when I got it, but I had a lot of clean-up and restoration work to do. In the springtime I started by scraping off all the old tape and giving the helmet a good cleaning. I then completely took the helmet apart and put all of the screws and other parts in labeled bags. Next I taped off the helmet and spray primed the helmet and visor housing. After that step was complete I painted the helmet a semi-gloss black. After a few days of drying, I put the helmet back together. Then I started on the design elements. I referenced a lot of photos of actual VF-162 helmets from 1965-1969. I had to hand cut-out templates for all of the shapes and then use those templates to cut pieces of new reflective yellow tape. With a lot of patience I carefully placed each new star and chevron on the helmet. The final helmet turned out great and everyone at the display seemed very impressed with it. I will have to post some photos of the back of the helmet which is just as cool as the front!
Pictured at the front here is a mint condition 1970 dated SV-2 survival vest. Behind it is a LPU-10/P underarm life preserver - this is really an Air Force item, but I was unable to buy a proper Mk-3C life preserver which the navy used during the early part of the war. To the right is a khaki officer's garrison cap with Colonel's rank insignia.
On the left is a MA-2 torso harness with upper and lower koch fittings and on the left is a CSU-15/P anti-g suit. Both of these are navy issue items but both are from the later 1970's so they are not completely correct. Within the torso harness and g-suit I have placed an original set of beo-gam or "duck hunter" camouflage fatigues. Several of the squadrons on the Oriskany were know for wearing two-piece camouflage uniforms instead of the more traditional flight suits of the day.
Here is one of the informational boards that I designed and put together for the display. I did one board on the history of the Oriskany, one board focused on famous F-8 pilots of the Oriskany (pictured above) and another board focused on famous A-4 and Spad pilots from the O Boat.
Here is the museum's MiG-21 with North Vietnamese markings!!! Pretty wild to see a MiG-21 just outside of Omaha, Nebraska - but they have one and it was right behind my display tables. I thought that was pretty fitting.
And finally a photo of me and my "Hunters" helmet standing by the MiG. I think that Dick Bellinger would approve. It was a great day and I met a lot of great folks. One gentleman whom I spoke with for quite a while was Ben Moody who was an A-6 Intruder pilot off the USS Coral Sea. He was really fun to talk to and he had a lot of personal experience with all of the stuff I had on display. I was thrilled to meet him and so many other veterans that day. So I salute them and all of the great men both living and deceased who served aboard the Mighty Oriskany.

The Moving Wall

Last night my dad and I drove out to Elkhorn, Nebraska to see The Moving Wall. Recognized as the only true replica of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C., the Moving Wall is a perfect half-size copy of the actual memorial. A little background on the Moving Wall, it is 252.83 feet long and stands six feet in height at the vertex. It is made of aluminum with a surface painted using a two-part polyurethane gloss black. There are 58,253 names on the Wall with 395 names from Nebraska and over 850 names from Iowa.

As we initially made our way up to the wall, my dad was stopped by another Navy man who saw my dad's black USS Oriskany ballcap. The gentleman had been on an escort ship for the USS Kearsarge and he instantly shared with my dad his appreciation of the Oriskany. My dad always gets a big smile on his face when he talks with someone about the Oriskany. They both agreed that it was a shame that the "Mighty O" had been sunk. We took a few minutes to orient ourselves to the design of the Wall and how it is laid out. We were soon able to start finding the names of some Omaha men on the Wall as well as several Oriskany sailors and pilots whose names we had written down. Some of the names that we looked for were Frank Elkins, Norman Roggow, Charles Boggs and Harry Juntilla from the Oriskany, and James Fous and Miguel Keith, both from Omaha and both Medal of Honor recipients. I was also able to find John Geoghegan and Willie Godboldt, soldiers of the 7th Cavalry Regt. who died in the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965 and are located next to each other on the Wall.
The above photo is from Panel 11E which records the names of most of the Oriskany men who perished from the October 26, 1966 fire. We had a list of all 44 men and looked for them toward the bottom of this panel.
Shown in the center of the above photo is the name of Norman L. Roggow. He is the Oriskany pilot whose body was recently returned to his family in Le Mars, Iowa. I posted some more information about him on this blog back in February.
We did rubbings for several of the names to take home as momentos. The name of CDR Harry W. Juntilla was on the top line of Panel 12E, so I had to get a step ladder to reach it. CDR Juntilla was the head of CIC on the Oriskany when my dad was aboard. His name is shown at the top of the above photo with the clouds reflecting from above. When I got down and handed my dad the rubbing for CDR Juntilla, he got somewhat emotional and had to take a few steps back. It kind of catches me by surprise sometimes... these emotions are real feelings that I myself have never had to experience, the loss of a comrade or friend. For someone like me born in 1975, these are the names of the men and women who have died in service to our country. But for those who lived through those times, these are their friends, brothers, husbands, and sons. I can easily see how some of the feelings experienced at the Wall can become overwhelming.
I thought this was a touching photo that I took of a visitor reading the names on the Wall. It was just a simple, heart-felt moment that I was fortunate enough to be observing from a distance.

At 8:00P.M., all 395 names from the state of Nebraska were read aloud for those in attendance to hear, names that the Wall knows all too well. We listened in silence as the list of those both remembered and forgotten rolled on, minute by minute, and town by town. After the last name was called, a lone bugler ended the night with a soft and sorrowful rendition of 'Taps". It was a touching moment that I will not soon forget. As the wall darkened with the onset of night, my dad and I headed home as our night came to an end. I felt very fortunate to be able to see the Moving Wall that night and to be able to share in some memories and some stories of Vietnam with my father.

Oriskany's Most Colorful C.O.

Commander Richard M. (Dick) Bellinger is one of the truly unique characters in U. S. naval aviation history. “Belly One” or “Belly,” as he was affectionately known, was a one-of-a-kind fighter pilot who may have seemed somewhat of a dinosaur by the 1960’s. He was a real “throwback” to an earlier era in air combat and had a notorious reputation as a “raging bull” who often seemed out-of-control. He flew U. S. Army Air Corps bombers in World War II, transferred to the Navy after the war, and flew combat missions in Korea. He was first the XO of VF-162 "The Hunters" on the Oriskany’s and later became the squadron’s CO.

Cdr. Bellinger was shot down by a MiG on 14 July 1966 after a high-speed chase over downtown Hanoi. After Bellinger’s Crusader was hit, he tried to make it to Da Nang before his fuel ran out. He ejected from his F-8 40 miles out from the mainland and was recovered by a rescue helicopter. On 9 October 1966 Cdr. Bellinger became the first Navy pilot to shoot down a MiG-21. He was flying an F-8E (149159 AH 210) leading three other “Hunter” F-8s as escorts for A-4s from the USS Intrepid. During the flight they were intercepted by a group of MiG-21s which were the newest communist aircraft and a real leap in technology. Using two Sidewinder missiles, Bellinger was able to nab one of the MiGs marking the first Navy kill over the new MiG-21. Upon his return to the Oriskany, Bellinger was heartily congratulated by his ship mates and squadron. Cdr. Bellinger was awarded the Silver Star by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara aboard the Oriskany one week later.

Cdr. Bellinger’s Silver Star was presented to him just days before the fire that killed forty-four of his Oriskany shipmates. On the morning of 26 October 1966, the Oriskany suffered a deadly fire when a crewman panicked and threw a flare, which had accidentally ignited while being moved, into a storage locker located at the forward starboard corner of hangar bay 1. The locker contained some 650 other flares which ignite in turn. Cdr. Bellinger’s stateroom was extremely close to the locker where the flares were ignited. His only way out of his cabin was to rip out an air conditioner unit and wriggle his naked 205-lb. frame through an eighteen-inch porthole and onto a burning catwalk to freedom. In what must have been a bizarre scene, Bellinger appeared on the flight deck stark naked at the height of the fire fighting action. The resulting fire took three hours to control, damaged six aircraft, and put the Oriskany out of action for several months. Air Wing 16’s commander was killed in the fire.

Bellinger was 42 years of age during the Oriskany’s 1966 cruise and a fair bit older than the average fighter pilot. Over the years, he had gained a real reputation as a heavy drinker and someone who would overlook the rules from time to time. It’s really quite amazing that a squadron commander could behave the way he did and still perform as well as he did when it counted. Bud Flagg, who served under Bellinger on the 1966 cruise, recalled that Bellinger was a “colorful” character. “But he flew the F-8 well and commanded the squadron well. He was always there to do the job. He was tops.” Sadly, Cdr. Dick Bellinger ended his days confined to a VA psychiatric facility. When he passed away the autopsy revealed that he had Alzheimer’s. Love him or hate him, Dick Bellinger was an American legend and an American hero.

Some material from this post is from the book F-8 Crusader Units of the Vietnam War by Peter Mersky.

Life Preserver Accessory Kit

I received the Life Preserver Accessory Kit that I won on eBay this past Friday. The kit is all original in the box with Marine Corps supply center papers and mostly 1969 to '73 dates on all of the contents. These kits may or may not have been used on the Oriskany during her Vietnam cruises, but I figure the kit is made up of all period-correct items and would make some fine display material. This kit came with the following items:
• Distress Light Marker
• Incandescent Lamp
• Sea Dye Marker Packet
• Shark Repellent Compound Packet
• Ball Whistle on Lanyard