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.