Paul Kellum – A Short Walk Back in History

A Short Walk Back in History

SSGT Paul Kellum

My adventure with 2nd Battalion Hotel 2/5 began around December 26 or 27th. I had come off a 30-day leave after completing ITR at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The bus dropped me off in front Headquarters Battalion and I reported in.

I was told to wait outside and a few minutes later 1st Sgt Peabody came out holding my SRB (service record book) and said, “come with me”. A jeep appeared and he said “get in. That was my introduction to him, and we arrived at 1st Platoon. “Top” turned to me and said you’re my new platoon radio operator! I said I don’t know anything about that position! He said you will. You’ll have 30 days aboard the ship to learn.

I got my 782 gear, and two days later, with all I owned in my life packed a seabag and headed for the docks in San Diego. I spent the next three days helping to load the USS Bexar, a WWII troop transport ship. A hell-hold still floating.

USS Baxter – Wikipedia

USS Baxter (APA-94) was a Sumter-class attack transport in service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946. She was subsequently sold into merchant service and was finally scrapped in 1968.

I was finally told we were headed to Okinawa for jungle warfare training. I knew nothing of the unit I was with or the “battle history” that went along with it. It would be years later when I got the full picture.
Crossing the Pacific Ocean was a bitch. I took the top bunk, a five-tier rack where we were packed in like sardines. (my thought was if you got seasick, you’d want to toss your cookies over the side and gravity would take over) At one end was our seabag and the other end was our combat pack and 782 gear. So, you basically had a place to put your butt and your head. your feet squeezed in between.

Bells rang at 5am to get you up, shave, shower (3 minutes water limit) dress and on deck by 5:30am. Travel to the chow hall in a line that took 40-60 minutes, get your chow and be in formation by 8am, muster than off to classes. For me that was radio school. We were trained on the PRC 6, hand held medal piece of junk left over from WWII and the PRC 10, another ancient leftover from WWII.

The PRC 6 had a radius about two city blocks and the PRC 10 about 1 mile if the weather was nice, no mountains and the batteries held up. All of course was against you.

Oh, and the best was saved for last, “Guard Duty”. I was guarding 12 WWII jeeps in a hold three decks below the water line. I had to crawl down a tube in the decking to get to my station. Every hour I would crawl out report all clear and go back down. How the hell was somebody going to steal one was beyond me, but I survived and didn’t lose a Jeep either.

NTA (Northern Training Area) and Jungle training was where I finally got to meet the CO and XO. Lt. Doherty was a six-foot plus giant with a leg span of nine feet. If you were at the need of a platoon marching somewhere, you were sprinting.

His training philosophy was that of no rest, keep going and if you feel behind you were drugged by your teammates. When the orders came for the Battalion to load up on the 6×6 trucks to go to a training area, 1st platoon was already marching 6 miles head of the trucks, marching in full gear!

When the training exercise was over and orders to “load up” were given, his orders were” Right face, forward march” and we would walk right past Fox, Gulf and Weapons Platoons on the trucks. When we finally got back to the barracks, “orders” where for FOX, Gulf and Weapons “Liberty Call” and for Hotel “ clean your gear, get some chow and be ready to move out”! Lt Doherty said, “the more you sweat in peace time, the less you’ll bleed in war”. First Sergeant Peabody, (Top) took a liking to me for some reason and I felt he was watching over me.

The morning of the proposed landing I drew “fire-watch “on deck. We were about 4-5 miles offshore and the scenery was like watching a “John Wayne” movie! Red and green tracer rounds flying back and forth, flashes of light followed by delayed sounds of explosions. All of a sudden, the alarms go off on the ship and the Navy guys are running around like chickens with their heads removed. I asked one of them what was happening, and he told me the following story. It seems two of the Marines had seen the action on shore and decided they wanted no part of it. So they took their rubber ladies (inflated rubber air mattresses ) and with their ET (small shovels) jumped overboard and were paddling back home!

At 0430 we were given live ammo, two M26 grenades, since I was a radio operator, two green and two red smoke grenades, a WWII radio PRC 10 four batteries, 45 ammo 4 clips with 8 rounds each, one M14, 7.62 and 5 mags with 20 rounds each, three days of Korean C-rations, two canteens of water, air panels, wire cutters, and a roll of com wire. I also had my Combat pack with extra clothing, poncho, flash light, mess kit, candle, extra socks and toothpaste with brush. All toll about 85lbls of gear. Over the side we go with 85 lbs. of gear and a bouncing boat to jump into. The ride to shore in the “Pappa” boats wasn’t that bad. Just like in the movies the ramp plops down and we all jump out remembering to jump to the sides and The” landing” in Vietnam was just like a John Wayne movie. Over the sides on cargo nets, bouncing around in the Higgins boats, circling for an hour while the Navy got their shit together, followed by a perfect beach landing. We were told to expect heavy engagement! That was a joke.

The whole thing was “staged”. No shots fired, no explosions. In fact, they had TV cameras there and kids on the beach handing out soda and water. We loaded up on 6×6’s and headed for Hill#64. Later we were told it was done as part of a promotional gig to help recruiters back in the States. Hill #64 was another story, however. Three or four nights later our company was hit by a Battalion size unit of Viet Cong. The firefight lasted 45 minutes. This is where I was awarded the Bronze Star for something I did, however, to this day have no memory of doing it. During the firefight, our Marines started running load on ammo. My Company Radio Operator and I took turns running to the ammo bunker, which was being heavily targeted, to get ammo and run it to the front lines. The Platoon Leader, 1st LT Miller, a staff sergeant and the Company Gunny, all saw us doing this and wrote up the awards. I have copies of their statements. Again, I have no memories of doing this.

There were many other events, but the one that made me laugh was when Top came by and started to give me hell for being slow in digging my “hole” for the night. I said “oh that’s my hole over there and pointed. This one is for Lt. Miller! Top said “oh is that right” he walked towards the CP and called out for Lt. Miller to join him. A few minutes later, LT Miller appeared and took the ET tool from my hands and said he would finish up! From that day on, I never dug another hole for any officer ! Figured TOP had a conversation with him.

Paul J. Kellum L/Cpl. March 1966