I was Comm Officer late '71 to late '73. After some grad school I put in a patchwork career in agri-business in marketing (animal health and crop chemicals). Last 10 years I have run my own media production business Buzz Creek . I am the volunteer webmaster for O'Callahan association. I'm glad I found this wiki program from wetpaint because it makes it easy for membership to update pages without a lot of communication loops. I live in New Jersey but hope to retire and return home to the Florida Panhandle (near Pensacola) by 2010.

I have to tell you , my bosses in the Navy were challenged by what may have appeared to be poor performance. I was not the finest officer the Navy ever had - that is for sure. I think that honor probably went to my roommate - Bob Freund the EMO. - as far as Junior Officers were concerned. Imagine in the same room the BEST and the Worst JO's in the whole navy. I was probably just miscast as a comm officer. The intelligence was there, just not the discipline or the organizational skills for the details of the job. I might have been a good deck officer or weapons officer. I was just very very lucky to have an excellent crew in my division and probably the best First Class and Chiefs ever to serve.

bio

Vic Campbell was born in 1949 to Aviation Machinists Mate First Class, James Lee Campbell and Myrtle Carswell Campbell at the Jacksonville Naval Hospital. A ready-made older brother was already in the household. This brother was to become Captain James E. Campbell, Medical Service Corps, United States Navy Reserve. Some years later a sister was added to the family. Wanda would grow into the Navy themed family as well. Both the Navy and strong family roots in the Florida Panhandle would shape all the children of J. Lee and Myrtle Campbell.

After formative years in Chumuckla, Florida, Vic moved on to Pensacola Junior College and then the University of West Florida for a degree in Biology, while also attaching himself to a Navy Reserve association. With his BS degree in hand, the Navy accepted him as a Junior Officer and provided him opportunities to explore the Western reaches of the Pacific, including Vietnam (service in USS O'Callahan). In this time he married Karen Gatewood Campbell of Avalon Beach. It was a brief Navy career for Vic as he began to understand that the organization was entirely based on military discipline. When the opportunity arose, he left the Navy to pursue graduate school in Agricultural Economics at the University of Florida. Vic’s military ribbons include the RVN Service Ribbon, Vietnam Campaign Ribbon, Combat Action Ribbon, Pistol Marksmanship and National Defense. His last rank held was Lieutenant Junior Grade.

Vic and Karen then began careers that took them to Georgia and then to New Jersey where they are today. After some 20 years in the business of marketing chemicals and pharmaceuticals into the agricultural world, Campbell stepped away, writing and filming in his own business, Buzz Creek. Some results from that effort are a documentary film about the demise of the Navy's Asiatic Fleet in 1942, and a warm reflection of memories in a book called "Junction, County Road 197 (Mild Adventure for The Armchair Ruralist)". Vic maintains a close association with the USS Houston Survivors Association and continues to interview veterans for historical record when opportunities allow. Many of these are featured in excerpts shown at me3tv.org. He runs the website for his own ship at ussocallahan.org and maintains the website for The New York Commandery of The Naval Order of The United States ( nousny.org ), where he is a member.

A son, Alex, was born in 1991 and is now entering his senior year in high school. Vic and Karen plan to retire soon and return to the Florida Panhandle to live and enjoy the people and the culture that formed them.

(bio for speaker at Brother's Navy retirement)