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Brendan

This is an oral history interview conducted for the Witness to War: Serving a Nation project at Nauset Regional High School on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. For the sake of this interview, please state your full name and community in which you now reside.

My name is Brent Warren and I live in Eastham, Massachusetts.

How did you end up on Cape Cod?

Well my grandparents bought a place here back in the 50’s, and my mother grew up summering here. When we were children we ended up moving summering here, and then my parents divorced when I was very young. We ended up moving here full time back in the early 70’s.

We learn in school about fear and tension during the Cold War. How did this affect you and your community?

Well, I wasn’t in the military at the height of the Cold War, that was back more when the Cuban Missile Crisis was happening. I’m considered, I guess, a Cold War veteran, and I really didn’t hear that until really a couple years ago. I was just a guy that joined the navy in the 70’s and 80’s. And, it was more of a chess match between the United States and Russia when I was in it. It was more like them watching us watching them kind of thing, that was what was happening when I was in it.

What other family members were in the military?

My father was a Vietnam helicopter pilot, he served. I had a great-uncle that was in World War Two. I imagine that if you keep going back further and further I would have a lot of uncles that served. There was always somebody or another who was in the military at some point.

What inspired you to join the military?

Well, if you were on Cape Cod and your weren’t ready for college and you didn’t sure- weren’t sure -where you wanted to go or end up, the military was a great way to explore the world a little bit and get those life experiences that kind of turn you into an adult. I joined out of high school because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, and no, I wasn’t going to sit here and do nothing. So I joined the navy so I could travel, and I did a lot of it when I was in the navy.

How did your family respond when you joined the military?

Well, [pause] I grew up with just my mother and those four siblings. I don’t remember them making a deal out of it. And I came home saying ‘hey, guess what I did’ and like a week later, that’s, that’s as far as it went.

How- could you describe your training experience?

Boot camp, it wasn’t a big deal for me. I went in, and I was in, I was in fairly good, or actually really good physical shape when I was that age. I was bright enough to keep my mouth shut the whole time, and I became a squadron leader in boot camp. And I was just, I was just, you know… I don’t know. I just had that way about me that nobody messed with me because I didn’t mess with anybody else. I got through it relatively easy, and I thought it was more of a mental challenge than a physical challenge anyways.

Describe a day during training camp.

Bootcamp? You just got up early, and you went to breakfast, and you do dinner and everything as a group; you went together. Some kind of physical fitness stuff in the morning, and then classes most of the day. There were different things that you got to do, like going to the gas house. That was kind of an adventure, and there was a lot of different things that you could do training-wise, but in the navy it was more classroom than anything else.

What kind of things did you do in the classroom?

Just seamanship! How to be military, was what they wanted to teach you. How life had changed as you know it, and military fashion, how to act in a military fashion, respond to people, address, be addressed. How to physically dress, it was, it was basically just them trying to retrain you on their way of thinking.

How long did the training last?

It was 8 weeks when I went through it. It was bouncing around between 8 and 13 weeks back then, and I can’t remember if I did 8 or more. To tell you the truth, we were talking back in 1970 when I did it, so it was a long time ago.

Where was your boat located during your military career?

The ship I was on was out of San Diego, an aircraft carrier- cv-64, the U.S.S Constellation. We were out of San Diego, but we spent most of the time overseas. I spent most of my time, a large portion of my time was spent out at sea. I got out of bootcamp at the same time they took the Iranian hostages, so there was a BIG military presence about the Indian ocean at that time, and I was part of that.

What was your job on the boat?

I navigated the ship. I was a quartermaster second class, which is different than what you hear about in the army or the air force. We had nothing to do with supply. Quartermasters are [pause] it’s a rank that goes back hundreds of years. We navigated, I navigated- celestial navigate, terrestrial navigate, and then electronic navigation also, which is stuff that I did.

As a navigator, what were you required to do?

Pretty basically, report the ship’s position. Most of the time, chart courses, I was also in charge of all the charting supplies and stuff like that. Make sure that when we went somewhere we had the right charts, and that was pretty much my job as far as that goes.

What different navigation methods were there, and how did they work?

Celestial was the one that I got more excited about, that was with a sextant and shooting the stars. That was the way they had done it for years and years. Electronic navigation was brand new when I went in, and in fact all the GPS things that happen now, how you can get your position, even on your phone. When I was in, Magnavox was starting. It was a thing called Navstar, it was as big as a backpack. It was actually designed for artillery, ‘cause there was only 2 satellites at that point in time that gave that kind of information. It was a lot easier to catch those kinds of signals that they would send out to sea, and off a moving ship it would determine if it was right. The information we would get, it would sometimes put you in the middle of downtown Las Vegas, so it wasn’t always correct. [laugh] It has come a long way since then, the birth of satellite navigation.

Could you describe a typical day on your ship?

Yeah, you were basically there and you worked 20 hours a day, sometimes 24. The way is was put to me when I took over my department, when I took over as the LPO, was that if somebody was working 20 hours a day, the 4 hours they have off they’re not getting in trouble. So you would stand a couple watches, work a full 8-hour work day, and anytime- the ship I was on was a diesel power, it was not nuclear, so we would take on fuel every 4-6 days. Then they would also take on JP5, which was jet fuel at that time. So we would have to go on an unrep, and they would resupply us at sea, and that is kind of a tricky thing, and that could take up to 4-5 hours, sometimes more depending on how much equipment, fuel, or supplies they had to ship over to us. So we’d have those all, and then, um, it was a constant training method that was going on, so every day there would be a new scenario coming up, and how much that was was how much you had involved in that one also.

One moment…

Is your camera broken?

What did you eat for food?

Well… anything they served us. You couldn’t be too choosy; eating was you got in, got the job done, and got out of there. Because the more time you took to eat, the less time you had to sleep, so you pretty much, I don’t know. I was never too picky when it came to eating when I was that age. I found that now that I’m older I that I’m a little more picky than I was when I was 18 years old, so yeah, I just ate about anything they had to offer.

Did you ever have to dock for supplies?

Well, there wasn’t too many places that we’d actually tie up to a pier- San Diego, Pearl Harbor, and the Philippines were the only ones that I ever tied up to. Everywhere else that we went was more out to sea, and they would take Liberty Launches in and out.

And if so how often?

Often?

Did you dock for supplies.

We didn’t dock for supplies that much at all. We were more getting supplies when we were out to sea. It was called an unrep- underway replenishment. That’s how they did it. They’d come alongside another deep draft vessel. And it’d be about 120 feet apart, and they would put over spanner wires, and transfer everything back and forth on those.

What was the procedure for encountering storms?

Most of the time, since we were on a carrier, we just rode them out. Some of the other ships would run for cover, but we would ride them out. Some times we were in some pretty nasty weather, I mean the flight deck was out; bow of the flight deck was 70 feet above the waterline, and I’d watch that get buried in green water. I worked on the bridge, which was 110 feet above the waterline. And we’d take on salt water in some of the bigger storms. It’d be kind of funny, you’d walk down the passageway and then next thing you know you’d be walking kind of on the wall and then walking on the floor again. I always thought that one of the funniest things in the world was when you would walk down to the pier and you’d see a ship that has been out for a long time, and watch the guys walk off the ship and on to the pier, watching every step.When you are on the ship you can feel it moving and you adjust the ship, it’s almost like muscle memory in your head. And you’d step onto something that’s not moving, [steps forward] and it’s kind of wild because they’re waiting for something to move as they walk. It’s kind of comical.

Reflecting on your time in the military, what was your favorite memory?

I had a lot of fond memories. It was for me I think the places I saw, you know. I had a couple good friends, but, you know, a couple guys. In hindsight, I kind of wish I’d stayed in touch with some of those guys. Yeah, I think it was the places I went and the things I saw.

How about your worst memory?

You know, I hate to say it like this, but I was young, and when you’re young at least I did, but you take everything in stride. Nothing really bothered me a whole lot.

Where did you go after your military experience?

Oh, when I got out? I hung out in Washington for like a month or so and came back here.

What are your thoughts on how the military is run today, and what it does?

You know, I don’t know as much about the way it’s run today as I did back then because I’m not a part of it. It’s totally different then when I was in, I think that anybody who chooses to serve their country should be looked up to. I think that all those guys, guys and girls -sorry- people that are serving their country deserve every opportunity to go ahead, serve their country, and come back and move on in their professional lives a best as they can, I guess.

[mutters something incomprehensible] To clarify a prior question, what is a sextant?

A sextant is an instrument that it used to read the angle of the stars in lieu of the horizon. Between using that to measure an angle and a whole lot of math, you can kind of  figure out a line of position that you can draw in a chart. After you get three stars or three bodies, you could use the moon and other celestial planets that you can actually get a three point fix. It tells you exactly where you are on the chart.

Did you choose to be a navigator, and if so, why?  

I went in just as a seaman recruit, I got advanced right to seaman apprentice right at bootcamp, because I was just the guy chosen in my company to do that. Then I went to San Diego and they flew me out to the ship, it was underway at the time with 15 other guys, and when we got off the helicopter they asked us, they said- they had asked me if any wanted to volunteer for the navigation department, and the rest of them were going to go to the deck department, and I looked around and saw a bunch of guys chipping paint, threw my hand up real quick and said ‘I’ll go to navigation’. It actually worked out well for me because became very adamant. It was a good fit.

What parts of the world did you travel to?

I was out of the Pacific, so I went to Asia, Australia, the south Pacific, a lot of the Indian Ocean. We spent a lot of time in the Gulf of Oman.

Which place was your favorite, and why?

I would have a hard time picking my favorite, I mean everything was different, and I was pretty young, so everything was coming out of Eastham, and it was pretty amazing to see all the different spots in the world, and I just took it all in. To say that one thing was more popular with me than the other would be, I don’t know, I’d have a hard time choosing.

Have you traveled as much after your military experience?

Yeah, in fact I did. I kind of got the travel bug, travelled through Europe, I went and spent a year travelling in the South Pacific, and did a lot of surfing back them. I spent about 5 months in Australia, 2 months in New Zealand.

How did this compare to your military travels?

It was different. I mean, when I was in the military I was living on the biggest yacht in the harbor, you know what I mean? When I travelled otherwise it was usually a backpack and very few things. I travelled lightly, and I usually travelled  at night so I didn’t have to pay for a place to stay. When I did the Pacific trip the only thing of value I had was - I had my underwater camera and I had my surfboard, and that was about it. T-shirts and shorts and that’s how I travelled.

During your time in the navy did you meet any prominent people and if so who?

Yeah. Ah. I was lucky enough to. Ah. I was onboard the ship. Ah. The USS Constellation; was also known as America's ship. I was aboard the ship when Ronny Reagan. Ah. Then president. Came out and signed a bill and. Ah. I was actually running my department at that point in time and they asked me as a leading petty officer to pick somebody to go have lunch with the president. And I looked around and said that I'm pickin me. And so I got to meet Ronny Reagan. With him was a pretty big, Ed Meice was there. Who turned out to be the attorney general, later on not really at that point in time. There was quite an other group of people. And I think. Ah. Casper Weinberger when he was secretary of defense.Believe it or not. Ah. The one guy that stands out in my mind that try. I met him in a couple different places. A couple times he came out to the ship as we were out to sea. Was Arnold Reddenbocker the guy that made the popcorn. Ha. That's kind of funny he had the bow tie and everything. He. Ah. He. He was. Ah. Ah. A big Whig in the Republican Party from what I understand. He was places that we were. Ah. We were ah. Considered classified. Um. He showed up a couple times so I'm like he had some political pull somewhere

Ah. What bill was President Reagan signing?

He signed a bill. I think it was. And this is going way back. I think it wous to. He signed a bill to build a new destroyer class. A new type of navy ship. I think that was the bill that he was signing at the time.

What were the preparations for Ronald Reagan's arrival?

Well there clean the ship quite a bit. Um. And believe it or not what've. One of the funny stories is ah. He was aboard he was on the bridge and I showed him how to steer and he said he had a yacht and he was good as a helmsman. Um when he was on the helm. And when he came one the ship he was one marine one.And there was a ship coming out of LA at the time and they had the right of way but we were kinda owing in a certain direction. They were on the radio with this ship and they were trying to get the ship to veer off and the ship who had the right of way said no were not doing it. They said well we have a distinguished visitor onboard. Look at our bow. Well Marine one was up there. And they kind of still said I don't care whose on your ship were not moving. And then this guy walks out the back room. And I remember he was tall and had the dark suit with the dark glasses. I mean there was a bunch of secret service guys but this guy wasn't one of them. And he walks out and the ships coming off our starboard side a little bit. And he whispers something in the radio. And till this day I wish I could have figured out what he said. Put the radio back down doesn't even look at the ship turn around and walks away. And the ship did a u-turn got out of the way. I've always wanted to know who that guy was and what he said.

Was it an honor or a burden to have Ronald Reagan onboard?

It was honor. I mean you know he's the commander in chief were basically working for him and the American people but um. It was pretty impressive. I mean you got to understand at that point I was 19 years old. And I literally sat when I had lunch with him I sat right across I mean I coulda reached out and touched him. And he was that close and we talked small talk quite a bit but he was a pretty personable type of guy. But ya but ya it was pretty much an honor.

Could you describe any other outstanding events on the ship?

Well there was all kinds of things I mean I don't know what you would consider outstanding. Like I said it was considered Cold War era and it was kind of a chess game. We were followed around by what they used to call a Russian ago which was pretty much a big radar spy ship that would follow us around everywhere we went. And it kind of looked like a fishing troler but they didn't do any fishing it was kind of funny. And they'd play chicken every once in a while when your were alongside an unwrap your alongside two deep draft vessels 120 feet apart. Your kind of constricted to your maneuverability  and these guys would come were they would have the right of way and they would kind of veer off and stuff like that. We got rammed by a Libyan freighter in the middle of the Indian Ocean. It was ah. A ship and it was a merchant ship in the was no shipping lanes out there and it was showing red over red which means that it is not maneuvering and it was dead in the water. Um. And just when we got to about three miles of it. They threw they're running lights on and we doing about 15 knots good. And we didn't have time to disengage with the ship. And it kinda hit our port quarter and puta little ding in it. A little hole in it. And ah. It's funny cause we were... More than 1500 miles away from  any land  and ah. Within in an hour and a half. The Russians were there. And what they used to call a bear looked like B-52 and used to fly really low over the water to take pictures of the damage. It was almost like they knew it gonna happen. To get there that quickly. It was just kind of silliness like that that happened.  But ah. I would say the highlight aboard the ship was probably when the president came on.

Would you recommend that your son join the military and if so why?

I would recommend that he follow his dreams to wherever they take him. And if the military is part that's up to him. I mean um. I firmly believe that it did a lot of good for me and if it wasn't for. I grew up on the lower cape without a father and if it wasn't for high school sports and the military I'm not sure where or how I would have ended up. Um.  It definitely defined or help me define what kind of person I wanted to be and led me down that path. So I would recommend to anybody that hasn't got a direct plan you know. Some kind of school, education a trade or something like that if your not sure what you want to do then it's not a bad way to go.

Were there any ceremonies on the ship?

Well there was all kinds of different ceremonies in the military but I think the one that really stands out closest to me was becoming a shellback. The shellback initiation goes back 100's of years even before the United States had a navy. Actually way before there was a United States. And it's a ceremony to celebrate when a sailor crosses over the equator at sea. And ah. When I was in they still celebrated that I hardly wholeheartedly I should say it was pretty much a two day hazing or initiation that I wouldn't put the word hazing to it because hazing is illegal these days There wasn't so much thought of hazing back then. As more of an initiation. Ah some of the things that they did if you were ah known as a polywog before you became a shellback is they would ah line everybody up that was already a shellback and run two lines and have a gauntlet. Some of the people had taken fire hoses ripped the edges and they'd tape up the ends they'd take it wind up and as you ran through there they'd give you whack in the back. But if you can think about this an aircraft carrier is at sea with an air wing is almost 5,000 people. Think about maybe  two thirds of those people have already become shelback that's a pretty big line. Haha! You know what  I mean.So that didn't happen as a bad as it could've but it ah they did a bunch of different things I remember one of the things they did to me was they shaved my head with graphite greace and that was hard to get everything clean after that. But you were out to sea for a long time after that so it really didn't matter.I just remember at the end of it you just took the clothes you were wearing and took me and just threw them off the fan sail and somebody got you with a fire hose to get you as clean as could possibly get until you got to hit the shower to get all the other stuff off you that they did. But it was a it was pretty much a 24 hour celebration where there was a lot of pain being de I don't wanna say pain cause it was all done in good hearts. I mean there were some people that ah I mean we had a couple of broken limbs with that happening. But yeah the shellback initiation was one of the bigger ones.

 Were there any funny experiences while aboard the ship?

I remember one of the things I looked at as kind of funny was we were going through some training exercises pretty extensive we were in the middle of the Indian Ocean the agi was right there not to far they were not usually more than a mile and half from us and we just got to an unwrap so I hadn't been probably almost 48 hours and I was sitting up and we had about six hours to go on the watch. And I remember letting a lot of the watch team go and just telling them guys just go crash out I'll take the last six hours.I'll do this a and when you guys relieve me I'll go get my 8 hours of sleep. And I remember being up at the chart tale and kind of leaning back probably about 3 o'clock in the morning and everything all the lights out there were red so it's not lie you can't see anything but it's kinda of dark and it's kind of almost almost tough to stay awake at that point in time and um. We were sitting there leaning against the bulkhead which is a wall and just kind of almost dozing off a little bit and a just as that happens right off the beam a big white flash happened. And I'm like in my mind when you go through the training you learn that when a nuclear weapon goes off the first and usually the only thing you see is a big white flash.

So I'm like well oh my goodness what's going on and I remember there were only 4 of us on the bridge and I remember the officer on the bridge yelling something a profanity pretty quick. And we're all trying to figure out what's going on. And all of a sudden a big red flash then another big green flash and we got on what they call the big eyes which is a a very high powered pair of binoculars and we're looking at the Russian agi and apparently they aloud drinking on those Russian ships cause those guys looked like they were having a good time. So we had to radio back to  the fleet to ask permission to radio these guys cause we thought they might have been in distress and if they were in distress we were gonna say we'll save you as long as you hand over all your electronics.Kind of thing. I remember they finally got permission they radioed over and the guy probably one of two only people that spoke English said no were here celebrating your victory over Nazi Germany. It was VE Day and we didn't know it and they were having a big party over there it was just kind of funny. You know.

My son's right here and he asked me to tell the story that I actually told my students I  teach high school now at Cape Cod Tech. I talk to the kids about it and it's about my first trip into Hong Kong. I got in and there was a very famous place there that most people got their first fleet tattoos when you got there and I remember standing in line for the Liberty launch and you got to understand back then I think I was making 243 dollars a month and you got payed twice a month. So split that in half and that's what my paycheck so were. Onboard the ship there was this old Master Chief that had been in and it almost got to the point where they would tell him that he had to retire. And this guy had ink everywhere legally possible.

He was a guy who had the old battleship across his chest and girls names crossed off all the way down his arm. He was an old crusty salty guy and he was from Boston and for some reason he found out that I was from New England And he liked me for some reason. And so I remember standing in line and this guy comes walking up to me and he goes shipmate how much money you got. And I'm like oh my goodness this guy's gonna take my money. And there's not a lot I can do about it. And I remember standing in line and going oh Master Chief I don't got a whole lot of money. And he goes good you're coming ashore with me. And I'm thinking jeez why would the guy I don't have any money why is he gonna take me ashore. But anyways the good thing about going with the Master Chief was that I got to skip line I got to jump up in front and get on the next Liberty launch and we went in and we got into the harbor and the place where all the nightlife and everything was off one way and the garment district was off in a different direction. And all of a sudden we're headed off in this different direction. And I'm going but Master Chief the guys are all going this way and he goes I'm gonna show you how to do this town and

I'm gonna show you how to do it right. And I remember we walked into a tailor shop which was I can't even tell you how many there were but there were all 12 by 12 rooms that you walked into. And he walk in and he tells the proprietor my shipmate and I want new suits and were thirsty. So all of a sudden there pulling stuff out and this women comes out with a tray and gives us each a beer. And I'm like woah that was pretty slick how did he do this you know. So we finished what we were doing and we saw what this guy had to say and he says we haven't made up our mind we'll be to ya.Master Chief took me and we went to the next place down the road and he goes my shipmate and I want new suits and were thirsty so about ten or fifteen tailor shops later were feeling pretty much pretty good and we'd already met I already made plans to meet all the others new guys at this place at midnight they were all gonna go get our tattoos our fleet tattoos.

And so the Master Chief was still hanging with me and we went down there and everybody's looking at the walls trying to figure out what their gonna get and everything and they're probably like 25 30 people in there waiting. So we're sitting there looking at all the pictures and I'm talking to the other guys and the Master Chief comes over to me he goes shipmate why are you gonna put something on your body for life you wouldn't hang over mantle for 10 minutes. And it made sense to me at the time. That I got in line and never got my fleet tattoo after that. So that was kind of a comical story.

Thank you, Mr.Warren.