Osborn sailed on the USS John S. Mccain
Paul M. Osborn, 79, is well known in some circles in Columbia, Jamestown, and Chinese Camp for his volunteer work with local fire departments and with the once-thriving business of making movies and television shows in Tuolumne County.
What some people don't know is Osborn served in the U.S. Navy from 1960 to 1966, he was a fireman on the USS John S. Mccain DL-3 destroyer who witnessed the 1962 Johnston Island nuclear tests conducted by the United States in the Pacific, and he's doing chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer he believes was caused by his proximity to those nuclear tests nearly six decades ago.
Pancreatic cancer hit Osborn “all of a sudden,” he said. He's lost most of the hair on his head and in his beard, and about 10 pounds over the past month and a half of chemo.
“It pisses me off because I haven't shaved in about 50 years,” Osborn said in a recent interview in his shop outside Columbia. “I'm a Vietnam era, nuclear era veteran.”
Osborn said he and his wife, Joyce, have filed a claim with the Veterans Administration. Knowing this story is for Veterans Day 2021, Osborn didn't dwell on his illness. He willingly talked about how he came to be in the Navy, and how he came to Tuolumne County decades ago.
He was born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1942. His dad was in the Navy during World War II, and his mom and he moved to Southern California, where he remembers seeing brandnew P-51 Mustang fighter planes come off an assembly line near his home.
When WWII ended, his folks moved to Pasadena and Altadena outside Los Angeles, and he graduated from John Muir High School in Pasadena in 1960. Osborn joined the U.S. Navy during his senior year, and he did two years in active reserves, two years active duty, and two years standby reserves.
Osborn got deployed to Pearl Harbor on active duty and served on the DL-3 destroyer USS Mccain, named for the father of the late U.S. Sen. John Mccain from Arizona. John S. McCain Sr. was a U.S. Navy commander and admiral before he died in September 1945.
Osborn was at sea onand-off for two years, mainly below decks, because he was first assigned to be a boiler tender and then a damage-control firefighter and radiation monitor.
“Riding a destroyer in heavy seas is a hoot,” he said. “That's why they call them tin cans.”
About 350 enlisted men and officers, all sailors, ran the USS Mccain. They steamed the Mccain to places like Okinawa, the Philippines, Hong Kong, the South China coast, and perhaps Vietnam. Because he was below decks, he didn't see much. He got to know his shipmates fast, and he enjoyed the camaraderie.
“God created all men equal, and then a few became destroyer sailors,” he said. “We'd fight anything.”
Racket in the boiler room on the USS Mccain screwed up his ears, Osborn said, while showing hearing aids he acquired five or six years ago.
After the 1962 Johnston Island nuclear tests, the Navy dropped Osborn off in San Francisco in 1963. He did standby reserves duty in Pasadena until he got his honorable discharge in the mail.
“In 1966, I became a PFC, a proud free citizen,” he said.
Osborn moved to
Tuolumne County in 1974 and worked for a predecessor of Tuolumne Utilities District, which he remembers being called Water District No. 2. He was their third field employee, and he also volunteered at Columbia Engine Co. No. 1.
He feels lucky he met his future wife when he came to Tuolumne County.
“I met Joyce here,” Osborn said. “The best thing I ever did was marry that girl.”
They lived in downtown Columbia until about 1980, then moved to their current place outside Columbia. At the Columbia fire station one day, he picked up the phone and somebody with the movie industry asked if anyone wanted to be in the movies.
“She was based in Chinese Camp,” Osborn said. “She did casting for various movies and TV shows being shot in Tuolumne County.”
His fellow volunteers at the fire station seemed unimpressed because they'd already been in so many movies and TV shows, Osborn said.
“I said I'd give it a shot,” he said. “Ended up wearing a wool suit in 100 degrees.”
It was a western being filmed in Jamestown at the old railyard known today as Railtown 1897 State Historic Park. Osborn liked doing the movies and TV shows. He said he went to work for Michael Landon on shows including “Little House on the Prairie,” “Father Murphy,” and “Highway to Heaven.”
Osborn remembers working as an extra on “Father Murphy.” He was supposed to be playing an escaped convict running through the woods.
“They were shooting at me,” he said. “They were shooting blanks all over the place.”
Osborn worked as an extra and prop-maker with actors Ben Johnson, Sam Elliott, and Tom Selleck in the 1982 TV movie “Shadow Riders,” and with Clint Eastwood in the 1985 film “Pale Rider.”
For “Pale Rider,” Osborn fabricated a safe-deposit box where Eastwood's character stored a gun.
He became acquainted with other famous actors and stuntmen like Dick Farnsworth, Jack Elam, and Slim Pickens, who lived in the Columbia area and was considered a neighbor. He has a photo of Chinese Camp actor Turkey Lee Freeman and himself dressed as extras
for “Shadow Riders,” and numerous movie posters on the walls in his shop.
In his shop outside Columbia, Osborn had music streaming, and at one point the distinctive sound of Little Richard doing his 1957 hit “Rip it Up” echoed through the high-ceiling space.
“I like the '50s music,” Osborn said.
Osborn has a 1964 Ford F100 short-bed halfton custom cab pickup in there, along with 1915 Ford Touring Model T, and a custom hotrod built in 1964 with a 1932 Ford flathead four-cylinder engine and a home-made chassis.
Asked what he got out of serving in the military, Osborn said, “I was a scared kid when I went in. I got a lot of confidence out of it and learned a lot of mechanical skills. I met a lot of really good guys. My shipmates were all good guys.”
When discussing more about his exposure to the 1962 Johnston Island nuclear tests, Osborn said, “A lot of us walked away from the Navy, Army, and Air Force with some real health problems. It would be nice if the government owned up to it. I don't re
gret a minute of it, my time served. I learned to control my nasty Irish temper.”
Osborn specified, “I'd like to see the vets with nuclear problems, and Agent Orange issues, they get taken care of.” He added that he has a son, Michael M. Osborn, who served in Desert Storm with the U.S. Army. Today, his son is in his 50s and just had surgery for a nagging knee injury from Desert Storm.
As far as Johnston Island, today it's still part of Johnston Atoll, an unincorporated, uninhabited territory of the United States, which is one of the oldest and most remote atolls in the world, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Johnston Atoll is under Air Force ownership and control, and it's under ongoing corrective action as part of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which regulates hazardous wastes on United States Minor Outlying Islands, including Johnston Atoll.