McCallum Puts His Other Uniform Back On : As Raiders Return to Oxnard, He Heads for Long Beach and Career in Navy

Ens. Napoleon McCallum’s month at camp ended Sunday. Today, while 85 Raiders and aspirants go back to work at Oxnard, he is scheduled to report to the Navy’s Los Angeles recruiting office.

Tuesday, he’ll be aboard the amphibious ship Peleliu in Long Beach, a naval officer and a gentleman once more; a Raider no longer, until next summer.

What was this one like? It was a learning experience for McCallum, for the Raiders and perhaps for the Navy.

All of McCallum’s fellow campers had been in earlier mini-camps. They were in better shape and when they heard a play call, they knew where they were supposed to go. It took McCallum time to catch up.

Was it a bit of a struggle?

“It was a lot of struggle,” he said a couple of days ago.

The Raiders weren’t sure what to make of him. Until the week before camp opened, they didn’t even know he’d be there. At 6-2 and 220, without great speed and with the possibility he’d get bigger in the next few years, they started him at fullback but then moved him back to halfback.

They looked at him as a punt returner. Maybe if he had been spectacular there, they might have been more intrigued by reports that the Navy might reassign him once more and make him available one or two days a week during the season. But he wasn’t. Return men tend to rise or fall on making the first tackler miss. McCallum proved to be more of a big, long-striding back.

In exhibitions, he took a back seat. He got two carries total, for 15 yards, late in the San Francisco 49ers’ 32-0 blowout of the Raiders.

“I understand their position,” McCallum said. “They have to get the people ready who are going to be here. I’m not going to be here.

“It is frustrating, though. You go out and work every day, knowing that you’re not going anywhere this year. All I can do is learn.”

For the Raiders and McCallum, this was a new experience. For the Navy, which has had ensign-players as prominent as Roger Staubach, and as recently as this summer when the Atlanta Falcons’ Eddie Meyers attended his fifth training camp, this was nothing new.

This, however, is the new, PR-conscious Navy. And McCallum was the darling of the U.S. Naval Academy. On the day the Raiders drafted him, there was great rejoicing in Annapolis--even in the public information office, where the officer-in-charge expressed personal delight, along with the company line: Napoleon was absolutely obligated for five years.

Then, policy seemed to waver. McCallum was first assigned to supply school in Georgia, but his orders were changed at the last moment, reportedly at the order of no less than Secretary of the Navy John Lehman. McCallum was assigned to the Peleliu, a short hop from Oxnard.

What was next? The Washington Post reported that Lehman was leaning toward reassigning McCallum once more, to recruiting, which would not require sea duty and would make him available to the Raiders.

The Post further reported that no less than the chief of naval operations, Adm. Carlisle A.H. Trost, was worrying about the precedent it would set.

The Raiders say they have never talked to anyone in the Navy. There did seem to be a communications gap.

Was the Navy under the impression that one or two days a week would keep McCallum on the roster? Raider Coach Tom Flores first said that if it were only one day a week, opening a roster spot “would be difficult.” Last week, Flores said two days a week would be difficult, also.

Late last week, a Navy information officer in Washington told McCallum that the matter was still under consideration.

“It’s good that they’re discussing it,” McCallum said.

What were they discussing?

“I don’t know.”

Was the Navy keeping him advised?

“I’m just an ensign,” McCallum said, smiling. “Those are big people.”