By Wyatt Anthony
VA writer
“All of a sudden, the firecrackers began. Submarines were hitting those ships—men screaming, fire, burning…”
That’s how Lee O. McKinnon remembers the morning of the North Africa invasion in 1942, when the 17-yearold Navy steward stood on the deck of USS Calvert as war exploded around him.
More than eight decades later, McKinnon is still telling his story.
On July 29, the Columbia VA Health Care System honored McKinnon ahead of his 100th birthday with a centenarian coin and a certificate from the U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, presented by Acting Executive Director/ CEO David Brett Vess.
“What an honor it is to be able to recognize the service of Mr. McKinnon,” said Vess. “Men like Mr. McKinnon are the salt of the Earth, and the sacrifices that he and others made in service to our country will never be forgotten. We, at the VA, will make sure of that”
Born in Valdosta, Georgia, in August 1925, McKinnon was raised by his mother and grandparents. He described his grandfather as a hardworking woodcutter and farmer, a man of discipline and tradition. “I was kind of like his right hand,” McKinnon said. “They believed in the old-timey things. Church on Sundays. Family dinner after. I always tried to do the things that were right.”
“People used to say I was a good little fellow. Always had good luck,” McKinnon recalled. “The Lord blessed me with many blessings.” Even as a boy, he said he rarely missed church, valued honesty, and worked hard—qualities that would shape his conduct in the Navy and beyond.
At 13, McKinnon left the farm and began working in a local drugstore. It was during a delivery on a quiet Sunday morning that he first heard the news of Pearl Harbor. “I got back to the store, and everybody was standing around the radio,” he said. “Miss McCree said, ‘The Japanese just bombed Pearl Harbor.’”
He tried to enlist in the Army but was turned away for being too young. Then a Navy recruiter told him he was “Navy material.” His mother signed the papers. McKinnon was just 17 when he shipped off to Norfolk, Virginia, for boot camp.
When he stepped onto his first Navy ship, McKinnon said, “I looked at it and said, ‘Good God, what a whopper.’” Though he didn’t yet know what awaited him, he trusted that he was exactly where he needed to be. “I was proud to serve,” he said. “Still am.”
He said it wasn’t until a white officer addressed his unit before deployment that he truly understood the risks of war. “He said, ‘Men, you’re