By Wyatt Anthony
VA Public Affairs Specialist
“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-year-old 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. 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 going to face the enemy, and some of you might not come back.’ I had never been called a man by a white person before. That gave me courage.”
In October 1942, McKinnon was assigned to USS Calvert and later joined a massive convoy headed toward North Africa.
“The sun was just peeking over the mountain. It was so quiet, so peaceful,” he recalled. “Then all of a sudden, the firecrackers began.”
Ships were struck by enemy submarines. Planes screamed through the air.
McKinnon operated a 40-millimeter anti-aircraft gun on the ship’s starboard side.
“I was the pointer, and Doug was the trainer,” he said. “We worked together. He had the trigger on the foot.”
Though he had never seen a German aircraft, he recognized the insignia as enemy planes tore through the sky.
McKinnon survived the battle and returned home, but he re-enlisted soon after, making the Navy his career. He served aboard several ships, including USS Coral Sea, USS Midway, and USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, and at stations in Pearl Harbor and Guantanamo Bay. He also crossed both the Arctic Circle and the equator during his career, earning the honorary titles of Blue Nose and Shellback.
During peacetime, McKinnon trained Canadian forces on missile systems and helped support logistics operations across the Pacific. But he said nothing compared to those early days in the Atlantic, where the reality of war left an imprint that never faded.
“You can’t explain war,” he said. “It takes a lot out of a man to talk about it.”
In 1946, McKinnon was selected as part of Operation Crossroads, the U.S. military’s atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. He had no idea what he was sailing into.
“We didn’t know what was going on until we got to sea,” he said. “They just told us we were going to be up against nuclear.”
His ship, USS Artemis, was positioned near the blast zone to study radiation effects on naval vessels and crew.
“When the bomb went off, there was nothing standing but a frame,” he recalled. “Everything above water was gone. My hair was gone. It never grew back.”
He laughed softly as he recalled being a young man with a bald head.
“It came back for a while,” he said. “Then it left again. Never returned.” Still, he said he would do it all over again. “The Navy gave me discipline. It gave me a life.”
Despite the physical and emotional toll, McKinnon continued to serve with pride. Over his 30-year Navy career, he earned six Good Conduct Medals, the American Area Campaign Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, a World War II Victory Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Navy Occupation Service Medal.
He retired in 1972 as a steward petty officer third class and settled in Islandton, South Carolina, with his wife and children.
“The Lord blessed me with a good home,” he said. “I still live in that house today. I asked Him for it, and He gave it to me.” McKinnon credited his faith as the foundation of both his long life and his happiness. “I give God thanks,” he said. “That’s how I made it.”
He later worked in civil service and the local school district.
Reflecting on his century of life, McKinnon said his faith, family, and character carried him through. “One lesson I learned was to live right,” he said. “Do the things you were raised to do. Stay honest. Be a man.”
What he’s most proud of, he said, is simple: “My family. And getting to come home.”
As for what turning 100 means, McKinnon said he still has a few wishes. “I want to go see the USS New Jersey and the USS Olympia up in Philadelphia,” he said. “They’re the first real battleships. I’ve never been to them.”
But mostly, he said, he’s content. “I just want to enjoy the things the Lord blessed me with and do what’s right. That’s enough for me.”
For more information about what’s going on at the Veterans medical center, clinic locations, and other services available to Veterans in and around Columbia, visit www.va.gov/columbia-south-carolina-health-care.
