Columbia VA Health Care System Acting Executive Director\/CEO David Brett Vess presents Navy Veteran and Centenarian, Lee O. McKinnon, a letter and Centenarian coin from the Secretary of the VA, Doug Collins, Aug. 6, 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nBorn 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. 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 the attack on Pearl Harbor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI got back to the store and everybody was standing around the radio,\u201d he said. \u201cMiss McCree said, \u2018The Japanese just bombed Pearl Harbor.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
McKinnon tried to enlist in the Army but was turned away for being too young. Then a Navy recruiter told him he was \u201cNavy material.\u201d His mother signed the papers. He was just 17 when he shipped off to Norfolk, Virginia, for boot camp.<\/p>\n
When he stepped onto his first Navy ship, McKinnon said, \u201cI looked at it and said, \u2018Good God, what a whopper.\u2019\u201d Though he didn\u2019t yet know what awaited him, he trusted that he was exactly where he needed to be. \u201cI was proud to serve,\u201d he said. \u201cStill am.\u201d<\/p>\n
In October 1942, McKinnon was assigned to USS Calvert and later joined a massive convoy headed toward North Africa. McKinnon operated a 40-millimeter anti-aircraft gun on the ship\u2019s starboard side. \u201cI was the pointer, and Doug was the trainer,\u201d he said. \u201cWe worked together. He had the trigger on the foot.\u201d Though he had never seen a German aircraft, he recognized the insignia as enemy planes tore through the sky.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McKinnon survived the battle and returned home, but he re-enlisted soon after, making the Navy his career. He served aboard several ships while also crossing both the Arctic Circle and the equator during his career, earning the honorary titles of Blue Nose and Shellback.<\/p>\n
During peacetime, McKinnon trained Canadian forces on missile systems and helped support logistics operations across the Pacific.<\/p>\n
In 1946, McKinnon was selected as part of Operation Crossroads, the U.S. military\u2019s atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. He had no idea what he was sailing into.\u00a0His ship, USS Artemis, was positioned near the blast zone to study radiation effects on naval vessels and crew.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the bomb went off, there was nothing standing but a frame,\u201d he recalled. \u201cEverything above water was gone. My hair was gone. It never grew back.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He retired in 1972 as a steward petty officer third class and settled in Islandton, South Carolina, with his wife and children. He later worked in civil service and the local school district.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his century of life, McKinnon said his faith, family and character carried him through. \u201cOne lesson I learned was to live right,\u201d he said. \u201cDo the things you were raised to do. Stay honest. Be a man.\u201d<\/p>\n
What he\u2019s most proud of, he said, is simple: \u201cMy family. And getting to come home.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for what turning 100 means, McKinnon said he still has a few wishes. \u201cI want to go see the USS New Jersey and the USS Olympia up in Philadelphia,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re the first real battleships. I\u2019ve never been to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThis article was originally published on the VA Columbia South Carolina site<\/a> and has been edited for style and clarity.\u202f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For more than 80 years later, Lee O. McKinnon has been telling the story of the North Africa invasion in 1942, when the then-17-year-old Navy steward stood on the deck of USS Calvert as war exploded around him. \u201cAll of a sudden, the firecrackers began. Submarines were hitting those ships\u2014men screaming, fire, burning\u2026\u201d On July […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":665292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1758,5,1795,1269],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-665290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-centenarian","category-health","category-service","category-visn-7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=665290"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665299,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665290\/revisions\/665299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/665292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=665290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=665290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=665290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![<\/a>Columbia VA Health Care System Acting Executive Director\/CEO David Brett Vess presents Navy Veteran and Centenarian, Lee O. McKinnon, a letter and Centenarian coin from the Secretary of the VA, Doug Collins, Aug. 6, 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nBorn 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. 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 the attack on Pearl Harbor.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cI got back to the store and everybody was standing around the radio,\u201d he said. \u201cMiss McCree said, \u2018The Japanese just bombed Pearl Harbor.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\nMcKinnon tried to enlist in the Army but was turned away for being too young. Then a Navy recruiter told him he was \u201cNavy material.\u201d His mother signed the papers. He was just 17 when he shipped off to Norfolk, Virginia, for boot camp.<\/p>\nWhen he stepped onto his first Navy ship, McKinnon said, \u201cI looked at it and said, \u2018Good God, what a whopper.\u2019\u201d Though he didn\u2019t yet know what awaited him, he trusted that he was exactly where he needed to be. \u201cI was proud to serve,\u201d he said. \u201cStill am.\u201d<\/p>\nIn October 1942, McKinnon was assigned to USS Calvert and later joined a massive convoy headed toward North Africa. McKinnon operated a 40-millimeter anti-aircraft gun on the ship\u2019s starboard side. \u201cI was the pointer, and Doug was the trainer,\u201d he said. \u201cWe worked together. He had the trigger on the foot.\u201d Though he had never seen a German aircraft, he recognized the insignia as enemy planes tore through the sky.\u00a0<\/p>\nMcKinnon survived the battle and returned home, but he re-enlisted soon after, making the Navy his career. He served aboard several ships while also crossing both the Arctic Circle and the equator during his career, earning the honorary titles of Blue Nose and Shellback.<\/p>\nDuring peacetime, McKinnon trained Canadian forces on missile systems and helped support logistics operations across the Pacific.<\/p>\nIn 1946, McKinnon was selected as part of Operation Crossroads, the U.S. military\u2019s atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. He had no idea what he was sailing into.\u00a0His ship, USS Artemis, was positioned near the blast zone to study radiation effects on naval vessels and crew.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cWhen the bomb went off, there was nothing standing but a frame,\u201d he recalled. \u201cEverything above water was gone. My hair was gone. It never grew back.\u201d<\/p>\nDespite 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.<\/p>\nHe retired in 1972 as a steward petty officer third class and settled in Islandton, South Carolina, with his wife and children. He later worked in civil service and the local school district.<\/p>\nReflecting on his century of life, McKinnon said his faith, family and character carried him through. \u201cOne lesson I learned was to live right,\u201d he said. \u201cDo the things you were raised to do. Stay honest. Be a man.\u201d<\/p>\nWhat he\u2019s most proud of, he said, is simple: \u201cMy family. And getting to come home.\u201d<\/p>\nAs for what turning 100 means, McKinnon said he still has a few wishes. \u201cI want to go see the USS New Jersey and the USS Olympia up in Philadelphia,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re the first real battleships. I\u2019ve never been to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\nThis article was originally published on the VA Columbia South Carolina site<\/a> and has been edited for style and clarity.\u202f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For more than 80 years later, Lee O. McKinnon has been telling the story of the North Africa invasion in 1942, when the then-17-year-old Navy steward stood on the deck of USS Calvert as war exploded around him. \u201cAll of a sudden, the firecrackers began. Submarines were hitting those ships\u2014men screaming, fire, burning\u2026\u201d On July […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":665292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1758,5,1795,1269],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-665290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-centenarian","category-health","category-service","category-visn-7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=665290"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665299,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665290\/revisions\/665299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/665292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=665290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=665290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=665290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/McKinnon_r1-scaled-6.jpg\"){kind=link}