The youngest US serviceman in WWll was 12 year old Calvin L Graham, USN.
In 15 August 1942 Calvin was sworn into the Navy. He was 12 years, 4 months and 12 days old. He was the youngest individual to enlist in the U S Military service since the Civil War.
After boot camp, Calvin went to Pearl Harbor where he was assigned to the USS South Dakota. They were soon in the South Pacific. During their first battle, Calvin's gun crew accounted for seven of the twenty- six enemy aircraft that the ship shot down.
A short time later, in November 1942, during the battle of Guadalcanal, the South Dakota was hit forty-seven times by enemy fire. One explosion threw Calvin down three decks of stairs. He was seriously wounded by shrapnel that tore through his jaw and mouth. In spite of his injuries, he helped pull fellow sailors from danger. He was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and the Navy Unit Commendation medal.
The ship's captain received a letter, from the Navy Department, stating that his mother said he was only 12 years old. Calvin asked the captain to let him stay in the navy but the captain said "that he did not want a 12 year old on his ship." He was later thrown into the brig and stripped of his medals. On I April 1943, he was kicked out of the navy without an Honorable Discharge and without veterans benefits. He did not receive any discharge papers at the time.
He wrote to congressmen and presidents and finally, in 1978, the Navy reinstated all of his medals with the exception of the Purple Heart. He was awarded $337 in back pay but was denied health benefits except for disability status for one lost tooth. Calvin maintained that it wasn't the money but his pride and self respect that he wanted restored.
In 1988, President Reagan signed legislation that granted Calvin full disability benefits, increased his back pay to $4917, and allowed $18,000 for past medical bills, contingent on receipts for the medical services. By this time, some of the doctors who treated him had died and many medical bills were lost. Calvin received only $2,100 of the possible $18,000. The money for the rights to his story for the movie, ''Too Young The Hero" amounted to $50,000, but 50% went to two agents, and 20% went to a writer of an unpublished book about Calvin. Calvin and his wife received $15,000 before taxes. Calvin Graham died at his home in Fort Worth, Texas on 6 June 1992 at the age of 62.
Eighteen months later, on 21 June 1994, his Purple Heart was presented to his widow Mary by the Secretary of the Navy, John Dalton, at a ceremony in Arlington, Texas.
This above account was partially compiled from the following sources: conversations and correspondence with Mary L. Graham; Fort Worth Star Telegram, on November 1992; The Dallas Morning News, on 10 November 1992; News release, Congressman Martin Frost, 24th District, Texas, 21 June 1994 and America's Youngest Warriors, volume 1 printed 1997; (Partial story) by VUMS Editors, Drs. Ray D. and Susan M. Jackson.
