Too Young the Hero

I watched a movie the other evening, Too Young the Hero.  Not a great movie, adequate.  But a great story.  The protagonist is Calvin Graham.

Calvin Leon Graham (April 3, 1930 – November 6, 1992) was the youngest U.S. serviceman to serve and fight during World War II.  Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the United States Navy from Houston, Texas on August 15, 1942, at the age of 12.  His case was similar to that of Jack W. Hill, who was granted significant media attention due to holding service number one million during World War II, but later was discovered to have lied about his age and subsequently discharged.

He got all the way through boot camp without discovery and then to his duty station on the USS South Dakota in Pearl Harbor.

The South Dakota left Pearl Harbor on October 16. On October 26, 1942, he participated in the Battle of the Santa Cruz. The South Dakota and her crew received a Navy Unit Commendation for the action. On the night of November 14–15, 1942, Graham was wounded during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, he served as a loader for a 40 mm anti-aircraft gun and was hit by shrapnel while taking a hand message to an officer.  Though he received fragmentation wounds, he helped in rescue duty by aiding and pulling the wounded aboard ship to safety.  He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart Medal, and he and his crewmates were awarded another Navy Unit Commendation.

The South Dakota returned to the East Coast on December 18, 1942, for an overhaul and battle damage repairs (she had taken 42 hits from at least three enemy ships) in New York City, and since then, was named "Battleship X" in order to make the Japanese think she had been sunk. Graham's mother revealed his age after he traveled to his grandmother's funeral in Texas (he arrived a day late) without permission from the Navy, for which afterwards he spent three months in a Texas brig. He was released after his sister threatened to contact the newspapers. Although he had tried to return to his ship, he was discharged from the Navy on April 1, 1943, and his awards were revoked.  The South Dakota's gunnery officer, who was involved in handling his case, was Sargent Shriver.

He then worked in a Houston shipyard as a welder after dropping out of school.  At age 14 he married and became a father the following year. At age 17 he was divorced when he enlisted in the Marine Corps.

Battle duty, one purple heart, a Bonze Star Medal and two Presidential Navy Unit Commendations.  Twelve years old.

His awards were later reinstated but he spent much of his life wrangling with Naval bureaucracy.

Twelve years old.

In World War I the British still had midshipman who could be as young as 12, but usually more like 14.  But in that more informal period, and when opportunities were driven as much by connections as anything related to capability, midshipman as young as ten were not unheard of.

During the Battle of Jutland, when fourteen British ships were sunk with some 9,000 casualties, some 6,100 of home died.  Nearly two dozen midshipman were also killed, between the ages of 16 and 18.  I cannot find it but I seem to recall a 12 or 14 year old midshipman dying in the battle questions about the stationing of midshipman on active service ships.