Who’s on The Wall: Navy gave Bill McKinney ticket to travel the globe

By Bryan Stevens

For William L. “Bill” McKinney, service with the U.S. Navy provided him his ticket to see the world.

Born on Shell Creek to Sanford and Ruth McKinney, he was the oldest of seven siblings, which included two brothers, Ed and Jay, and sisters Ethel, Carolyn, Cheryl and Betty.

McKinney attended high school at Cloudland High School. He worked a few jobs after high school before he joined the Navy in 1955.

“Korea was going along, and they were drafting people,” he recalled. “I had gotten my notification from the draft board.”

He already had a brother-in-law in the Army. “I concluded that with the Navy, I had a bed every night and three squares,” McKinney said.

He traveled to Bainbridge, Md., for six weeks of basic training and then was sent to Beeville, Texas, where an old Army base had been converted into a Naval Aviation Training Center.

“I stayed there for two years,” he said. “My job was to take care of the liquids — hydraulics, fuel — in aircraft.”

Some of the aircraft he maintained included old Corsairs, F-9s and TV-2, which were two-seated craft.

“The old Corsairs were prop jobs that carried small bomb loads for short distances,” he explained.

“I was an Airman E7 when I got out,” McKinney said. “I was in the Navy for four years and two years in the National Guard.”

He was also in the active Reserves for four years. “That meant you stayed ready,” McKinney said.

In 1958, a year before he completed his service in the Navy, he married Hazel Lucille Johnson.

His wife was the daughter of Steve and Mabel Johnson.

“Her daddy worked with Topper Eggs,” McKinney recalled.

He was on leave when he went with a buddy, Sonny Johnson, to meet her. “I always told people I found her in a tree,” he joked. “They lived on Buck Mountain.”

McKinney and his family lived in south Chicago for six years starting in 1960.

He worked for Ford Motor Company in Chicago and also held several different construction jobs.

“After that, I moved back to Hampton, then lived in Unicoi awhile and then lived on Bingham Street in Elizabethton for 20 years,” he said.

He is currently residing in Roan Mountain.

“I enjoyed the whole experience,” he said of his service with the Navy. “I saw a lot of places, including Hawaii, Formosa, Guam, Japan and Hong Kong.”

He visited several cities in Japan, including Akouska, Sesabo and Tokyo.

“I visited Hong Kong a couple of times,” he said.

He noted that the Chinese city was probably the biggest city he visited.

“A lot of people in Hong Kong didn’t have homes,” he said. “They walked around with their metal cups and got half a cup of rice each day. At dark, they just bedded down on the sidewalks.”

He liked some of the cuisine he sampled.

“I always liked Japanese fried rice,” he said. “They always put a raw fish head on it. I threw that away.”

He said the rice also contained shrimp, eggs and peas. “I made a meal out of it,” he said.

He found that the Asian cultures had some things in common with his own. “People, I found, have a lot in common. They laugh, cry and are family-oriented.”

One Japanese custom he could not get used to was taking off his shoes upon entering a home.

During his tour of the Pacific he was aboard the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier with the home port of San Diego at the time.

The Lexington is now dry docked in Pensacola, Fla.

McKinney said an earlier Lexington went down in the Marianas Islands during World War II.

He said the Japanese referred to the ship as the “Gray Ghost.”

A few members of his family have also served their country in the military.

His younger brother, Sanford Jr., served in the Army and his own grandson, Brandon, served in Iraq with the Army. His grandson is now in the Reserves.

These days, McKinney enjoys tinkering with old clocks. “I also make and re-do old electric lamps,” he said.

His two daughters and sons-in-laws are Pam and Billy Holland and Cynthia and Ethan Boles. He also has two sons and daughters-in-law, Greg and Lisa McKinney and Todd and Amy McKinney.

His grandchildren are Brandon McKinney and his wife Amanda, Jared McKinney, Courtnie McKinney, Ryan McKinney, Zach Boles, Madison Boles and Lucas McKinney.

He also has two step-grandchildren, Marshall Holland and Brandy Hinkle. He has four step-great-grandchildren, Makayla and Hunter Hinkle and Faythe and Alexus Holland.