A 12 Year Old Joined the US Navy and Fought in WW2
During WW2, Calvin Leon Graham (1930 – 1992) became famous when it was discovered that he had successfully lied about his age and managed to join the US Navy at age 12. After his father’s death, Calvin’s mother remarried, and he ended up living with an abusive stepfather in Houston. He moved out at age 11 with an older brother, and made ends meet by delivering newspapers and telegrams on the weekends and outside school hours. A year later, in 1942, he told his mother he was going to visit relatives, but went to a recruiting office instead. There, he lied about his age, and enlisted in the US Navy at age 12.
After completing boot camp, Calvin was sent to Pearl Harbor. There, he was assigned to the recently commissioned battleship USS South Dakota, joining its crew in September of 1942 as a loader for an antiaircraft gun. The following month, he served the guns during the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands, for which the South Dakota and her crew received a Navy Commendation.
On the night of November 14-15, 1942, during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the South Dakota came under fire from at least three enemy warships, and was struck 26 times, sustaining significant damage. Calvin was injured by shrapnel, but ignored it to take part in rescue operations and help pull more seriously wounded crewmates to safety. He was awarded a Bronze Star for his conduct that day, and a Purple Heart for his wounds in action.
The South Dakota sailed to New York City for repairs, and while it was docked, Calvin went AWOL to attend his grandmother’s funeral in Texas. That was when his mother discovered where her child had been all that time. She told the Navy, but incredibly, rather than immediately discharge him, they sent the 12 year old to the brig as punishment for going AWOL. It was only after his sister threatened to go public that the Navy let the child go. However, in an act of bureaucratic petty retaliation, the US Navy gave him a dishonorable discharge, and confiscated his awards.
It took writing to Congress, and securing the approval of President Jimmy Carter, before Calvin’s dishonorable discharge was changed to honorable in 1977. His awards were also restored to him, with the exception of the Purple Heart, for some reason. In 1988, his story was told in a TV movie, Too Young a Hero, in which Calvin was played by Rick Schroeder. He was the youngest American serviceman during WWII, as well as the youngest one decorated for heroism during that conflict.