Naval veteran delivering a veterans day program at chapel
Standing in Caldwell Hall late Wednesday morning, Thomas McCallie III ‘60 looked back on the McCallie Veterans Day chapel program he’d just attended.
He served in the Navy. He once escorted John-John and Caroline Kennedy across the deck of the USS John F. Kennedy when that aircraft carrier was commissioned in honor of their late father, the 35th President of the United States, in 1968.
Said McCallie III of honoring the 17 former students and current faculty members who served our country: “It’s so important for this generation to know the sacrifices made for our freedom. They have no concept of history.”
Honor. Truth. Duty.
Those three words have provided McCallie School its compass and its backbone for 118 years and counting. They’ve also done a pretty good job of giving guidance to the hundreds of McCallie men who’ve gone on to proudly serve our Armed Forces after they’ve left the Ridge.
A packed chapel honored that 17, including recent Medal of Honor winner and one-time McCallie student Larry Taylor, with a stirring and patriotic chapel program.
Fifty-five-year faculty member and graduate John McCall ‘61 started things off by leading the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance. Dr. James Harr ‘92, director of Choral Programs, then led the Men’s Ensemble in singing the National Anthem.
Head of School Lee Burns ‘87 welcomed the veterans back on campus, followed by TW Francescon ‘95, senior director of alumni culture and engagement, introducing special guests, including retired US Navy captain Mickey McCamish. Craig Ingvalson ‘77, senior director of strategic planning and capital giving, fought back tears as he told of the sacrifices so many of these veterans had made, including his late father Roger, who was a POW for two years during the Vietnam War.
Taylor was supposed to be in attendance for the ceremony, but he suffered a nasty fall at his home a few days earlier, leaving McCamish to praise his friend from afar.
“Larry and I went to Sunday School together at East Chattanooga Baptist Church,” recalled McCamish. “Our Sunday School class was known as the ‘Live Wires.’ It was a good description of us.”
After a freshman and sophomore year spent at McCallie, Taylor joined McCamish at City High School for his junior and senior years. He then graduated from the University of Tennessee before joining the Army. He was soon flying Cobra helicopters in Vietnam.
On June 18, 1968, Taylor got a call that four of his fellow soldiers were surrounded by the enemy. He was first ordered to go rescue them but later ordered to pull back, the mission deemed too dangerous.
Taylor ignored the last order. He flew his chopper through the dark, gunfire all around him, and found the men only after they shot flares to reveal their location. Swooping his Cobra in to rescue them, “The helicopter is only about 36 inches wide,” explained McCamish, he had the men grab hold of the landing skids and flew them to safety.
Taylor was quickly awarded a Silver Star for his actions. But because he’d disobeyed orders to abort the mission, it took 55 years to receive the Medal of Honor.
Said President Joe Biden as he hung the medal around Taylor’s neck this past September: “When duty called, Larry did everything to answer. Because of that, he rewrote the fate of four families for generations to come. That’s valor. That’s our nation at its very best.”
Or as McCamish told the chapel crowd, “Because of Larry, we had four less Gold Star families (the military term for families who’ve lost a loved one in battle.)
The 17 veterans honored Wednesday didn’t all win Silver Stars and Purple Hearts. They didn’t all serve in wars. But all 17 served their country with honor, from Scott Brown Jr. ‘59, to McCallie III, to McCall, to Jon Armstrong ‘61, Bill Brown Jr. ‘61, Ned Giles ‘64, Ramsey Dethro ‘64, Turner Howard ‘65, Joe Cofer ‘68, Lee DeArmond ‘69, David Hughes ‘78, John Green ‘84, Zac Cavitt ‘05 and faculty and staff members Jared Eddy, Anita Gontarek and Gordon Connell.
None of those veterans may have benefitted from the military or represented McCallie better than Cofer, who eventually performed the first liver transplant in South Carolina after going to medical school at UT-Memphis with the help of the government.
Head of School Lee Burns posing for a picture with a Veteran and two employees
After graduating from McCallie in 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War, Cofer went to Georgia Tech to be an engineer. He wound up in the service for four years. He was a tactical pilot in the U.S. Navy, which was his father’s branch of service.
Of those pilots, he said, “The most all-around superior individuals I’ve ever known. Those four years of active duty were some of the best years of my life. I visited Singapore, the Philippines, Perth, and Australia.”
And when he got out of the service, he decided to go to medical school. He was rejected 18 times. Then Memphis accepted him. He eventually did over 100 liver transplants.
On Wednesday, Cofer, wearing his leather Navy flight jacket, was asked what McCallie honoring these 17 veterans meant to him.
“It means everything,” he said.