MATT2c Russell McKinnie

Russell McKinnie was born Nov. 15, 1921 in Rondo, Arkansas – about 55 miles southwest of Memphis, Tennessee. 

His father was Willie McKinnie, but no publicly available record identifies his mother. The family were Baptists. In early 1942 the father worked in a barber shop in Hughes, Arkansas. Russell attended Mildred Jackson Training School in Hughes for 12 years, but his attendance must have been intermittent because he’d completed only 6th grade by 1939. The segregated school was for African-American students only.

He identified his occupation as farmer when he enlisted in the Navy on Dec. 18, 1939 in Nashville, TN and attended basic training at the Norfolk Naval Training Station. Russell boarded the U.S.S. Arizona on March 18, 1940. He was a mess attendant second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

Mr. McKinnie was African-American, which meant that only one sector of service — messmen — was open to him in the segregated Navy. Messmen cooked, cleaned, and performed other services. They could advance as far as petty officer first class as either cooks or stewards for officers, but that was their limit. Pay for messmen was rock-bottom compared with other Navy jobs. When he first enlisted, he earned $21 a month as a mess attendant 3rd class.

Sources: Veterans Administration; Navy enlistment records Department of Defense.  This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona and Operation 85.

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