Notice Nearby

Decorations register · Notice Nearby

No rights-safe contemporary likeness is on file. The record is the decoration and the writing, not an invented face.

Calvin Leon Graham

1930–1992

Seaman (wartime; USS South Dakota anti-aircraft gunner)

USS South Dakota (BB-57); anti-aircraft gunner; Battle of Santa Cruz (26 Oct 1942) and Naval Battle of Guadalcanal (14 Nov 1942)

Documented decorations

Calvin Leon Graham’s Bronze Star Medal with Combat “V” and Purple Heart are named in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ #VeteranOfTheDay profile of his World War II Navy service. This decorations page records those two types from that VA list. It will not invent devices beyond the Combat “V” sentence the VA publishes.

Born in Texas in 1930, Graham enlisted underage and served as an anti-aircraft gunner on USS South Dakota. At Guadalcanal in November 1942 he was burned and thrown down the superstructure, stayed conscious, and helped wounded shipmates. The VA account names the Bronze Star and Purple Heart for those actions, then records how the Navy stripped the medals when his true age was discovered, and how the decorations were later restored — the Purple Heart to his widow after his death. He died in Fort Worth in 1992. The restored Purple Heart and Bronze Star with Combat “V” are the published decoration names here. They are not a scoreboard of the later discharge fight.

This name is not yet on a war-roll essay. The decorations above are the documented public record this register will stand on until that essay is written.

A publisher register — not a verification

This decorations register is publisher-curated from public records — Medal of Honor Society citations, published general orders, and official Army, Navy, and Marine Corps biographies. It is not a verified-veteran product. Notice Nearby does not certify service and does not issue badges.

A paid or unpaid memorial does not enroll anyone here. Checkout, VET50, and a family’s mention of service on an obituary are not applications to this list. We add a name only when a public official source names the decoration.

Claiming a decoration that was not awarded is stolen valor. It is a disrespect to those who earned the medal and, in some cases, a federal crime. This register will not invent an award to fill a page.

These pages are a historical register. They are not Legal Publication, not a newspaper notice, and not proof that a statute was satisfied.