Retired Navy Captain Jim McKinney holds a picture of the hydrofoil guided missile boats he commanded in Key West in the 1980s. On he shelf beside him are pictures of his son, Brad in the foreground who is also a Navy captain; himself and his father, Eugene McKinney who was an Admiral who served in the submarines service in World War II. Photo provided
Jim McKinney is a Navy man. So was his father and so is his son.
Jim was a career naval officer who served during the Cold War as a commodore of a squadron of hydrofoil boats in Key West equipped with Harpoon, ship-to-ship guided missiles. His father, Adm. Eugene McKinney, was skipper of two World War II submarines: the USS Salmon and the USS Skate. He received three Navy Crosses and a Silver Star for Valor for the combat missions he made. Brad, Jim’s oldest son, is the commander of the Explosive Ordinance Department at the Navy’s facility at Panama Beach.
