Private Floyd Leon McCall was born in Defuniak Springs, Walton County, Florida on May 16, 1916, the son of Wilborn Neal Cornelius McCall (1891-1967) and Mary Frances "Fannie" Inman (1904-1982). His father supported his wife and five children in 1930 as a laborer in the turpentine field. By 1940, he was farming and now had nine children to support on his homestead in Munson. However, Floyd had left home and was working for Lee Tucker in the turpentine field in the Millview Community off west Lillian Highway. He had married Hazel W. Welborn in 1936, however the couple split up in prior to his enlistment.
With the Great Depression coming to an end and Europe at war, young Floyd decided to enlist in the Army on February 22, 1941, less than ten months before Pearl Harbor. He was sent to Camp Blanding, Florida for processing and initial training before being assigned to the 124th Infantry Regiment of the 31st Infantry Division. But before shipping out overseas, he would marry Mary Aline Covlin (1923-1987) on September 12, 1942 in Milton.
On January 2, 1944, Floyd and his regiment took part in Operation Cartwheel, which was MacArthur's "leap-frog" plan to capture strategic enemy points to use as forward bases while leaving others to wither on the vine. In the meantime, the Division sailed forth to land 13,000 soldiers in July 1944 at Aitape in Papau, New Guinea. Facing them were up to 50,000 battle hardened Japanese soldiers with nothing to lose.
As the battle unfolded, Floyd would be sharing his regiment's fighting with another young soldier from Santa Rosa County, Private Watson Barnes (1919-1997). But neither had any way of knowing, they were about to experience the bloodiest fighting of the war, of which one would escape unscathed and one wouldn't!
In response to the Allies advancement toward the Driniumor River, the Japanese attacked with 10,000 soldiers across the river northwest of Afua, commencing on 10 July. Elements of the 128th Infantry Regiments bore the brunt of the attack with very heavy casualties but the Japanese paid for it even worse. After the first effort against Afua, heavy fighting would continue west of the river as the two opponents clashed in the dense jungle. As the fighting devolved into hand-to-hand combat, continuous attacks were maintained on isolated pockets of American troops still clinging to their positions at the river. By July 22nd, the Japanese captured Afua, but the following day reinforcements from the 127th Infantry Regiment began relieving the isolated soldiers. It was during this chaos and turmoil of the battle that Private McCall was leading a scouting team trying to determine enemy positions along the embattled front. Suddenly, they ran into approximately 500 Japanese soldiers who had overrun the American lines. Heavy machine gun and small arms fire killed four in Floyd's unit and wounded six others, one being Floyd. Reinforcements eventually evacuated the casualties, but as he was being carried to the rear Floyd was shot in the wrist and forty minutes later, shot again in both legs.
Rushed to a aid station, he was patched up and sent to a rear echelon MASH hospital. When he was able, he was airlifted back to the United States for further hospitalization. Following his return from the war, he and Mary split up in 1945 followed by his marriage to her sister Augusta Ann (1921-2010) on February 12, 1945. She was born in Pensacola, the daughter of John Colvin, and raised in the old Pleasant Grove community of Escambia County.
Following the war, Floyd went to work with the civil service at NAS where he would retire years later. He would pass away in 1970 at the age of 54-years-old and was buried in Barrancas Cemetery. Augusta Ann would follow him in death in 2010 and was buried in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery.
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