James Robert McCain

The Navy lost its oldest Public Affairs Specialist (1650) on January 4, 2022 with the passing of LCDR James R. McCain, USN (ret.) at age 93 in San Diego, CA after years of heart failure.

Born in Mississippi in 1928, he enlisted and went on to a distinguished naval and civil career:

• Served as a journalist with Carrier Group 3 aboard six different aircraft carriers during the Korean War

• A member of the inaugural class at the Navy’s then newly established Journalist School at Great Lakes, Ill

• Attended the Naval War College with the dual role of student and the College’s PIO

• Commissioned as an unrestricted line officer (1100), and assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La as the Admin Officer, PIO, and underway OOD

• Selected in 1969 as a Public Affairs Specialist (1650) (only 1 per year), he became Press Briefer to CNO Admiral Arleigh Burke.

• CDR Bill Thompson’s (later RADM and first 1650 flag officer) Assistant PIO at ComNine. They became fast and close friends through their retirement years.

• His final naval assignment was as ComPhibPac’s PIO in Coronado where he retired to become the City of San Diego’s first Public Information Director.

• First PIO for the County of San Diego

• At age 45 he became the oldest (at that time) cadet to complete the rugged Sheriff’s Academy.

• Assistant for Public Affairs to the Sheriff of San Diego, the nation’s second largest sheriff’s department

• After 20 years in law enforcement, he retired in 1993 as a result of a line-of-duty injury and became a world traveler.

Together with his beloved wife Lucretia, he visited 73 countries, including a round-the-world trip, and 49 of the U.S. States.

He loved ballroom dancing and was an avid golfer, playing competitively to age 92.

Preceded in death by his two sons, Bruce and Nathan (both cancer victims), he is survived by his wife Lucretia, daughter Karen Petersen, six grandchildren and eleven great grandchildren, including two in college.

JRM/ews