Merchant Marine/Air Force Veteran has Long and Distinguished Career

On the occasion of the celebration of Veteran’s Day in Winston County, we are featuring an example of the many men and women from Winston County who have answered the call of duty to serve in the uniforms of the USA.

Retired Colonel Robert McCully

Merchant Seaman Robert M. McCully is a veteran of World War II by virtue of being in the National Maritime Service following his graduation from Louisville High School in May of 1945. The war ended while he was still in boot camp at St. Petersburg, Florida. He shipped out until August, 1947 when he started as a Pre-Vet student at Mississippi State. After two years he went to veterinary school at Iowa State. This was followed by an internship at the Angell Memorial Hospital in Boston. He then volunteered for the Veterinary Corp of the US Air Force. He was assigned to surgery and radiology at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, which is on the grounds of the Walter Reed Medical Center. Studying veterinary pathology for the next six years, he got his boards in the American College of Veterinary Pathology in 1961. He was assigned to the AFIP/Onderstepoort collaborative program for studying foreign animal diseases and diseases common to man and animals. Collaborating with five colonels in the Army and Air Force Veterinary Corps and several South African veterinarians, he published an Atlas (CD Rom) on foreign animal diseases in 2006. It has been distributed worldwide. Colonel McCully finished it off at his own expense and has given away all of the copies distributed.

Washington D.C. - Sept 1972. Lieutenant Colonel McCully
receives the Legion of Merit Award in recognition of work done
at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Research Institute in the
Republic of South Africa

Retiring in 1975, Colonel McCully has continued research and writing about animal diseases and is considered a world expert on some. The latest book he worked on was on sheep and goat diseases of South Africa completed in 2012.

He served proudly as a Merchant Marine and in the Air Force. He retired as full Colonel in August, 1975, but has kept up his international contacts.

Colonel McCully had  family members that served during WWII as well. One first cousin, Fred McCully, son of Sam McCully, was at Corregidor when it fell and was captured by the Japanese and was a prisoner until the end of the war. Another first cousin, Bill McCully, son of Everette McCully was in the Battle of the Bulge and received the Bronze Star.

Washington, D.C. August 1972, Colonel McCully (right) presents
a display of "The Pathology of Tropical Veterinary Diseases" to
South African Ambassador Johan S.F. Botha at the Armed
Forces Institute of Pathology