Retired Army Lt. Col. Jona McKee, 93, receives a pin Tuesday honoring his service during the Vietnam War from Craig Crenshaw, right, state secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs. The Henrico County resident was one of hundreds of veterans of the war awarded the Virginia pins at the ceremony held on National Vietnam War Veterans Day at the Virginia War Memorial in Downtown. He was the standout. Gov. Glenn A. Youngkin, who delivered the keynote address, noted that Lt. Col. McKee also had fought in World War II and the Korean War and is in the National ROTC Hall of Fame for doubling enrollment in the military training program at his alma mater, Virginia State University, during the five years in the 1970s that he taught military science there. During his tenure, more than 260 VSU students were commissioned as officers, a record at the time. More than 230,000 Virginians served in the armed forces during the Vietnam conflict. Today, Virginia is home to more than 710,000 veterans.
