Al Jackson Sr., didn’t initially aspire to go into the military. His outlook, he said, changed to a sense of duty during World War II.

  “I just felt like it was something I needed to be doing,” said Jackson, 98. “Somebody had to be in there, and I was one of them.”

  Jackson was born in 1922, and lived in Stockbridge for more than 40 years. He still owns a house on Swan Lake, though he now resides in in Habersham County.

  Jackson entered the Navy in 1942, and was stationed on the U.S.S. Mindanao, a repair ship in the Pacific, from 1942-45. He said his Christian faith sustained him while he served in the war, and that while serving on the Mindanao, he read daily from a Bible that his mother gave him.

  Jackson recalled talking about his religious beliefs with several others one night in November of 1944, including one unnamed serviceman who didn’t share his faith.That serviceman was one of hundreds who died as a result of an explosion in the harbor.

  The Mindanao was among 30 ships that were damaged when the U.S.S. Hood, an ammunition ship, blew up, said Jackson.

  “It was about six or seven feet from where I was standing,” said Al Jackson. “I didn’t know until the next day that it had been that close to me.”

  Jackson said he held his ears until he got to the top of the ship to see what had happened. The explosion, he said, eventually led to him losing some of his hearing.

  All told, more than 500 people died that day in the harbor, including roughly half of the men on the Mindanao, said Jackson’s son David, of Stockbridge.

  “It blew holes so wide on Pop’s ship that you couldn’t reach across them with arms stretched out,” said David Jackson, 70. “One of the shells on that ammunition ship went through the floor not too far from Pop, and it didn’t explode. You wouldn’t be talking to me now if it had.”

  David Jackson said the exact cause of the explosion remains a mystery.

  “They were offloading ammunition and somebody had made a mistake,” said David Jackson. “They don’t know what happened. There was nothing left to examine to find out.”

  After Al Jackson Sr.’s military service ended, he met his wife Agatha in 1946. They got married in March of 1948 and had three sons – Al Jr., 72, David, 70, both of Stockbridge, and Rick, 68, of Rex.

  Agatha Jackson passed away in 2009.

  David Jackson said his dad still carries the Bible that was given to him decades ago. He said others regularly show their appreciation for his dad’s service.

  “We go out to eat a lot, and he has a World War II hat that he wears,” said David Jackson. “You wouldn’t believe the number of people who have paid for his meals. Quite a few of them don’t even want us to know who they are. They just send the waitress to the table to tell us our meal has been paid for. That’s happened numerous times.”

  David Jackson said he and his father have saved $500-600 at local restaurants over the last five years, because of people who have honored his dad’s military service.

  “There’s a lot of respect for the veterans around here,” he said.