Lem Waggoner Jr. - Home Page Slide Show - Mickey Strand - Veterans Series

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The Veterans Portrait Series.

Mickey is a retired Navy Photographers Mate, Chief Petty Officer, and was the Leading Chief of the Navy's elite Combat Camera Group Pacific. Mickey's current focus is the Veterans Portrait Series, which documents veterans' stories of service. He is focused on our Worlds' Greatest Generation. The veterans of World War II. 

Mickey interviews each Veteran, collecting and writing their service stories, archiving these notable historic figures and their stories for generations to come. Mickey has collected and displayed images and stories from over 100 warriors that at one point, signed the dotted line when our country needed their sacrifice of service most.  Mickey continues to collect Veterans from all services for the Veterans Portrait Series. In 2019 this body of work was displayed at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre Museum from Nov 11, 2019 — to March 1, 2020.

Mickey and the project were in the national spotlight, featured on the Sunday Today Show with Harry Smith Today Show Link to YouTube.  See the Google 360 Virtual walk through from the Palm Beach Museum Exhibit. Enjoy, and thank you for your help with this project. In 2022 Mickey photographed over 25 more WW2 Veterans and will be hosting a print show in San Diego in November with an open house on Veterans Day. Today we continue to capture the Ledgends of service of great American heros. 

Featured Veteran

Edward_Kicklighter

Celebrating the life of - 

Edward Kicklighter
United States NAVY
Commander
Korean War - Vietnam War

Born on January 20th, 1925, Edward Kicklighter became an ordained minister at the young age of 18. He joined the U.S. Navy in August 1953 to become a Navy Chaplain. Edward received a commission as an Ensign at the end of the Korean War after attending Chaplain school in Newport, Rhode Island. There, all faith chaplains learned to support the needs of various service members’ faith groups. After graduation, he was assigned to the Navy's Chaplain offices in San Francisco. Ens Kicklighter deployed as a Ship's Chaplain aboard a troop transport ship, moving Marines and Sailors across the Pacific.

Edward later served during the Vietnam War with the Headquarters, 1st Division U.S. Marine Corps, as an assistant Chaplain in Chu Lai and Da Nang. There, he provided church and other services but spent most of his time counseling and listening to his troops. Edward fondly remembers baptizing two Marines on a beach of the South China Sea.

Edward later worked in the Philippines when his ship, the USS Tripoli (LPH-10), helped provide electricity to the Negrito people. In 1963, Edward, then stationed on Midway Island, held a unique memorial service after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy for all of the base personnel. He served from 1953 to 1982, supporting countless Sailors and Marines worldwide throughout his 30 years of service. Edward retired as a Commander from the Navy in June 1982.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Where can I donate?

I have created a way to accept donations to grow the project, use the WWII Veterans Portrait Series
Please email

Where are you located?

I live in the San Diego area but have traveled to many locations to interview and photograph Veterans.


How Long is an Appointment?

Appointments usually last 1 hour.
But please free up time for Mickey to set up lights and cameras, hold the interview, and take some photographs for the project.

Do you accept reservations?

Yes is the simple answer to the question.  Each appointment is set up as an individual session. Group sessions have been set up when I visited a senior living facility and the California Veterans Homes.

Copyright © 2025 Mickey Strand – Veterans Series
United States Navy Gunner’s Mate First Class World War II Lem Waggoner Jr. was born on July 13, 1922, in Canadian, Texas, located at the top of the state’s panhandle. He was the son of Lem Sr., who managed an ice company, and Ruby, a homemaker. Growing up with one brother and two sisters, Lem lived on the outskirts of town and walked over a mile to attend Canadian High School. He was an early bloomer, starting school at age four in a private kindergarten and graduating high school at the age of 16. His upbringing in the country provided him with significant mechanical familiarity with firearms, as he and his brother were raised around guns from a young age. Lem enlisted in the United States Navy in 1942, shortly after the United States entered World War II. Because he had already graduated from high school, he was able to enlist at age 17 without parental consent. He traveled by train from Texas to San Diego, where he completed his physical and attended boot camp at the Recruit Training Center (RTC). After completing his initial training, he was sent to gunnery school at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, north of Chicago. There, he specialized in the maintenance and operation of the 5-inch 38-caliber guns, machine guns, and M1 rifles, earning the Gunner’s Mate job rate. Following A school, Lem was assigned to the advanced gun school at the destroyer base on 32nd Street in San Diego. While there, he was recruited by an officer for a unique assignment: hand-painting large-scale technical schematics on classroom walls. Using a projector at night, Lem transformed small, complex drawings into multi-foot illustrations. These large-scale diagrams were essential for instructors to demonstrate the inner workings of weaponry to large groups of sailors. Lem’s specialized role in the Navy was much like a human magnifying glass; he took complex, miniature technical diagrams and projected them onto a massive scale so that an entire classroom of sailors could see and understand every moving part of a weapon simultaneously. Lem was later deployed to the Philippines to help establish a new Navy gunnery school at Subic Bay. His primary responsibility was to determine the layout of the classrooms and to paint the same instructional schematics he had created in San Diego to train sailors coming off ships. During his time in the Pacific, he also served at Samar, traveling across the bay by boat to support the training facilities there. On this assignment, Lem earned the rank of Gunner’s Mate First Class. While serving in San Diego, Lem met Marian Angelina Bell through her brother, who was a member of his Navy company. Although she was initially engaged to someone else, Lem persisted in asking her out, and the two eventually began dating. They were married on October 22, 1944, at the chapel in Old Town, San Diego. The couple settled in San Diego and had six children. After the war ended, Lem returned to San Diego in November 1945 aboard the troop transport ship SS William Mitchell. Lem declined the opportunity to join the occupation forces in Japan, choosing to return to his family and a new daughter he had not yet met. He was honorably discharged in early December 1945. In civilian life, Lem utilized his painting skills to secure a career with the San Diego Unified School District. He spent 38 years building and painting classrooms for the district, continuing the professional trade he developed during his military service.
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Lem Waggoner Jr. - Home Page Slide Show - Mickey Strand - Veterans Series
United States Navy Gunner’s Mate First Class World War II Lem Waggoner Jr. was born on July 13, 1922, in Canadian, Texas, located at the top of the state’s panhandle. He was the son of Lem Sr., who managed an ice company, and Ruby, a homemaker. Growing up with one brother and two sisters, Lem lived on the outskirts of town and walked over a mile to attend Canadian High School. He was an early bloomer, starting school at age four in a private kindergarten and graduating high school at the age of 16. His upbringing in the country provided him with significant mechanical familiarity with firearms, as he and his brother were raised around guns from a young age. Lem enlisted in the United States Navy in 1942, shortly after the United States entered World War II. Because he had already graduated from high school, he was able to enlist at age 17 without parental consent. He traveled by train from Texas to San Diego, where he completed his physical and attended boot camp at the Recruit Training Center (RTC). After completing his initial training, he was sent to gunnery school at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, north of Chicago. There, he specialized in the maintenance and operation of the 5-inch 38-caliber guns, machine guns, and M1 rifles, earning the Gunner’s Mate job rate. Following A school, Lem was assigned to the advanced gun school at the destroyer base on 32nd Street in San Diego. While there, he was recruited by an officer for a unique assignment: hand-painting large-scale technical schematics on classroom walls. Using a projector at night, Lem transformed small, complex drawings into multi-foot illustrations. These large-scale diagrams were essential for instructors to demonstrate the inner workings of weaponry to large groups of sailors. Lem’s specialized role in the Navy was much like a human magnifying glass; he took complex, miniature technical diagrams and projected them onto a massive scale so that an entire classroom of sailors could see and understand every moving part of a weapon simultaneously. Lem was later deployed to the Philippines to help establish a new Navy gunnery school at Subic Bay. His primary responsibility was to determine the layout of the classrooms and to paint the same instructional schematics he had created in San Diego to train sailors coming off ships. During his time in the Pacific, he also served at Samar, traveling across the bay by boat to support the training facilities there. On this assignment, Lem earned the rank of Gunner’s Mate First Class. While serving in San Diego, Lem met Marian Angelina Bell through her brother, who was a member of his Navy company. Although she was initially engaged to someone else, Lem persisted in asking her out, and the two eventually began dating. They were married on October 22, 1944, at the chapel in Old Town, San Diego. The couple settled in San Diego and had six children. After the war ended, Lem returned to San Diego in November 1945 aboard the troop transport ship SS William Mitchell. Lem declined the opportunity to join the occupation forces in Japan, choosing to return to his family and a new daughter he had not yet met. He was honorably discharged in early December 1945. In civilian life, Lem utilized his painting skills to secure a career with the San Diego Unified School District. He spent 38 years building and painting classrooms for the district, continuing the professional trade he developed during his military service.