Shannon Alan "Mac" McKinney, a resident of the Denmark area, was a retired sergeant major in the U.S. Army, the highest enlisted rank, and was the owner of McKinney Farms. He enlisted in the Army in 1988 and served 26 years before retiring in January 2015, passing away shortly after in 2016. His service included multiple combat tours totaling five years: seven tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, one in Bosnia, and one in Panama. The last 16 years of his service, after service as a Ranger and Green Beret, were in the Army's elite Delta Force. Over the course of his service, McKinney participated in hundreds of high-risk missions and operations. His many awards include the Legion of Merit, nine Bronze Stars (two with the "V" for valor in combat), and three Purple Hearts. In his first year in the Army, while with the Rangers in 1989, he was one of the first two people through the doors of the Panamanian Defense Forces headquarters.