In 1885, he led an expeditionary force of 750 seamen and Marines in landing at Panama to protect American treaty rights as a revolution there threatened to block transit across the isthmus.

In 1897, while commanding Marblehead in blockading Cuba, he cut cables to isolate the Spanish garrison at Cienfuegos.

On 10 June 1898, with Lieutenant Colonel Robert Huntington, USMC, Commander McCalla led a joint Navy and Marine Corps expedition into Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, seizing the anchorage and thereby enabling a close blockade of Spanish warships at Santiago de Cuba, about forty miles west.

Commanding Newark during the Boxer Rebellion, he was second in command of an international force under British Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, including 112 bluejackets, that advanced from Tientsin to Peking to relieve foreign legations under siege there. In battle at Hsiku Arsenal, McCalla and 25 of his force were wounded; five were killed. For this action, he received a Congressional medal, the Order of the Red Eagle by the German Emperor and another medal from the King of England.

Commissioned rear admiral 11 October 1903, he retired 19 June 1906, having earned the respect of fellow officers for courage and leadership throughout his 39-year career. He died 6 May 1910 at Santa Barbara, California and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Source: Naval History & Heritage Command including Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.