Editor’s note: In honor of the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, we are sharing this 2009 piece about Lt. John William Finn, the longest surviving Medal of Honor recipient from that battle. Finn passed away in 2010 at the age of 100.
There were fifteen men awarded the Medal of Honor for their heroism on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. Only five survived that horrible day. Only one of them remains. Lt. John William Finn, USN (Ret.) turned 100 years old on July 23 of this year, and he’ll be attending the Pearl Harbor commemoration ceremony at the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial today in Hawaii, returning to the Kaneohe Bay waters where he mounted an impressive one-man attack on Japanese fighter planes in the ambush that pulled the U.S. into World War II. Because the bay was attacked several minutes before Pearl Harbor proper, Finn is often called the first Medal of Honor recipient of World War II. Finn was 17 when he joined the Navy in 1926, eventually getting stationed at Pearl Harbor as an aviation ordnanceman, in charge of anti-aircraft guns, missiles, torpedoes, and distribution of small arms. On the morning of Dec. 7, a neighbor came to his door shouting, “They want you down at the squadron right away!” Before he could see any battleships, he saw Japanese aircraft in the sky as he drove toward the bay. When he arrived on the scene, he wrested a .50 caliber machine gun from his squadron’s painter:
He put the gun on a makeshift mount, moving it to an open and vulnerable area, where he could clearly see enemy aircraft. Finn was wounded -some reports say more than 20 times- as he stood in the open under Japanese fire. This is the citation for his Medal of Honor:
“I was out there shooting the Jap planes and just every so often I was a target for some… They were Japanese fighter plane pilots. I can remember seeing, in some cases, I could see their faces,” ” Finn told CNN this summer. “Medical help comes later. If you’re busy shooting a machine gun or a rifle or a pistol or doing anything, you can’t worry about getting medical attention.” He says it in the matter-of-fact tone we’ve come to expect from the generation we call the greatest, and spurns all the hero talk:
This summer, the Navy gave Finn a birthday present befitting a hero, whether he likes the title or not: Finn was presented with an American flag that had flown over all of the 11 aircraft carriers in the Navy’s fleet. It was on the Abraham Lincoln in Seattle, then sent to San Diego for a day aboard the Ronald Reagan and the Nimitz, whose namesake the legendary Adm. Chester Nimitz put the Medal of Honor around John Finn’s neck in 1942.
Here are a few pictures of the flag’s journey , which was coordinated, appropriately, by each aircraft carrier’s aviation ordnanceman. Finn still gets around well, and participated in a wreath-laying ceremony with President Barack Obama at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on National Medal of Honor Day, with the help of walking sticks. He also regularly attends events for the dwindling number of Medal of Honor recipients still alive. In this video interview, filmed at a 2009 gathering in Texas, you’ll see he hasn’t lost his grit or his sense of humor, either. “I’m 99 years old, and I might be wrong, but I think that the United States-our Republican form of government-will prevail,” he said before adding with a chuckle: “I won’t be around when it happens, unless it happens next month.” We were blessed to have had him with us on Dec. 7, 1941 and we’re blessed to have him with us still today, 68 years later. Thank you, Lt. Finn.
This video is from an independent film called “A Hero’s Welcome,” which I’m now going to see. Below the fold is another picture of Finn being awarded the Medal of Honor by Nimitz. Beside him is his wife Alice, with whom he lived until her death in 1998.
