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MoH Recipient John Finn, hero at Pearl Harbor, dies at 100
2010-05-27
John Finn, the oldest living Medal of Honor recipient, died Thursday morning at the age of 100 at the Chula Vista Veterans Home.

He was stationed at Keneohe Bay Naval Air Station on Dec. 7, 1941 when he found himself firing at Japanese planes from an exposed position at Pearl Harbor for more than two hours despite being hit 21 times by bomb and bullet fragments.

The longtime East County resident was credited by some with single-handedly shooting down a Japanese aircraft but he would later say “I can't honestly say I hit any, but I shot at every damn plane I could see.'

Friends and fellow veterans said Lt. Finn was a rock star in military circles. People clamored for a handshake or to have a picture taken with him wherever he went. Fellow Medal of Honor recipient Tom Kelley said Lt. Finn was a big hit at a Veterans Day event in Massachusetts last year.

“He's kind of a legend,' Kelley said. “He was a very warm person and had a phenomenal memory. He could remember everything and tell stories and not repeat himself. He made everyone who met him feel like they were the most important person in the world.'

He grew up near Los Angeles and had been in the Navy 15 years by the time he was stationed in Hawaii. He left the Navy as a lieutenant in 1947 after 21 years of service because he dreaded having to assume a ship command, according to a 1984 interview with the San Diego Union.

He downplayed his heroic efforts during World War II and said he was just doing his job. “I read about other guys with the medal who lost their lives or really suffered in wars and I think about myself. I was just an uneducated man who got mad as hell one day,' he said in 1984.
Only 90 living Medal of Honor recipients remain.
Posted by: Anonymoose

#4  To be more accurate, he was a "mustang".
Posted by: Pappy   2010-05-27 22:17  

#3  He grew up near Los Angeles and had been in the Navy 15 years by the time he was stationed in Hawaii. He left the Navy as a lieutenant in 1947

Gromky he was a stone cold enlisted man, read.
Posted by: Shipman   2010-05-27 20:13  

#2  Born on July 23, 1909, in Los Angeles, California, Finn dropped out of school after seventh grade.[1] He enlisted in the Navy in July 1926, shortly before his seventeenth birthday, By December 1941, Finn was stationed at Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. As a chief aviation ordnanceman

Finn then found a movable platform used for gunnery training, attached the .50 caliber machine gun, and pushed the platform into an open area, from which he had a clear view of the attacking aircraft. He fired on the Japanese planes for the next two hours, even after being seriously wounded, until the attack had ended. In total, he received 21 distinct wounds, including a bullet through the foot and an injury which caused him to lose feeling in his left arm.

Deepest respects and condolences to his family.
Posted by: ed   2010-05-27 19:56  

#1  15 years as a lieutenant...I guess they didn't have "up or out" back then...
Posted by: gromky   2010-05-27 18:27  

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