Staff report
Decades after World War II, Dec. 7, 1941 is little more than a date in a history book for many.
For others, it is the day everything changed and many realized the United States was not indomitable.
Gainesville has its own ties to the Japanese raid on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor through its surviving World War II veterans.
A Medal of Honor recipient who has visited Gainesville and whose story was featured in the documentary “A Hero’s Welcome,” is another link to Dec. 7.
The nation’s oldest living Medal of Honor Recipient, 97-year-old John Finn, was born in Los Angeles on July 23, 1909, Finn enlisted in the Navy in 1926 following his 17th birthday.
He has said he was required to obtain his mother’s signature on the enlistment document because he was under age.
Stationed at the Naval Air Station at Kane’ohe Bay, Finn was serving as an aviation ordinance chief petty officer on December 7, 1941.
Quick to realize his base was under attack by Japanese aircraft that morning, Finn took control of a machine gun emplacement and continued to fire on the attacking planes despite being hit five times by enemy fire.
He refused to leave his gun for medical treatment until after the battle and would become one of 15 Medals of Honor to be earned that day.
Although Finn sustained approximately 21 wounds throughout his body, he didn't think he was seriously wounded. "There was shrapnel in my chest and abdomen and I spent 14 days in sick bay," he said in a previous Register story.
Nine months later, Adm. Chester Nimitz awarded Finn the Medal of Honor in aboard the USS Enterprise. During that ceremony, 25 other men were presented the Medal of Honor.
Admiral "Bull" Halsey also attended the ceremony.
Finn was already close to retirement, but served the rest of the war.
He went on to receive an officer’s commission while serving above the aircraft carrier USS Hancock with Bombing Squadron VB-102.
He retired in 1947 and lives in California.
Finn has been is in frail health for several years, but he managed to appear at a speaking engagement at North Central Texas College in 2008 and again during Medal of Honor activities this spring.
His 2008 NCTC narrative was laced with jokes and stories about his activities before the raid, but Finn stopped short of retelling the events that led to his MOH citation.
“People ask me what I did to earn the Medal of Honor...” he told the students who turned out to meet the visiting recipients, “But I’ll let you hear it from somewhere else.” — a hint of the humility that is common among heros.
Reporter Delania Trigg contributed to this report.
