On December 7, 1941
Navy Ordnance man John W. Finn was awakened by the sounds of Japanese
airplanes as they strafed the American airfield at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii
five minutes before the first planes began wreaking devastation at Pearl
Harbor. Angered beyond words, the 32-year old sailor was one of
the first to return fire. Standing exposed to the incoming fire on
an open platform, pushed beyond anger to ignore all natural human fears,
he manned his gun despite 100 wounds.
"I was SO MAD,"
he says,
"I guess I didn't have enough sense to be frightened or
scared."
For his heroic
efforts that day, John Finn was awarded the Medal of Honor. Today
at age 92, he is the oldest living recipient of our Nation's highest
award for military valor, and the last surviving Medal of Honor hero
from Pearl Harbor Day. On September 11, 2001 John Finn was only 55
miles from New York when the terrorists crashed into the World Trade
Center. He says:
"I
do hope to God we hunt down, find, and kill the people who are
responsible for this awful act. I am all for retaliation, but at
the same time I hate to think of the loss of good American youth--and
the casualties this time could be even more."
Born in revolution,
tried by conflict and preserved in war, the United States of America
stands proud in an often-dangerous world because our men and women have
always risen to each new challenge and responded beyond their human
fears to every threat. In this time of tragedy and sorrow, those
who have valiantly defended our way of life in wars past, are quick to
share their thoughts, their hopes, and their words of encouragement to a
new generation of Americans.
On Tuesday, September
18th, one week after the events that propelled our Nation into what our
president called "The first war of the new century",
America's heroes began speaking out. We invite you to read the MESSAGES TO AMERICA from the heroes of our past,
the men who wear the Medal of Honor by clicking on the table of links at
left..
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CLICK HERE
If you don't see a list of links at the left |
