Oldest surviving Medal of Honor recipient dies

LOS ANGELES TIMES, 5/28/2010 - John Finn dies at 100. The retired Navy officer was the only one still alive among those who were awarded the medal for actions during the Japanese attack of Dec. 7, 1941.

Excerpt: "Born July 23, 1909, in Los Angeles, John William Finn attended high school in Compton and enlisted in the Navy at age 17. Before being stationed at Kaneohe Bay, Finn had served in the Philippines, the Panama Canal Zone and China and aboard ships in the north Atlantic. ∴ At Kaneohe Bay, he was a chief petty officer and an aviation ordnance chief assigned to maintain the weaponry on a PBY Catalina flying boat squadron. ∴ When the attack began, Finn found a .50-caliber machine gun in the armory and mounted it on an instruction platform, which provided him with no protection. Despite his wounds, he kept firing and reloading for more than two hours."

Photo right: John Finn salutes at the groundbreaking ceremony for the USS Oklahoma memorial at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 2006. (Lucy Pemoni / Associated Press)
Photo left: No citation or date at Canadian Press