Memorial Day

[Kerry Stratton]

Ron,

Thank you.

[Marco]

This picture has always reminded me of who they were and are.




Mark

[Joel D. Popham]

Always remember, Always pay respect, Always be thankful.... As Always, Best Regards.

[Steve Molcsan]

Oldest Medal of Honor recipient from WWII dies

By JULIE WATSON Associated Press Writer ? 2010 The Associated Press
May 27, 2010, 7:05PM

SAN DIEGO ? Retired Navy Lt. John Finn ? the first American to receive the nation's highest military award for defending sailors under a torrent of gunfire during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ? died Thursday. He was 100.

Finn was the oldest of 97 Medal of Honor recipients from World War II still living. He died at a nursing home for veterans in Chula Vista, outside San Diego, according to a Navy statement.

Despite head wounds and other injuries, Finn, the chief of ordnance for an air squadron, continuously fired a .50-caliber machine gun from an exposed position as bullets and bombs pounded the Naval Air Station at Kaneohe Bay in Oahu. He then supervised the rearming of returning American planes.

"Here they're paying you for doing your duty, and that's what I did," Finn told The Associated Press before his 100th birthday. "I never intended to be a hero. But on Dec. 7, by God, we're in a war."

President Barack Obama said "his modesty does not diminish his extraordinary conduct or the incredible example he has set for our men and women in uniform and for all Americans."

"I had the privilege of meeting Lt. Finn last year, and I was struck by his warmth and humility," Obama said in a statement from the White House. "As we mark Memorial Day, and pay tribute all who have fallen in defense of this nation, the passing of Lt. Finn is a reminder of the sacrifices that generations have made to preserve the freedoms we hold dear."

Finn, who enlisted in the Navy just before his 17th birthday, received the Medal of Honor on Sept. 15, 1942.

He later served as a limited duty officer specializing in anti-aircraft guns in San Diego, Hawaii, Washington, Panama and aboard aircraft carriers, the Navy said.

Finn retired in 1956 after three decades of service, but he continued to help young sailors and stayed active in Navy organizations, Lt. Aaron Kakiel said.

"He's been a real inspiration to a number of our aviation ordnance men and an example for the entire Navy," he said.

Born July 23, 1909, in Los Angeles, Finn lived for 50 years on his ranch near Live Oak Springs, outside San Diego.

Finn died at the Veterans Home of California in Chula Vista, the Navy said. Officials initially said he had died at his ranch.

He will be buried with full military honors. Kakiel said the Navy was still working with his family members on the details.
__________________
1SG
Nothing personal just business.

[Uncle Jesse]

Thanks Steve, I heard about Lt. Finn's passing from a caller on a local talk radio show this afternoon. I hope I just missed it when it was on network news and the papers. I thought this was a great quote from Lt. Finn posted in the Union Tribune web article

Finn often 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 a 1984 interview with The San Diego Union."

[flyfishfairwx]

My son returned from vacation in Washington DC and he brought back Cherry Tree seeds for his Mom, but for me he brought back something that I will treasure for the rest of my days. The boy is not perfect just damn good.

My thoughts and prayers to those that serve and have served and paid the ultimate price for that service.
Note: 1982 was the year that I joined the Canadian Armed Forces

[Steve Molcsan]

The following message was sent to me this morning by a good friend and retired US Navy Captain. I thought it worth sharing. On this Memorial Day, let us extend our heart-felt Thanks! to our service men and women, past and present!

"Our flag reminds me of a young Navy pilot named Mike Christian. Mike was a POW in a place referred to as the Hanoi Hilton in North Viet Nam. Mike found the remnants of a handkerchief in a gutter that ran under the prison wall. Mike managed to sneak the grimy rag into his cell and began fashioning it into a flag. Over time all the POWs loaned him a little soap, and he spent days cleaning the material. He with the help of the other POWs scrounged and stole bits and pieces of anything that might be used in making his flag. At night, under the mosquito net, Mike worked on the flag. He made red and blue from ground-up roof tiles and tiny amounts of ink and painted the colors into the cloth with watery rice glue. Using thread from his own blanket and a homemade bamboo needle, he sewed in the stars. Early in the morning a few days later, when the guards were not alert, he whispered loudly from the back of his cell, ?Hey gang, look here?. He proudly held up this tattered piece of cloth, waving it as if in a breeze. Using imagination, one could tell it was supposed to be an American flag. When he raised that smudgy fabric, every POW automatically stood straight and saluted, chest puffed out, and more than a few eyes with tears.

Every week, the guards would run the POWs outside and go through their clothing. During one of the shakedowns, they found Mike?s flag. Everyone knew what would happen. That night they came for him. The cell door was opened and Mike was pulled out. One could hear the beginning of the torture before they even had him in the torture cell. He was beaten most of the night. About daylight they pushed what was left of Mike back through his cell door. He was badly broken; even his voice was gone. Within two weeks, despite the danger, Mike scrounged another piece of cloth and began another flag.

The Stars and Stripes, our National symbol, was worth the sacrifice to him.

Now whenever I see a flag, I am reminded of Mike and the morning in a POW camp in North Viet Nam when he waved that tattered emblem of a nation. It was there and then, thousands of miles from home in a lonely prison cell, that he showed us what it is to be truly free."

Freedom Bluff