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.
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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 at
age 100,
The Fort Worth Texas
Star-Telegram reports
May 28th, 2010.
Mr. 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, Calif.
Despite injuries,
Mr. 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.
Mr. Finn retired in 1956
after three decades of service.
.
John W. Finn,
Medal of Honor winner,
and his wife Alice
.
