Retired Navy Lt. John W. Finn, the oldest Medal of Honor recipient from World War II, died Thursday at his Southern California ranch. He was 100.
Lt. Finn enlisted in the Navy just before his 17th birthday and went on to become the first man to receive the nation's highest military award for heroism during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, according to a Navy statement.
He was the oldest of 97 Medal of Honor recipients still living.
Despite head wounds and other injuries, Lt. 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. Continues at SF Gate.
