Photo of the Day: Two Irish Americans won the Medal of Honor on this day in 1941. They were John William Finn, who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Frank C. Flaherty who did not. Finn (pictured), a chief aviation ordnance man stationed at Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay, earned his medal by manning a machine gun from an exposed position and from it battling attacking Japanese planes. Two hours later he had twenty-one shrapnel wounds and a record of heroic action that would earn him the first Medal of Honor for World War II. Flaherty, who was from Charlotte, Michigan, and an Ensign at the time of the attack, was aboard the USS Oklahoma. Flaherty’s Medal of Honor reads in part: "For extraordinary devotion to duty and extraordinary courage and complete disregard of his own life….when it was seen the USS Oklahoma was going to capsize and the order was given to abandon ship, Ensign Flaherty remained in the turret, holding a flashlight so the remainder of the turret crew could see to escape, thereby sacrificing his own life.” U.S. Navy photo.
