While the betas discuss American Idol...

[GarMan]

I'll pay respects and gratitude to a true American ALPHA.  The last of his kind...

John Finn, Medal of Honor Winner, Dies at 100
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Published: May 27, 2010

John W. Finn, the last survivor of the 15 Navy men who received the Medal of Honor for heroism during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Thursday at a nursing home in Chula Vista, Calif. He was 100 and had been the oldest living recipient of the medal, the nation’s highest award for valor.

His death was announced by J. P. Tremblay, deputy secretary of the California Department of Veterans Affairs.

On the morning of Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese planes bombed the American battleships in Hawaii, plunging the nation into World War II, numerous acts of valor played out. Most of them took place aboard the stricken ships — in some cases efforts by the wounded and the dying to save their fellow sailors. Amid the death and destruction, Chief Finn, on an airfield runway, was waging a war of his own against the Japanese.

A few minutes before 8 o’clock, Japanese planes attacked the Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station, about 12 miles from Battleship Row at Ford Island, hoping to knock out three dozen Navy aircraft before they could get aloft.

Mr. Finn, the chief petty officer in charge of munitions at the naval station and a veteran of 15 years in the Navy, was in bed in a nearby apartment with his wife, Alice. He heard the sound of aircraft, saw one plane flash past his window, then another, and he heard machine guns.

He dressed hurriedly, and drove to the naval station. At first, he observed the base’s 20 miles-per-hour speed limit. But then, “I heard a plane come roaring in from astern of me,” he recalled decades later in an interview with Larry Smith for “Beyond Glory,” an oral history of Medal of Honor recipients.

“As I glanced up, the guy made a wing-over, and I saw that big old red meatball, the rising sun insignia, on the underside of the wing. Well, I threw it into second and it’s a wonder I didn’t run over every sailor in the air station.”

When Chief Finn arrived at the hangars, many of the planes had already been hit. He recalled that he grabbed a .30-caliber machine gun on a makeshift tripod, carried it to an exposed area near a runway and began firing. For the next two and a half hours, he blazed away, although peppered by shrapnel as the Japanese planes strafed the runways with cannon fire.

As he remembered it: “I got shot in the left arm and shot in the left foot, broke the bone. I had shrapnel blows in my chest and belly and right elbow and right thumb. Some were just scratches. My scalp got cut, and everybody thought I was dying: Oh, Christ, the old chief had the top of his head knocked off! I had 28, 29 holes in me that were bleeding. I was walking around on one heel. I was barefooted on that coral dust. My left arm didn’t work. It was just a big ball hanging down.”

Chief Finn thought he had hit at least one plane, but he did not know whether he had brought it down. When the attack ended, he received first aid, then returned to await a possible second attack. He was hospitalized the following afternoon.

On Sept. 15, 1942, Chief Finn received the Medal of Honor from Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet, in a ceremony aboard the carrier Enterprise at Pearl Harbor. Admiral Nimitz cited Chief Finn for his “magnificent courage in the face of almost certain death.”

John William Finn was born on July 23, 1909, in Los Angeles County, the son of a plumber. He dropped out of school to join the Navy at age 17.

He served stateside after he recovered from his Pearl Harbor wounds, became a lieutenant in 1944 and remained in military service after the war. He had been living on a cattle ranch in Pine Valley, Calif., about 45 miles east of San Diego, before entering the nursing home where he died.

His survivors include a son, Joseph. His wife died in 1998.

Ten of the 15 servicemen who received the Medal of Honor for their actions at Pearl Harbor died in the attack. Among them were Rear Adm. Isaac C. Kidd, commander of Battleship Division 1, who was aboard the Arizona when it blew up and sank; Capt. Franklin Van Valkenburgh, commander of the Arizona; and Capt. Mervyn S. Bennion, commander of the battleship West Virginia.

Four of the Pearl Harbor medal recipients survived the war. Cmdr. Cassin Young, awarded the medal for reboarding and saving his repair ship, the Vestal, after being blown into the water, died in November 1942 in the battle for Guadalcanal.

In 1999, Mr. Finn was among Pearl Harbor veterans invited to Hawaii for the premiere of the Hollywood movie “Pearl Harbor.” “It was a damned good movie,” he told The Boston Herald in 2001. “It’s helped educate people who didn’t know about Pearl Harbor and what happened there.”

“I liked it especially,” he said, “because I got to kiss all those pretty little movie actresses.”   

[AuburnChopper 3.0]

Too bad you ruin your post with that baiting ridiculous title.   C'mon man, you're better than that.  Leave that shit where it belongs.

Otherwise, great story.

[GarMan]

Too bad you ruin your post with that baiting ridiculous title.   C'mon man, you're better than that.  Leave that poop where it belongs. 

Yeah, I know.  American Idol is a serious, hard-hitting, newsworthy program...  Stop your whining and have fun with it.  I mean seriously.  God forbid, my teasing offends somebody or ruffles their fragile little self-confidence. 

[AuburnChopper 3.0]

Yeah, I know.  American Idol is a serious, hard-hitting, newsworthy program...  Stop your whining and have fun with it.  I mean seriously.  God forbid, my teasing offends somebody or ruffles their fragile little self-confidence. 

No.  Excuse me Coach YaYa, but all I was referring to was your bringing this retarded beta/alpha spat you guys have in the SGA out here to cloud what would otherwise be a great story.  As a military veteran myself, I can appreciate the post. 

So, in your own words, stop your whining about a little criticism on your choice of venue here more than anything, and seriously man up and realize that being an alpha male sometimes means you know better than others when it's time to shut the fuck up about it, or being smart enough to know where to lay your land mines.

  

[GarMan]

No.  Excuse me Coach YaYa, but all I was referring to was your bringing this retarded beta/alpha spat you guys have in the SGA out here to cloud what would otherwise be a great story.  As a military veteran myself, I can appreciate the post. 

 
Sorry man...  Finn's passing aligns perfectly with that "retarded beta/alpha spat".  Alphas like Finn are becoming harder to find in our modern, feminized, metro-sexual society.  It's become Neanderthal to behave like a traditional man.  I'm sorry if you don't see it or care enough to be concerned about it, but I'm extremely frustrated by it. 

So, in your own words, stop your whining about a little criticism on your choice of venue here more than anything, and seriously man up and realize that being an alpha male sometimes means you know better than others when it's time to shut the phuk up about it, or being smart enough to know where to lay your land mines. 

 
I do need to get back to my cross-stitching now... 

[AuburnChopper 3.0]

 
Sorry man...  Finn's passing aligns perfectly with that "retarded beta/alpha spat".  Alphas like Finn are becoming harder to find in our modern, feminized, metro-sexual society.  It's become Neanderthal to behave like a traditional man.  I'm sorry if you don't see it or care enough to be concerned about it, but I'm extremely frustrated by it. 
 
I do need to get back to my cross-stitching now... 

Recheck my post for the term "venue".   We've all seen, and know you have a concern or twelve.  Your post looks like an elevator in an outhouse the way you presented it here in the Haley Center Forum.  If you wanted to post a great story about a true war hero, that's one thing, but you just wanted to pull out another political statement and debate something that's been debated, and being debated elsewhere (knowing where to place your land mines).  That belongs in the SGA.

Anyway....

 

[wreckingball]

What's the deal with this whole "alpha/beta" thing? Is it supposed to be offensive or something? If so, then it has to be the gayest put down that I have ever heard. If not, please explain the point of referencing it in every post.

[Snaggletiger]

What's the deal with this whole "alpha/beta" thing? Is it supposed to be offensive or something? If so, then it has to be the gayest put down that I have ever heard. If not, please explain the point of referencing it in every post.

You just don't understand...you...you....Beta Male.

[wreckingball]

We can't all be like this guy

[GarMan]

Recheck my post for the term "venue".   We've all seen, and know you have a concern or twelve.  Your post looks like an elevator in an outhouse the way you presented it here in the Haley Center Forum.  If you wanted to post a great story about a true war hero, that's one thing, but you just wanted to pull out another political statement and debate something that's been debated, and being debated elsewhere (knowing where to place your land mines).  That belongs in the SGA.

Anyway.... 

Venue seems appropriate to me...  I saw some humor in it.  I'll seek penance for my interruption of the Clay Cockgobbler and Sussie Sloppyshorts debate.  My bad... 

[GarMan]

What's the deal with this whole "alpha/beta" thing? Is it supposed to be offensive or something? If so, then it has to be the gayest put down that I have ever heard. If not, please explain the point of referencing it in every post.

It shouldn't be offensive, but my references to the feminization of America seems to have pissed-off a select few.  I'll leave it at that.  I can't help the fact that most 20-somethings nowadays don't seem to know the difference between an oil filter and a carburetor, or hold the door open for a lady, or establish an opinion that counters pop-culture or Oprah...  Being a leader is being Neanderthal nowadays.  That's it. 

[wreckingball]

It shouldn't be offensive, but my references to the feminization of America seems to have pissed-off a select few.  I'll leave it at that.  I can't help the fact that most 20-somethings nowadays don't seem to know the difference between an oil filter and a carburetor, or hold the door open for a lady, or establish an opinion that counters pop-culture or Oprah...  Being a leader is being Neanderthal nowadays.  That's it. 

You can't really judge all 20 somethings based on Chizad. Not all of us get our political theories from Penn and Teller and Bill Maher. Some of us hold the door open for our women too. I wouldn't really consider the guys down at express oil "alpha males" though. Most of the people in their mid to late 20s know what a carburetor looks like too. A.C. Slater lost the "rebuild a carburetor" portion of the battle of the sexes contest to Tori.

[AuburnChopper 3.0]

It shouldn't be offensive, but my references to the feminization of America seems to have pissed-off a select few.  I'll leave it at that.  I can't help the fact that most 20-somethings nowadays don't seem to know the difference between an oil filter and a carburetor, or hold the door open for a lady, or establish an opinion that counters pop-culture or Oprah...  Being a leader is being Neanderthal nowadays.  That's it.  

This is just about 95% bullshit.  Seriously, I agree with most of your politics, but your over-reaching, overly dramatic representations with your beta/alpha crap is why I have trouble supporting half of what you say.  You're the extreme right version of the very extreme left type that I already can't stand.  

If I wanted to read all your overly dramatic alpha/beta BS, I'd go hang around and read the merry-go-round of shit that goes on in the SGA.  I don't want to have to sift through it everywhere.

[JR4AU]

This is just about 95% bullshit.  Seriously, I agree with most of your politics, but your over-reaching, overly dramatic representations with your beta/alpha crap is why I have trouble supporting half of what you say.  You're the extreme right version of the very extreme left type that I already can't stand.  

If I wanted to read all your overly dramatic alpha/beta BS, I'd go hang around and read the merry-go-round of shit that goes on in the SGA.  I don't want to have to sift through it everywhere.

+1000! 

[Snaggletiger]

You metrosexual beta-bitches.

[JR4AU]

You metrosexual beta-bitches.

At least I don't carry a beta male 9mm!  OooooHHHHH SNAP! 

[Snaggletiger]

At least I don't carry a beta male 9mm!  OooooHHHHH SNAP! 

Damn.  Gun smack. 

Okay, outside of a lot of hunting years ago and owning several different types of rifles and shotguns, I am no handgun expert by any means.  My home protection firearm is a .38.  Is that sufficient?  Beta gun?  Alpha gun?

[Godfather]

Watching American Idol doesn't make you alpha or beta...it just means you like watching LAME TV.

[wesfau2]

Watching American Idol doesn't make you alpha or beta...it just means you like watching LAME TV.

Indeed.

There are two shows that I make a point to watch: Breaking Bad and Justified.

There are a couple that I'll stop and check out: Iron Chef and Good Eats.

Then there is football.  That is what your television was made for.

[Godfather]

Indeed.

There are two shows that I make a point to watch: Breaking Bad and Justified.

There are a couple that I'll stop and check out: Iron Chef and Good Eats.

Then there is football.  That is what your television was made for.

Mine would include:

NCIS Los Angeles, True Blood, Friday Night Lights, and a lot of movies.

I do have to admit I watch the show Parenthood....it is very well written. (I am also a fan of Peter Krause, ever since Sports Night)