By CHRIS CAROLA, Associated Press Writer Chris Carola, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 10 mins ago
ALTAMONT, N.Y. – John Finn, Frank Currey and Nick Oresko are years apart in age, come from different backgrounds and hail from three states. But for most of their long lives they've been linked by the medal draped around their necks.
Each man is a Medal of Honor recipient, and each earned the nation's highest military award for valor for actions during World War II. They met at the annual reunions the surviving medal recipients started holding after the war at various places around the nation.
They'll be back this year, too, doing double duty by celebrating the 100th birthday of Finn, the oldest living medal recipient.
"Nick and I go back to 1946," the 83-year-old Currey, of Selkirk, said Friday at the Homefront Cafe, a World War II-themed restaurant in Altamont, a village 10 miles west of Albany.
Back then, about a dozen recipients living in the New York City area would hold informal get-togethers, said Currey, a Veterans Administration retiree.
"After a while, some of the guys said, 'Why the hell don't we form an organization?'" he said.
Around that time they befriended Finn, who said he recalls meeting a Medal of Honor recipient from the Indian Wars during one of those early reunions.
Finn, a 99-year-old Californian, earned his medal for actions at his naval air station during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Born July 23, 1909, in Los Angeles, Finn is the oldest of the 97 Medal of Honor recipients still living, according to Victoria Kueck of the Mount Pleasant, S.C.-based Congressional Medal of Honor Society. Other recipients have lived past 100, she said.
"I never give it much thought, but here, I can't forget because everybody's brother is reminding me," Finn said Friday with a laugh.
Finn and Currey were later joined by Oresko, who lives in Cressville in northern New Jersey.
Oresko said the weekend gathering was in honor of Finn's 100th birthday, and gave the men a chance to reunite with old friends on the traditional date for Memorial Day.
"Memorial Day is the 30th, no matter what they say," Oresko said.
Formerly known as Decoration Day, the day set aside to honor the nation's war dead was originally observed May 30. A federal law passed in 1967 officially changed the name to Memorial Day, and the next year Congress moved the observance to the last Monday in May to create a three-day weekend.
Some veterans feel the switch is the reason many Americans equate Memorial Day with barbecues and family gatherings, rather than remembering military members who made the ultimate sacrifice.
"I liked the old way," Currey said. Finn, however, said he didn't mind either way.
Altamont, an old-fashioned village with a Main Street, county fairgrounds and a gazebo in the park, is throwing Finn a birthday party at the firehouse Sunday afternoon.
Homefront Cafe owner Cindy Pollard and one of Finn's old shipmates — Tom Hennessey of Mayfield, N.Y. — came up with the idea. The invitees include local youth organizations to give them a chance to meet some American heroes, she said.
"I'd like young people to learn from these people," Pollard said. "They're tomorrow's heroes, these kids."
Finn was the first man to receive the medal in World War II. He was stationed as a chief petty officer at Kaneohe Bay in Oahu when Japanese planes strafed the air station during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.
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 base, then supervised the re-arming of returning American planes.
"Here they're paying you for doing your duty, and that's what I did," Finn said. "I never intended to be a hero. But on Dec. 7, by God, we're in a war."
Finn, who retired from the Navy in 1947, owns a ranch in Pine Valley, Calif., outside San Diego.
Fewer than two dozen Medal of Honor recipients from World War II are still alive, and Currey, who grew up in Hurleyville in the Catskills, is the sole survivor of the 28 New Yorkers awarded the medal during the war.
He was an 18-year-old sergeant with the Army's 30th Infantry Division in Europe when the Battle of the Bulge erupted in December 1944. On Dec. 21 in Malmedy, Belgium, Currey exposed himself to enemy fire to attack German troops and armor and rescued five comrades pinned down by fire.
Oresko earned his medal for actions against enemy positions near Tettington, Germany, on Jan. 23, 1945. A master sergeant serving with the 94th Infantry Division, Oresko destroyed two bunkers and killed a dozen enemy soldiers despite being seriously wounded.
"You don't forget what happened," said Oresko, also a VA retiree. "When you're involved in close combat, and you kill people and see people killed, it never leaves you."
According to Oresko, people who learn about the heroics that earned the men their medals all have the same reaction: "Everybody's amazed."
"I would be, too," he added.
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Medal of Honor Society:
http://www.cmohs.org/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090529/...l_memorial_day
Congratulations, sir!!!
Thank you for serving and protecting our country!!!
Aged warrior: Medal of Honor recipient turning 100
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