|
 Of
the thousands of women who have served with honor in the United
States Coast Guard, one stands out for her bravery and devotion to
duty. Florence Smith Finch, the daughter of a U.S. Army veteran and
Filipino mother, was born on the island of Luzon, north of Manila,
in Santiago City. She married navy PT boat crewman Charles E. Smith
while working for General Douglas Macarthur's army intelligence unit
located in Manila
In 1942, after the Japanese invaded the
Philippines, her young husband died trying to re-supply American and
Filipino troops trapped by the enemy on Corregidor Island and the
Bataan Peninsula.
After the Japanese occupied Manila, Finch
avoided internment by claiming her Philippine citizenship. She
received a note from her imprisoned army intelligence boss regarding
shortages of food and medicine in the POW camps. Finch began
assisting with locating and providing smuggled supplies to American
POWs and helping provide fuel to Filipino guerrillas.
In October
1944, the Japanese arrested Finch, beating, torturing and
interrogating her during her initial confinement. Through it all,
she never revealed information regarding her underground operations
or fellow resisters.
When American forces liberated her
prison camp in February 1945, Finch weighed only eighty pounds. She
boarded a Coast Guard-manned transport returning to the United
States and moved to her late father's hometown of Buffalo, New York.
In July 1945, she enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard, eager to
continue the struggle against an enemy that had killed her husband.
Finch served through the end of the war and was among the first
Pacific-Island American women to don a Coast Guard uniform.
After the war, she met U.S. Army veteran Robert Finch. They married
and moved to Ithaca, New York, where she lived the remainder of her
life. Of the thousands of SPARs serving in World War II, she was the
first to be honored with the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbon. In
November 1947, she received the U.S. Medal of Freedom, the highest
civilian medal awarded to Americans who aided in the war effort. In
1995, the Coast Guard honored Finch's service by naming a facility
for her at Coast Guard Base Honolulu.
With her distinguished
service, Finch is just one of many members of the Coast Guard's long
blue line.
By William H. Thiesen, Atlantic Area Historian, USCG
Provided
through
Coast
Guard
Copyright 2015
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