Posted at: 05/28/2009 1:25 PM
By: Jim Kambrich & Benita Zahn

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Medal of Honor heroes meet in Altamont

ALTAMONT - Memorial Day 2009 has come and gone, but for two Medal of Honor recipients, every day is Memorial Day.

Navy Lt. John Finn and Army Sgt. Francis Currey renewed their friendship Wednesday morning over eggs and hash browns at the Home Front Café in Altamont -- a combination restaurant and World War II museum.

They talked about everything except combat. That's a taboo subject for them.

Finn, who lives in California and is here visiting friends, turns 100 years old in July. Yet his memories of Dec. 7, 1941 are crystal clear. He was at the naval air station on Kaneohe Bay, on Oahu when the Japanese attacked. They hit his base five minutes before they hit Pearl Harbor.

Even though he took a bullet and suffered multiple shrapnel wounds, Finn continued firing a .50 caliber machine at the enemy fighter planes.

“I was a sorry sight. I had blood streaming down my face. I had scalp wounds and I'm shooting a machine gun all this time after I got there. The japs were attacking us and burning us up, and I mean it wasn't pleasant,” Finn said.

Currey has two medals of honor, one from the United States and one from Belgium. He earned them in the Battle of the Bulge in Malmedy, Belgium on Dec. 21, 1944. He rescued five soldiers pinned down by enemy fire. Using multiple weapons he single-handedly kept Nazi soldiers from outflanking his battalion's position.

Currey said some of his new recruits didn't have any extensive weapons training, only rifles.

“So we actually had to give them on-the-job training on combat to teach them how to use those weapons. To me it was just one more day. I knew what I was doing,” Currey recalled.

“To me it wasn't special. It was what I needed to do to try to kill some of the enemy,” Finn said of his experience.

How do they want to be remembered? As trained soldiers doing their best to fight for their country and protect their fellow soldiers.

“I hope my country can be as proud of me as I am proud of my country. How is that?” Currey commented.

Currey, who lives in Selkirk, is New York's sole surviving Medal of Honor recipient from World War II. He is also one of the founding members of the Medal of Honor Society, which started in New York in 1946 and is now a nationwide organization.

Finn says he always thinks of his fellow soldiers who got nothing but an honorable death protecting this country.