Comments/Citation:
William Michael Finnegan was born on 18 April 1897, in Bessemer, Gogebic County, Michigan, to John Michael and Alvina (Huenebein) Finnegan. William had two older brothers and two younger sisters. He moved with his parents to Waukegan, IL, at a young age and grew up there. He attended school through the ninth grade.
On 22 October 1917 William enlisted in the U.S. Navy to serve in World War I. He received his preliminary training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan in Illinois, just north of Chicago. In 1902, U.S. Navy leaders noticed that many of their best seamen came from the American Midwest, so they wanted a training base near the Midwest, so on July 1, 1911, the Naval Training Station Great Lakes opened.
On 12 July 1921 William Finnegan married Edith Hoppa in Hancock, Houghton County, Michigan. William and Edith had five children (four sons and one daughter) before 1940.
In 1923 William became a gunner radio officer and then became a radio electrician in 1926. Serving the U.S. Navy continuously since 1917, he was promoted to chief radio electrician on 8 November 1929.
Prior to being assigned to the USS Oklahoma stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii, on 30 August 1941, his terms of service included aboard the ships USS Florida, USS Ranger and the USS Savannah, as well as being stationed at several shore bases in the United States and the Darien Radio Station of the U.S. Navy located in the Panama Canal Zone.
Chief Petty Officer William Michael Finnegan was promoted to Ensign on 18 November 1941.
On the morning of 7 December 1941, a fleet of Japanese carriers launched an air strike against the U.S. Pacific Fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor, on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. The attack decimated the ships and personnel of the fleet and thrust the United States into World War II. At the onset of the 7 December 1941 attack, the battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37), was being moored at berth Fox 5 on "Battlesip Row." Just before 8:00 AM the USS Oklahoma was among the first of the ships struck in the attack. Nine torpedoes hit the USS Oklahoma, each on her port side, because of her position in the harbor. The torpedoes struck higher on the port side as she capsized. Heroic efforts were made to rescue the trapped men inside the hull. After three days, 32 men were rescued. Afer the USS Arizona, the USS Oklahoma was the largest loss of life, at 429 sailors and marines. The USS Oklahoma was salvaged in 1942, but it was determined she could not be repaired. In May of 1947, she was sold for scrap, and while under tow to California, she sank in a storm. Her exact location remains unknown to this day.
Ensign William Michael Finnegan was one of those KIA casualties. He is memorized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, in Honolulu, HI, as well as the USS Oklahoma Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, HI.
Ensign William Michael Finnegan was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously after the Pearl Harbor attack. During his term of service, Ensign Finnegan was awarded the good conduct medal; victory Atlantic fleet clasp; American defense service fleet clasp; and the Asiatic Pacific area service medal.
On 22 February 1944, the USS Finnegan (DE-307) was launched by Mare Island Navy Yard in California and sponsored by Mrs. Charles Schroeder, sister of Ensign Finnegan for which this ship is named after. This was a destroyer escort constructed for the U.S. Navy during WWII. She was sent off into the Pacific Ocean to protect convoys and other ships from Japanese submarines and fighter aircraft. She performed escort and antisubmarine operations in dangerous battle areas and returned home with three well-earned battles stars. The USS Finnegan was decommissioned and placed on reserve on 27 November 1945 and sold for scrap in June of 1946.
On 8 May 2016, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), whose mission is to provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel to the families and the nation, identified the remains of Ensign William Michael Finnegan missing from World War II. His remains were initially recovered, but they could not be identified at the time so he was buried as an unknown grave at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. In 2015, advances in forensic techniques prompted the reexamination and eventual evidence of ENS Finnegan’s remains.
SOURCES:
Ancestry.com
www.findagrave.com
https://www.dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaOurMissing
www.honorstates.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki(USS_Finnegan_(DE-307)
https://www.us.marblehead.com/pdf/wwII_Petty_Officer_Ratings2.pdf
https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/organization-and-administration/installations/naval-station-greatlakes.html
https://ussoklahoma.com
https://navy.togetherweserved.com
https://www.fold3.com
Newspaper: Ironwood Daily Globe (Ironwood, MI), Mon, Feb 7, 1944 (Page 5)
This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen and saved on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the name of the fallen and read his/her story.
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