Todays walk was dedicated in honor of:
Coast Guard Veteran SN1 Florence Finch, Age 101 of Ithaca, NY.
died Dec. 8, 2016
Unsung War Hero who took on the Japanese
Florence Ebersole Finch was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor an American civilian can receive from the government, in November 1947.
Florence Ebersole was born on the island of Luzon, north of Manila, in Santiago City, the Philippines, the daughter of a Filipino mother and an American father, Charles G. Ebersole, who had come to the Philippines with the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War and had settled there after the war. After graduating high school she went to work for the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), Headquarters, U. S. Army, in Manila under the command of Lieutenant Colonel E. C. Engelhart, AUS.
While employed there she met Chief Electrician’s Mate Charles Edward Smith, USN, whom she married on 19 August 1941. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Chief Smith reported to his P.T. boat for duty but was killed in action on 8 February 1942 while trying to re-supply American and Filipino troops trapped by the enemy on Corregidor Island and the Bataan Peninsula. Manila fell to the Japanese on 2 January 1942. Florence Smith avoided internment by claiming her Philippine citizenship.
She was given a job with the Japanese-controlled Philippine Liquid Fuel Distributing Union where she was responsible for writing vouchers for the distribution of fuel. Working closely with the Philippine Underground, she was able to divert fuel supplies to the resistance as well as assist in arranging acts of sabotage against the Japanese occupation forces. Meanwhile, her boss, LTCOL Engelhart had been captured.
Through the grapevine he let Mrs. Smith know how badly he and other prisoners of the Japanese were being treated by their captors. She and other former employees of LTCOL Engelhart, along with civilians in Manila, assisted the prisoners as best they could, smuggling food and medicine to them.
In October, 1944 she was caught and imprisioned by the Japanese. During her initial confinement Florence Smith was interrogating interrogated, beaten, and tortured. Through it all, she never revealed information regarding her underground operations or fellow resisters. She was sent to Bilibid Prison where, after a sham-trial by the Japanese she was sentenced to three years of hard labor. She was sent to the Women’s Correctional Institution in Mandaluong on the outskirts of Manila.
When American forces liberated her prison camp in February 1945, Florence 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 to be close to her late father’s sister.
In July 1945, she enlisted in the Coast Guard Women’s Reserve, because, as she noted two weeks after enlisting, “to avenge the death of my husband.” She enlisted on 13 July 1945 aboard the USS LST-512 which was tied up in Buffalo Harbor.
Florence Smith served through the end of the war and was among the first Pacific-Island American women to don a Coast Guard uniform. After her activities in the Philippines became known to her superiors, they awarded her the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbon, the first woman to be so decorated. After the war she was discharged in May, 1946. She received the U.S. Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian medal awarded to Americans who aided in the war effort, in November, 1947, in no small part because of the testimony of her former boss, LTCOL Engelhart after he was liberated. Her citation read, in part:
For meritorious service which had aided the United States in the prosecution of the war against the enemy in the Philippine Islands, from June 1942 to February 1945. Upon the Japanese occupation of the Philippine Islands, Mrs. Finch (then Mrs. Florence Ebersole Smith) believing she could be of more assistance outside the prison camp, refused to disclose her United States citizenship. She displayed outstanding courage and marked resourcefulness in providing vitally needed food, medicine, and supplies for American Prisoners of War and internees, and in sabotaging Japanese stocks of critical items. . .She constantly risked her life in secretly furnishing money and clothing to American Prisoners of War, and in carrying communications for them. In consequence she was apprehended by the Japanese, tortured, and imprisoned until rescued by American troops. Thought her inspiring bravery, resourcefulness, and devotion to the cause of freedom, Mrs. Finch made a distinct contribution to the welfare and morale of American Prisoners of War on Luzon.
After the war she married Army veteran Robert Finch and they raised a family in Ithaca, New York. Of her wartime activities she would later say: “I fell very humble because my activities in the war effort were trivial compared with those of people who gave their lives for their country.”
Of the thousands of SPARs serving in World War II, she was the first to be honored with the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbon. In 1995 the Coast Guard honored her service when it named an administration building on a base on Sand Island, Hawaii, after her.
She is buried in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery, Ithaca, NY.
We had a great 5.85 Mile walk today. We walked by Lake Holiday and then headed up town to the War Memorial Park and then back home. The weather was perfect. I want to thank my friend Robert for walking with us today and I want to thank all who honked, waved, and saluted in helping us honor this hero. We had 104 honks today. Thank you.
Coast Guard Veteran SN1 Florence Finch will not be forgotten !
