The following is a brief history of the Fightin' Finnegan and her brave crew.
The Finnegan is named for the William Michael Finnegan, the Chief Radio Electrician of the U.S.S Oklahoma who was killed in action on Dec.7th, 1941 at Pearl Harbor. The Finnegan was commisioned on Aug. 19th, 1944. She was then assigned to Admiral Turner's 5th fleet and was given convoy escort duties in the South Pacific. Her first major combat began on Feb. 19th 1945 at the battle for Iwo Jima where they joined other ships in forming a protective ring around the island to keep Japanese subs from attacking. Around 3 AM that morning the crew were given a scare when an LCI carrying a group of marines crashed into her side and severed her anchor chain from the ship. From there they went on convoy escort duty to the island of Saipan when they were suddenly called away to track a submarine contact they had recieved. On Feb. 26 they began depth charging and at 10:05 AM they detroyed the Japanese sub I-370. From there they began escorting convoys to various islands including Guam, the Solomon Islands, Espiritu Santo, the New Hebrides Islands, and Ulithi Atoll. And finaly, on April 9th 1945, they arived at an island named Okinawa. The battle for Okinawa was the worst combat action that the Finnegan was involved in. During the battle a Kamakazi targeted the Finnegan but was drivin off by onboard gunfire from the crew. On April 15th, the Division Flagship was hit by a Kamakazi and The Finnegan was givin the Division Pennant. On May 17 they were attacked by group of 150 Kamakazis, where the Finnegan revieved very minor damage from falling debris off of a Japanese plane that had been shot down. On August 15 1945, while in Manilla Bay, the crew of the U.S.S Finnegan recieved news of the japanese surrender. From there it was home to Charleston Harbor where the Finnegan was officialy de-commisioned on November 27th, 1945.
For her service the Finnegan was awarded three battle stars.
