World War II Honoree
Killed In Action
Woodrow Wilson Finley
Branch of Service
U.S. Marine Corps
Hometown
Selmer, Tennessee
Honored By
Orville L. Kline
Rank: Private First Class. He was inducted into the United States Marine Corps October 10, 1940 at New Orleans, Louisiana, with recruit training at the Marine Corps Base in San Diego, California. After his graduation from boot camp, he was selected to attend a sea school indoctrination course; and gunnery training. He served as a gunner aboard the USS Arizona Battleship (BB-30), and based at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. On Sunday Morning, December 7, 1941 the Emperor of Japan’s Naval Aviators launched a devastating, surprise attack on the U.S. Naval Base, and other military installations on Oahu. The Arizona moored on Ford Island along with her shipmates came under attack, and she was mortally wounded by an armor piercing bomb that ignited the ship’s forward ammunition magazine. The Battle of Pearl Harbor took his Life on the day of the attack, and reported as missing in action or entombed in the Warship. In remembrance of the brave, his name is permanently inscribed in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at Honolulu Memorial Location: Honolulu, Hawaii. In his Memory and Honor, a cenotaph memorial has been placed at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Selmer, Tennessee. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his Heroism and ultimate sacrifice.