Coast Guard Cutter Florence Finch, the service’s 57th fast response cutter, was accepted in Key West, Florida, on June 13, 2024. After the cutter is commissioned into service, it will be homeported in Astoria, Oregon. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Giles
Below is a news release.
The Coast Guard accepted delivery of the 57th fast response cutter (FRC), Florence Finch, June 13 in Key West, Florida. Florence Finch will be the second FRC to be homeported in Astoria, Oregon.
Florence Finch was one of the first Asian-American women to don a Coast Guard uniform, joining the Coast Guard’s Women’s Reserve (SPARs) in 1945. Finch was born in Santiago, Philippines, in 1915 to an American father and Filipino mother. After completing school, Finch worked at the Army/Navy YMCA and later in the office of the assistant chief of staff (Intelligence) for the U.S. Army in Manila, where she assisted Lt. Col. Edward Engelhart. Finch married U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Charles Smith in 1941, just prior to the start of World War II. Smith, a crew member on a Navy PT boat, was killed in action in 1942.
Finch was in Manila when the Japanese military invasion and subsequent occupation of the Philippines began in 1941. Though Finch’s father was a U.S. veteran of the Spanish-American War, she concealed her American connections to avoid imprisonment. Finch was eventually given a job managing fuel distribution vouchers from a Japanese-controlled fuel company. Finch used this position to secretly supply Philippine resistance forces with fuel and assist them in sabotaging Japanese military supplies. Finch also managed to remain in contact with Engelhart, her former U.S. Army supervisor who was by that time a Japanese prisoner of war. Engelhart described to Finch the dire conditions to which prisoners of the occupation were subjected. Finch became instrumental in smuggling food and medicine into the prison camps. In 1944, Finch was caught and arrested for her activities; she endured torture and received a sentence of three years of hard labor.
When Allied forces liberated the Philippines in 1945, Finch moved to New York to be closer to her American family members. Motivated by her experience in the Philippines and the wartime death of her husband, Finch enlisted as a SPAR soon after her arrival in the United States. When Finch’s Coast Guard leadership learned of her resistance activities in the Philippines, she was awarded the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbon, the first woman to be so decorated. Engelhart also testified to Finch’s actions, resulting in her being awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1947. Finch passed away in 2016 at the age of 101.
FRCs perform a multitude of missions that include drug and immigrant interdictions, joint international operations and national defense of ports, waterways and coastal areas. These cutters possess 21st century command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment, with improved habitability and seakeeping. Each FRC is named after an enlisted Coast Guard hero who performed extraordinary service in the line of duty.
The Coast Guard has ordered 67 FRCs to date. Fifty-five are in service: 13 in Florida; seven in Puerto Rico; six each in Bahrain and Massachusetts; four in California; three each in Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Texas and New Jersey; and two each in Mississippi and North Carolina. In addition to Astoria, future FRC homeports include Kodiak and Seward, Alaska.
For more information: Fast Response Cutter Program page
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WOW! She served both her countries very well!
Coast Guard commissions 57th fast response cutter, Florence Finch > United States Coast Guard > Latest Acquisition News
Coast Guard commissions 57th fast response cutter, Florence Finch
Oct. 30, 2024 —
Coast Guard Cutter Florence Finch was commissioned in Seattle on Oct. 24, 2024. It will be homeported in Astoria, Oregon. U.S. Coast Guard photo.
The Coast Guard commissioned Coast Guard Cutter Florence Finch on Oct. 24 in Seattle. Florence Finch is the 57th fast response cutter (FRC) in service and the second to be homeported in Astoria, Oregon, joining Coast Guard Cutter David Duren.
Rear. Adm. Charles Fosse, Coast Guard 13th District commander, presided over the ceremony. Members of the Finch family were in attendance, including Finch’s daughter and cutter sponsor, Elizabeth L. Murphy, and her son, Bob Finch, who served as the Long Glass presenter, a traditional representation of the commanding officer’s authority and used to symbolically set the vessel’s first watch.
The cutter’s namesake, Florence Finch, was born in the Philippines in 1915, the daughter of a U.S. Army veteran and Filipino mother. After graduating high school, Finch worked for the Army intelligence unit in Manila under Gen. Douglas MacArthur and soon after met and married Chief Petty Officer Charles Smith, a U.S. Navy PT boat crew member. Smith died in 1942 while attempting to resupply American and Filipino troops trapped on Corregidor Island and the Bataan Peninsula during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines.
Finch initially evaded internment during the Japanese occupation of Manila by concealing her American heritage. Taking advantage of her position with the Japanese-controlled Philippine Liquid Fuel Distribution Union, she wrote vouchers for fuel distribution, diverted fuel supplies to the Philippine underground and participated in other acts of resistance. Finch’s secret exploits were eventually discovered; after her arrest in October 1944, she was interrogated, beaten and tortured before being sentenced to three years of hard labor. Finch weighed only 80 pounds when she was released by American forces who liberated Manila in February 1945. She never revealed any information about the resistance movement to the enemy.
On July 13, 1945, Finch enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard as part of the Women’s Reserve, inspired by the memory of her late husband and a desire to continue the fight against the enemy. She was released from service after the end of World War II and moved to Ithaca, New York, with her second husband, U.S. Army veteran Robert Finch. She remained there for the rest of her life, passing away in 2016 at the age of 101.
For her actions during WWII, Finch received the Army Presidential Unit Citation with frame, Medal of Freedom, Prisoner of War Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, WWII Victory Medal, Philippine Presidential Unit Citation with gold frame, Philippine Defense Medal and the Philippine Liberation Medal.
As part of the commissioning ceremony for Coast Guard Cutter Florence Finch, the Coast Guard bestowed upon the namesake the rank of honorary chief. From left, Lt. Connor W. Ives, commanding officer, Florence Finch; Master Chief Petty Officer Kody L. Fraughton; Elizabeth L. Murphy, daughter of Florence Finch and the cutter’s sponsor; and Rear Adm. Charles Fosse, 13th District commander. U.S. Coast Guard photo.
The Sentinel-class FRCs are replacing the 1980s Island-class 110-foot patrol boats, and possess 21st century command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment, with improved habitability and seakeeping. Each FRC is named after an enlisted Coast Guard hero who performed extraordinary service in the line of duty. A total of 67 FRCs have been ordered to date to perform a multitude of missions that include drug and immigrant interdictions, joint international operations and national defense of ports, waterways and coastal areas.
For more information: Fast Response Cutter Program page