He Didn't Die Alone

He Didn’t Die Alone
By Earl A. Finn
December 2014

My second-oldest brother, U.S. Marine Corporal Joseph Patrick Finn, was killed by a Japanese sniper during the invasion of Tinian on July 24, 1944.
Days later, I was in front of my mother’s apartment in Paterson, New Jersey, talking with her as she swept the steps. We were discussing how to pay our bills. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a green Marine car inch its way down the street, the two men inside seemed to be reading house numbers. They pulled over to the curb near us. Two Marines got out. One was holding a triangular-folded American flag. The other said, “Are you Amelia Finn, the mother of Corporal Joseph P. Finn?”
Mother’s knees buckled as she learned of Joe’s death. We both cried. I helped her inside and thus began the life-long grieving process of those who lose a loved one in war. The star in our window told the public that a son was lost.
Why did Joe have to die? He was barely 21 years old. He never had a chance to fall in love and get married. Or have children.
Years before, our family had been torn apart by financial and domestic issues during the Great Depression. Dad moved to a different city. Mom moved to New Jersey. Our eldest sibling, Kate, went to live with family members out of state. My four brothers and I were sent to the Catholic orphanage down the road in Tampa, Florida, but we didn’t all go at one time. Eddie and Joe, my two oldest brothers went together. My aunt came and got them. I remember standing on the sidewalk in Dade City with my mother and siblings and seeing Joe’s tearful face pressed against the car window.
“Don’t worry, Earl. Joe and Eddie will take care of each other,” my mother said trying to console me.
A few months later, it was my turn. My brother, Fred, my baby brother, Johnny, and I went to the orphanage.
Strangely, as fragmented as we were, we were still a family. Years later, when we left the orphanage, some of us went to live with dad and some went to live with mom.
Eddie, Joe and Fred served in the United States Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater during World War II. In 1945 and 1946, I served in the Army-Air Corps on Guam in the Mariana Islands. Later, Johnny served in the Navy during the Korean War.
Over the years, I observed that it sometimes takes more than financial disaster and divorce to tear a family apart. My siblings and I remained very close. Three of them ended up living in the same town in Ohio. Somehow, even though we were torn apart, we always came back together. That’s why, for decades, I couldn’t understand about Joe. He was sent off to war to die alone on some foreign beach, I questioned.
The first part of the answer came when I received a small packet of photos in the mail from my brother, Fred. There it was! A photo of Fred with Joe on the island of Saipan. Just a few days before the invasion of Tinian. Joe was not alone. Somehow, God had seen fit to bring my two brothers together.
But was there more? I waited ten more years.
Our daughter, Anna, was intrigued by the World War II Memorial in Washington. She made an enquiry and found the name of Shirley Norman. Anna did a search for her phone number and made the call. I am eternally grateful for what Shirley Norman told us:
“On July 24, 1944, the Fourth Marine Division landed on the Island of Tinian. My dad, Roy ‘Pete’ Norman, was wading to shore shoulder to shoulder with his good friend, Joe Finn. In the hail of Japanese sniper fire, dad looked beside him. Joe was not there. Dad looked back. Joe had fallen and was being tended to by two other Marines. Dad ran back as quickly as he could through the water to Joe’s side. Joe’s life blood gushed into the water. The Marines tending to Joe looked at my dad and told him there was nothing to be done and to go on. With heavy heart, my dad went on.
“Dad was wounded in action on Tinian and for the third time on the Island of Iwo Jima for which he was decorated with the Purple Heart.
“My dad did go on and lost his final battle with cancer on September 11, 2003. During those days, I spent a lot of time with my dad at my parents’ home. By that time, we were in another war, Iraq. The news was being delivered on television about the war casualties. Dad became real quiet and said, “This is bad. It makes you think how you can be side by side with somebody and they don’t make it but you do. I lost a real good friend, Joe.
“He went on to tell me about the Tinian landing where Joe lost his life in service of our country. Dad said he had thought all his life about this…how did he make it and Joe didn’t. For almost 60 years, Dad carried this with him.
“Dad and Joe had plans to travel at War’s end. Dad told me that Joe was from Florida. With that, I will always feel a special connection to Joe and his family.
“I believe that when one crosses over, the spirits of people from your life are there to help you with the journey. I believe that Joe was there in spirit for my dad as he crossed over…just as my dad in life was at Joe’s side so many years ago and far away from home.”
So you see, God saw fit to let me know that my brother, Joe, was not alone when he died. Through Shirley Norman’s words, I learned that someone else wondered why Joe died. I had been so troubled by his death, that I had written a poem asking that same question.
As it turned out, the answer was buried in the memory of a World War II veteran whom I had never heard of, whom I had never met. Yet, God knew but He needed six decades to arrange the circumstances to let me know.

Poem
WHY DID MY BROTHER JOE DIE?

There was a war raging on many coral islands far away
From our New Jersey home, between Japan and Midway.
Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines were in fields there dying
News coming, shocking families set many moms a-crying.

Fighting for freedom against people in faraway places
Hard to understand their motives, the looks in their faces
They kill fathers, sons, and brothers who never came home
That dreadful news to us sadly one day did come.

Standing on those steps waiting for the horrible news
A green car arrived men dressed in those famous Marine blues
Carrying a delicately folded American Flag a tradition to give
One stepped forward flag in hand and asked mom to forgive.

“Our condolence we bring to you today, Mrs. Finn, about your son
Corporal Joseph P. Finn killed in action on Tinian Island invasion.”
The horrible news pierced mother’s heart, her legs giving way
We wonder, we talk, we pray, and always ask this question today.

Why did Brother Joe have to die on that Island so far across the sea?
For Freedom, pursuit of happiness, and for our country’s liberty
Millions had to suffer and die for these causes, sixty-odd years ago
So politicians can get their way, and puffed up with self-ego.

Politicians open the doors for other people to come and rule
From lands that Joe fought against, now here to ridicule
School teachers teach no history of wars to girls and boys
Some teachers show our little children filthy adult play toys.

Is that why Brother Joe died, so our children would hear
Other religions of hate, and terror must they also live in fear
Only in America we let others gain control and superiority
By changing the laws and the Constitution’s authority.

What if Joe could come back his every thought would be
Take his Marine division with wound in head let them see
What killed him, what was all the training for?—tell him, why!
So politicians rant, rage, and steal our freedom by and by.

Now he is gone to his grave forever without knowing
All the things he fought and died for now are all going
Joe wanted to kill that dictator Hitler, grandma said, “No”
In a national cemetery on Long Island rests our brother Joe.

Some questions Joe might ask our leaders of today,
Why men marry men because people say they are gay?
Why is the United Nations in my country for what reason?
Is that why Joe fought and died for others to commit treason?

Third-world countries are in a turmoil and dreadful mess
So the United Nation came to take over America, I guess?
Well, let’s get rid of all peaceful ways, Joe would have said
And give the renegades of the world their due till they’re all dead.

Joe would want to take his country back, but more would die
To make all politicians honest and truthful and not to always lie
ACLU should protect our rights, not steal them by changing laws
He would ask government leaders to stop making immoral flaws.

Joe can’t change things now for a better cause, he gave his all
He fought with all his might on five islands till he heard God’s call
A sniper’s bullet found its mark that killed Brother Joe that sad day
The lines you read are true to this day so let Joe rest where he lay.

AMEN
By his brother Earl Finn
The year of the Lord 2004 ©