The newest U.S. Coast Guard Fast Response Cutter now bears the name of Florence Ebersole Smith Finch, a Filipino American woman who assisted the United States during World War II. 

The Coast Guard introduced the Florence Finch during a commissioning ceremony in Seattle Thursday.

Betty Finch Murphy, Finch’s daughter, described the recognition as a “complete and total honor and surprise” to KOMO 4.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard website, Finch was born in the Philippines to a Filipino mother and American father. After graduating high school, she entered the U.S. Army, where she was stationed in Manila.

On Jan. 2, 1942, Japanese forces took control of Manila, but Finch was able to conceal her association with the U.S. While tasked with writing vouchers for fuel distribution, she secretly redirected fuel supplies to resistance forces and helped sabotage the Japanese. Finch also supported Filipino prisoners of war by smuggling them food and medicine before being caught and arrested in 1944. She was imprisoned and tortured until her liberation by American forces on Feb. 10, 1945.

“She never had PTSD from her experience,” Murphy told KOMO 4. “I used to ask her why not, and she said because when she was in her cell squatting in a little four-by-six-cell, and she had to squat all day, she kept saying to herself, ‘I will survive.”‘

After her freedom, Finch enlisted in the Coast Guard Women’s Reserve in New York. She was eventually recognized for her war efforts and became the first woman to be awarded the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbon. In 1947, Finch received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

On behalf of Finch, her family also accepted her posthumous Congressional Gold Medal at the commissioning ceremony, according to KIRO 7.

“Florence Finch is a true Coast Guard and Filipino hero, and we couldn’t be prouder to honor her legacy,” said Coast Guard Vice Admiral Andrew Tiongson, Pacific Area Commander, to KIRO 7. “The cutter is now the only currently active ship in the United States military named after a Filipino American.”

Finch’s namesake Cutter will be based in Astoria, Oregon, providing operational support throughout the Pacific Ocean, Puget Sound, Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Columbia River.

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