Aaron Finch

Aaron Finch (b. 1901) was deliveryman who lived in Glendale, California. He was Jewish; when his father arrived in the United States, he change his surname from "Fink" to "Finch". Aaron had attempted to enlist during World War II, but his poor vision and age prevented that. Instead, he entered the merchant marine, and did a great deal of dangerous work, nonetheless. After the war, Finch moved to Glendale to live with his brother Marvin, and met his future wife, Ruth. They married in early 1948. Their son, Leon was was born in mid-1949.

In January, 1951, on the eve of the outbreak of World War III, Finch was a deliveryman working for Blue Front, an appliance company that served the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Like most of the rest of the country, Finch and his family watched with increasing horror as the U.S. and the Soviet Union exchanged atomic bombs, until the ground war in Europe began on February 17, 1951.

In the early morning of March 2, 1951, Ruth woke Finch to tell him that the Soviets had successfully atom bombed Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon. By his count, Finch concluded that San Francisco would be hit next, followed by Los Angeles. With nothing to do but wait, Finch ate breakfast, showered, and got ready for work. When Ruth expressed objections, Finch pointed out that if a bomb didn't reach them, he might be out of a job. The radio announced that San Francisco had been attacked. Again Ruth protested, but Finch argued that downtown Los Angeles would be the target, and that the hills would keep Glendale safe.

Not long after he arrived at work, Finch and Herschel Weissman heard the sounds of jets. The bomb was detonated shortly after. Finch rushed home. Not far from his house, Finch saw a Soviet parachuting to the ground. Armed only with a pocket knife, Finch captured the Russian and took him to the Glendale police department, fighting down the urge to harm him.

Finch became something of a local hero by capturing the Russian. Other Soviet pilots had gone missing or met with vigilante justice. Moreover, while downtown Los Angeles was gone, Glendale proper was essentially unharmed, and able to plug along. Finch himself became a local hero.

A few days after the bombing, Finch was summoned to the Glendale police station. Despite trepidation, he went and had a meeting with Lt. Colonel Del Shanahan of United States Air Force Intelligence. Shanahan clarified a few points about Finch's capture of Lt. Yuri Svechin, including how they communicated (Finch's Yiddish was close enough to German, which Svechin spoke), and that Svechin was willing to surrender when he saw Finch wasn't going to hurt him. The two discussed the fact that other Soviets who had parachuted into the L.A. area had been killed by angry mobs, and some of the international legal issues those deaths had raised. Once Shanahan was convinced Finch was merely a "chaste passerby" rather than a spy, he sent Finch home.

Even with Glendale being more or less intact, Finch and his family were impacted in measurable ways by the bombing. Fuel prices were up, and people wanting to buy appliances were down, and Finch's hours were cut to part time accordingly. He was also somewhat more dependent on his Armenian neighbors, Elizabeth and Krikor Kasparian, who sold the Finches chickens and eggs. Their prices for livestock were going up as their own supplies increased in price.

In April, 1951, when an order for a refrigerator came by letter from one Mrs. O'Byrnne in Torrance, Weissman happily sent Finch and Jim Summers to deliver it, despite the fact that the rubble of downtown L.A. lay between the Blue Front warehouse in Glendale and the residence in Torrance. While initially horrified, Finch soon realized that he might be able to see remains of downtown up close. He and Summers did: their trip, which was circuitous by necessity, brought them close to a refugee camp, a sign that promised that looters would be shot, the rubble of several city landmarks, and the corpse hanging from a lamppost with a placard with the word THIEF around his neck. They arrived at Mrs. O'Byrrne's residence and successfully made their deliver. On their way back, Summers asked that Finch avoid the rubble. Finch agreed.