SUBMARINE HEROES
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Harder (SS-257) during her 5th War Patrol in Japanese-controlled waters. Floodlighted by a bright moon and disclosed to an enemy destroyer escort which bore down with intent to attack, CDR Dealey quickly dived to periscope depth and waited for the pursuer to close range, then opened fire, sending the target and all aboard down in flames with his third torpedo. Plunging deep to avoid fierce depth charges, he again surfaced and, within 9 minutes after sighting another destroyer, had sent the enemy down tail first with a hit directly amidship. Evading detection, he penetrated the confined waters off Tawi Tawi with the Japanese Fleet base 6 miles away and scored death blows on 2 patrolling destroyers in quick succession. With his ship heeled over by concussion from the first exploding target and the second vessel nose-diving in a blinding detonation, he cleared the area at high speed. Sighted by a large hostile fleet force on the following day, he swung his bow toward the lead destroyer for another "down-the-throat" shot, fired 3 bow tubes and promptly crash-dived to be terrifically rocked seconds later by the exploding ship as the Harder passed beneath. This remarkable record of 5 vital Japanese destroyers sunk in 5 short-range torpedo attacks attests the valiant fighting spirit of CDR Dealey and his indomitable command.
Submarine Hero - Samuel David Dealey
by Edward C. Whitman
Of the seven submariners granted the Medal of Honor in World War II, three received the award posthumously. And among those, the one who sank the most Japanese tonnage before being lost in action was Sam Dealey. His quiet heroism - attested by a Silver Star and a Navy Cross with three gold stars - in addition to his Medal of Honor - remains an inspiration to the Submarine Force nearly sixty years later.
Samuel David Dealey was born in Dallas in 1906 of a prominent Texas family. His uncle was a founder and publisher of the Dallas Morning News, and Dealey was appointed to the Naval Academy from his home state. After "bilging out" for low grades, he won reinstatement and eventually graduated with the class of 1930. After Submarine School and a relatively undistinguished series of peacetime assignments, he was given command of the non-combatant submarine, S-20, used to support at-sea experiments off New London. However, when war broke out, his practical qualifications led to assignment as Commanding Officer of the new-construction Gato-class submarine USS Harder (SS-257), which he commissioned on 2 December 1942, not quite a year after Pearl Harbor. After a shakedown off the East Coast, Dealey survived a "blue-on-blue" attack by a Navy patrol bomber in the Caribbean to bring Harder to the Pacific in the spring of 1943.
Harder left Pearl Harbor on her first war patrol on 7 June, bound for the coast of southern Honshu. In his first attack on a two-ship convoy late on the night of 21 June, Dealey was driven deep by an aggressive escort and crashed into the muddy bottom - an inauspicious beginning, even though it now appears that one target may have been damaged. Dealey backed himself out of the mud, and two nights later had his first real success in torpedoing the ex-s
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