Samuel David Dealey

Samuel David Dealey (September 13, 1906 – August 24, 1944) was the commanding officer of a United States Navy submarine killed in action with his crew during World War II.

Among American service members, he is among the most decorated for valor during war, receiving the Medal of Honor, the Navy Cross (4), the Army Distinguished Service Cross, and the Silver Star for his service on the submarine USS Harder (SS-257).

He was the nephew of George B. Dealey, publisher of the Dallas News and for whom Dealey Plaza is named.

Sam Dealey was born on September 13, 1906, in Dallas, Texas.

His mother moved the family temporarily to Santa Monica, California, following his father's death in 1912, returning in time for Sam Dealey to graduate high school in Dallas.

He was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, from Texas and graduated in June 1930.

The submarine was one of twelve Gato boats fitted originally with the troublesome Hooven-Owens-Rentschler (HOR) engines, whose original design was licensed from the German firm Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg (MAN) in the 1930s.

After some hasty repairs and bearing a generous inventory of spare engine parts, Harder returned to sea for a second war patrol off Honshu in late August.

In 14 days it made nine attacks, which netted Dealey five enemy ships sunk for 15,000 tons in the postwar accounting.

Dealey has commissioned an Ensign and reported for sea duty aboard USS Nevada (BB-36), where he was promoted in June 1933 to Lieutenant (junior grade).

In March 1934, he briefly transferred to USS Rathburne (DD-113), then reported that summer for submarine training at the Submarine School, New London, Connecticut.

After graduating, he served on board the submarines USS S-34 (SS-139) and USS S-24 (SS-129).

Remaining on sea duty, he reported on board USS Nautilus (SS-168) then USS Bass (SS-164).

In May 1937, he was assigned as an aide to the executive officer at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida (NAS Pensacola).

While there, in June 1938, he was promoted to lieutenant.

In the summer of 1939, he was assigned as the executive officer (first officer) on board USS Reuben James (DD-245).

In April 1941, he reported to Experimental Division One for duty as the prospective commanding officer (PCO) of USS S-20 (SS-125) to support at-sea experiments off New London.

He commanded USS S-20 (SS-125) for two years, serving aboard at the United States' entry into World War II.

When war broke out, Dealey's practical qualifications led to assignment as commanding officer of the new-construction Gato-class submarine USS Harder (SS-257), which he commissioned on December 2, 1942, less than 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 USS Harder (SS-257) to the Pacific in the spring of 1943.

USS Harder (SS-257) left Pearl Harbor on her first war patrol on June 7, 1943, bound for the coast of southern Honshu.

In Dealey's first attack on a two-ship enemy convoy late on the night of June 21, the submarine was driven down deep by an aggressive enemy escort and crashed into the muddy bottom – an inauspicious beginning, even though it now appears that one enemy target may have been damaged.

Dealey backed the submarine out of the mud, and two nights later had his first real success in torpedoing the Japanese seaplane tender Sagara Maru (7,000 tons) and crippling the enemy ship so badly that it was beached on the Japanese mainland and abandoned as a total loss.

Over the next four days, Dealey made seven attacks on three different enemy ship convoys, but post-war analysis credits him only with possible damage to one enemy ship.

Harder returned to Midway Island on July 7, 1943 with one of its four diesel engines completely broken down.

Once again, the submarine suffered engine problems throughout the patrol but returned safely to Pearl Harbor, via Midway, on October 7, 1943.

At the end of October 1943, COMSUBPAC, Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, ordered Harder, USS Snook (SS-279), and USS Pargo (SS-264) to the Marianas as a submarine wolfpack to attack Japanese shipping in preparation for the invasion of Tarawa.

At that stage of the war, "coordinated operations" among submarines were still hampered by poor communications.

Thus, after collaborating with USS Pargo (SS-264) in attacking an enemy freighter on October 12 – with results never clearly established – and sinking a small enemy minesweeper with gunfire that night, Dealey was soon separated from the rest and operating independently.

On November 19, he picked up an enemy convoy of three large Japanese freighters with accompanying escorts north of the Marianas and positioned for an attack, altogether firing ten torpedoes in his first attempt, scoring hits on two enemy targets.

Driven below by the enemy escort ships, Dealey surfaced later that night to chase the enemy freighter that had managed to escape undamaged.

Eventually firing 11 more torpedoes at the fugitive ship for two hits and four circular runs – then driven off by defensive gunfire from the tenacious Japanese gunners – Dealey broke off the engagement and returned to Pearl Harbor because of lack of torpedoes.

Later, it was established all three enemy ships had sunk, the third – Nikko Maru – late that night, giving Dealey and Harder a total of 4 enemy ships sunk (over 15,000 tons) for their third war patrol.

Once again, however, one of Harder's HOR engines had failed completely, and the other three engines were kept running only by cannibalizing the fourth engine.

Thus, shortly after the submarine arrived in Hawaii on November 30, Harder was sent back to Mare Island to be re-engined with General Motors diesel engines.

Dealey brought Harder back to Pearl Harbor in late February 1944 and took her out for her fourth war patrol on March 16, 1944, accompanied by USS Seahorse (SS-304).

Initially assigned lifeguard duty for downed U.S. aviators in the western Caroline Islands, Harder on April 1 was sent to rescue an injured navy pilot on a small enemy-held island just west of Woleai, which had been hit that day by an American aircraft carrier strike.

Under an umbrella of friendly air cover, Dealey nosed Harder toward the beach until he could ground the bow up against the encircling reef and hold it there by working both screws.

Then, in the face of Japanese sniper fire only partially suppressed by the circling aircraft, a rubber boat was sent in to retrieve the navy pilot, Ensign John Galvin, who was brought to safety in what soon became a legendary rescue.

As Blair describes it: "By the time Harder got to the reported position, the aviator, Ensign John R. Galvin, was already stranded high and dry on the beach. Dealey lay alongside a reef. Dealey's third officer, Samuel Moore Logan, and two volunteers jumped in the water with a rubber raft, secured to Harder by a line. They fought their way through the surf and coral to the island and picked up Ensign Galvin. As they were attempting to get back to Harder, a navy floatplane landed to help. It ran over the line and parted it. Another Harder volunteer jumped in the water and swam another line through the surf and coral to the beach. While navy planes circled overhead, Japanese snipers fired away from the foliage while the Harder's men pulled the raft and the five men aboard. The rescue was later hailed as one of the boldest on record."