The Harder at Woleai

Harder (SS-257) In the most daring submarine rescue of the war, three men from USS Harder swam with a rubber boat through knife-like coral and a hail of snipers' bullets to save a Navy pilot from an enemy-held island. The sub's skipper, posthumous Medal of Honor winner Samuel D. Dealey, put the USS Harder's bow on a coral reef and fought to keep her from swinging broadside onto the reef while the crew hauled in the rubber boat. The flyer, Lt. John Galvin from the carrier USS Bunker Hill, was awarded the Submarine Combat Insignia for his service aboard the USS Harder during the remainder of this patrol in which she began the rampage that won her the name "Destroyer Killer".