The Silent Service’s First Hero: The First Submariner to Receive the Medal of Honor

Newspaper Account of the Episode

By Ryan C. Walker 

Pen and Sword Maritime, 2024

Reviewed by Professor Jeffrey LaMonica 

Ryan C. Walker’s The Silent Service’s First Hero: The First Submariner to Receive the Medal of Honor  is a 224-page “microhistory” covering the life and service of World War I veteran Henry Breault from 1900 to 1941. The author is an historian with a graduate degree in naval affairs and was a US Navy submariner from 2014 to 2019. He defines this “microhistory” as a collage that is equal parts biography, military history, cultural history, and local history. His research draws upon military personnel files and reports to tell the story of Breault’s military career and his heroic action that resulted in his Medal of Honor. Walker utilizes newspaper articles, census data, and Hollywood films to set Breault’s life in the larger scope of American society and culture in the 1920s and 1930s.

Click HERE To Order

Walker’s “microhistory” unfolds over eleven chapters. It begins with an overview of the navy’s commemoration of Petty Officer Breault’s heroism and addresses the overall neglect of enlisted personnel in naval history. The book chronicles the history of the Medal of Honor and U.S. Navy during the interwar years. The author tells of Breault’s early life as a French-Canadian in New England and service in the Royal Navy’s Canadian Volunteer Corps during the Great War. He likely witnessed the horrible aftermath of the 1917 munitions explosion in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Breault enlisted in the U.S. Navy after the war and “saw the world” as a submariner in the Caribbean and South Atlantic in the 1920s. Walker dedicates a chapter to sorting through numerous accounts of Breault’s rescue of a shipmate during a submarine accident in 1923 for which Congress awarded him the Medal of Honor. Breault’s naval career continued through the 1930s in the Far East. Subsequent chapters cover Breault’s failed attempts at promotion, court martial for missing muster, and health problems causing his death two days before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

______________________________

Medal of Honor Citation

Torpedoman Second Class Henry Breault

For heroism and devotion to duty while serving on board the U.S. submarine 0-5 at the time of the sinking of that vessel. On the morning of 28 October 1923, the 0-5 collided with the steamship Abangarez and sank in less than a minute. When the collision occurred, Breault was in the torpedo room. Upon reaching the hatch, he saw that the boat was rapidly sinking. Instead of jumping overboard to save his own life, he returned to the torpedo room to the rescue of a shipmate who he knew was trapped in the boat, closing the torpedo room hatch on himself. Breault and Brown remained trapped in this compartment until rescued by the salvage party 31 hours later.

______________________________

Walker pieces together Breault’s personal relationships with family and friends despite scant sources and makes honest assessments concerning his shortcomings as a husband and father. He uses Breault and his shipmates to provide a glimpse into the everyday experiences of enlisted personnel in the navy in the 1920s and 1930s, including global travel, material/consumer culture, hygiene, tattoos, and sex. The author admits to drawing his own conclusions about many unknown aspects of Breault’s life and personality for the sake of constructing this mosaic narrative. This confession captures the essence of “microhistory,” where the individual, their deeds, and the overall world around them share equal significance. Walker’s book is an absorbing tale of the navy’s only enlisted submariner to receive the Medal of Honor and demonstrates the value of exploring military figures beyond their military careers.

Jeffrey LaMonica