The Silent Service’s First Hero (Hardback)
The First Submariner to Receive the Medal of Honor
Imprint: Pen & Sword Maritime
Pages: 232
Illustrations: 15 mono illustrations
ISBN: 9781036100414
Published: 16th August 2024
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Celebrating 100 years since the first submariner received the Congressional Medal of Honor, dive into pre-World War II submarine history through the first comprehensive, analytical, investigation into the life and times of Henry Breault. From 1900-41, Breault's life is reconstructed as lived through his Official Military Personnel File, census records, newspaper clippings, and connecting previous research. Breault's childhood, his enlistments in the Royal Navy Canadian Volunteer Reserve and the United States Navy are carefully reconstructed. From there, the conditions aboard the submarines he served on, his relationship with friends and family, his relationship to the women in his life, and his concept of masculinity and material identity allow us to better understand his life in the context he likely understood them. This book provides a new template for microhistorical observations into subjects whose primary sources are official military documentation to help better understand enlisted submariners.
“The Silent Service’s First Hero is truly a revelation. Ryan Walker’s book is one of the few histories to examine the pre-Second World War U.S. Navy submarine force, setting it apart from most submarine histories. More than that, however, he explores the experience of the U.S. Navy enlisted submarine Sailor, which is even more rarely chronicled. Readers will benefit from Walker’s thorough research, placing Henry Breault in the context of a very different time. Thanks to Walker’s exhaustive study, we now know far more about Henry Breault than simply the bare bones of his Medal of Honor citation – we know about his service in the Canadian navy and numerous other U.S. submarines, his complicated marriage, his evident leadership ability as a chief of the boat (without wearing chief’s anchors!), and even how to properly pronounce his name! Relying on sparse and often-vague documentation from over a century ago, Ryan Walker has crafted as full a portrait as we are likely to have of a submarine Sailor in the early 20th century U.S. Navy.”
Dr. Joel Holwitt, author of “Execute Against Japan”: The U.S. Decision to Conduct Unrestricted Submarine Warfare (Texas A&M University Press, 2009) and former U.S. Navy submarine captain.
About Ryan C Walker
Ryan C Walker served as a submariner in the USN from 2014-19. After being honorably discharged, he works full time in the defense industry while attending Southern New Hampshire University and University of Portsmouth, receiving in the former his BA in History and in the latter his MA in Naval History. Ryan is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Portsmouth and has published several articles and chapters in edited collections on American submariners, American Naval-Capital towns, and British Private-Men-of-War.