Henry Breault Henry Breault ( 14 October 1900 – 5 December 1941 ) was a United States Navy sailor who received the Medal of Honor for his actions while serving aboard the ( US Submarine O - 5 ) . He is the only enlisted submariner to be awarded the Medal of Honor for actions aboard a United States submarine . Biography . Henry Breault was born in Putnam , Connecticut , on 14 October 1900 . He enlisted in the British Royal Navy at sixteen years of age and , after serving under the White Ensign for four years , joined the U . S . Navy . On 28 October 1923 Torpedoman Second Class Breault was a member of the crew of when that submarine was sunk in a collision in the Panama Canal . Though he could have escaped , Breault chose to assist a shipmate , and remained inside the sunken submarine until both were rescued more than a day later . For his " heroism and devotion to duty " on this occasion , Henry Breault was awarded the Medal of Honor . He received his Medal of Honor from President Calvin Coolidge , in ceremonies at the White House , Washington , D . C . , on 8 March 1924 . Following twenty years of U . S . Navy service , Henry Breault became ill with a heart condition . He died at the Naval Hospital at Newport , Rhode Island , on 4 December 1941 . He was buried in Saint Mary Cemetery in Putnam , Connecticut . Medal of Honor Action . On 28 October 1923 , the was operating with other units of the U . S . Atlantic Fleet under the command of Commander Submarine Force , Coco Solo , Canal Zone . At approximately 0630 , , under the command of Lieutenant Harrison Avery , was underway leading a column of submarines consisting of , , , and across Limon Bay toward the entrance to the Panama Canal . The steamship SS " Abangarez " , owned by the United Fruit Company and captained by Master W . A . Card , was underway toward Dock No . 6 at Cristobal . Through a series of maneuvering errors and miscommunication , the SS " Abangarez " collided with the and struck the submarine on the starboard side of the control room , opening a hole some ten feet long and penetrating the number one main ballast tank . The submarine rolled sharply to port – then back to starboard – and sank bow first in 42 feet of water . The steamship picked up eight survivors – including the Commanding Officer – who had either been topside or climbed up quickly through the conning tower hatch . Nearby tugs and ships rescued several others . Eight minutes after sank , Chief Machinist ’ s Mate C . R . Butler surfaced in an air bubble . In all , 16 crewmen were rescued . Five were missing . These were Chief Electrician ’ s Mate Lawrence T . Brown and Torpedoman ’ s Mate Second Class Henry Breault , plus three others Henry Breault had been working in the torpedo room when the collision occurred , and he headed up the ladder topside . As he gained the main deck , he realized that Chief Brown was asleep below . Instead of going over the side , Breault headed back below to get Brown and shut the deck hatch over his head just as the bow went under . Brown was awake , but unaware of the order to abandon ship . Both men headed aft to exit through Control , but the water coming into the Forward Battery compartment made that escape route unusable . They made it through the rising water to the torpedo room and had just shut and dogged the door when the battery shorted and exploded . Breault knew the bow was under , and they were trapped . Salvage efforts began immediately , and divers were sent down from a salvage tug that arrived from Coco Solo . By 10 : 00am , they were on the bottom examining the wreck . To search for trapped personnel , they hammered on the hull near the aft end of the ship and worked forward . Upon reaching the torpedo room , they heard answering hammer blows from inside the boat . In those days before modern safety and rescue devices , the only way the salvage crew , under the command of Captain Amos Bronson , Jr . , could get the men out of the boat was to lift it physically from the mud using cranes or pontoons . There were no pontoons within 2 , 000 miles of the site , but there were two of the largest crane barges in the world , " Ajax " and " Hercules " , in the Canal Zone . They were built specifically for handling the gates of the canal locks . However , there had been a landslide at the famous Gaillard Cut and both barges were on the other side of the slide , assisting in clearing the Canal . The excavation shifted into high gear and by 2 : 00pm on the afternoon of the sinking , the crane barge " Ajax " squeezed through and was on its way to the site . Divers worked to tunnel under the ’ s bow so lifting cables could be attached . " Ajax " arrived about midnight , and by early morning , the cable tunnel had been dug , the cable run , and a lift was attempted . Sheppard J . Shreaves , supervisor of the Panama Canal ’ s salvage crew and himself a qualified diver , had been working continuously throughout the night to dig the tunnel , snake the cable under the submarine , and hook it to " Ajax ’ s " hoist . Now the lift began . As the crane took a strain , the lift cables broke . Shreaves and his crew worked another cable set under the bow and again " Ajax " pulled . Again , the cable broke . All through the day , the men worked . Shreaves had been in his diving suit nearly 24 hours . As midnight on the 29th approached , the crane was ready for another lift , this time with buoyancy being added by blowing water out of the flooded Engine Room . Then , just after midnight , the bow of broke the surface . Men from the salvage force quickly opened the torpedo room hatch , and Breault and Brown emerged into the fresh air . Medal of Honor citation . Rank and organization : Torpedoman Second Class , U . S . Navy . Born : 14 October 1900 , Putnam , Conn . Accredited to : Vermont . G . O . No . : 125 , 20 February 1924 . Citation : For his role in the rescue , Sheppard Shreaves later received the Congressional Life Saving Medal , presented personally by Breault and Brown that same year .