Henry Breault: Construction of a naval hero

United States Navy sailors are excellent subjects for personal microhistories due to the volume of surviving official documentation in the form of their Official Military Personnel Files. This article deconstructs a grand narrative surrounding Henry Breault, the only enlisted sailor to receive his Medal of Honor while serving aboard a submarine. Breault experienced contemporary enshrinement, a long period of sporadic interest, and a later iconographic construction into a submarine folk hero in the present day. Breault has come to represent unnamed submariners, who are expected to perform in the same fashion with no expectation of similar commendation. It is found that Breault is still representative of sailors, but as an ordinary man who acted in an extraordinary manner when circumstance required. The methodology provides insight into Breault's relationship and connection to greater society as a submariner and as a highly decorated sailor in the interwar period.