Navy Chief Sacrificed His Life and Earned the Medal of Honor Saving 123 Sailors During the Battle of the Coral Sea

[Tony]

Chief Watertender Oscar V. Peterson spent 21 years at sea before May 7, 1942, when Japanese bombs turned the USS Neosho into a burning wreck during the Battle of the Coral Sea. Already wounded from the attack, the 42-year-old sailor crawled alone into several superheated compartments to manually close four massive steam line valves.