The Destroyer Killer

January 3, 1945 arrived quietly in Texas, but the news that settled over Dallas was anything but. The wire stories spoke with the cautious gravity of wartime language, careful not to say too much and yet saying enough. Commander Samuel David Dealey, one of the most successful submarine skippers in United States naval history, was missing in action. His boat, USS Harder, was overdue and presumed lost. For families who had learned to read between lines, that phrase carried the weight of finality. The Tyler Morning Telegraph ran the story beneath a headline that tried to balance pride and dread, calling Dealey a valiant hero of the Pacific while admitting what everyone already feared, that one of the war’s most aggressive and effective commanders had vanished into enemy waters and silence.