Francis A. Dales

Francis Alonzo Dales (December 3, 1923 – March 29, 2003) was a cadet midshipman in the United States Merchant Marine Academy who served on the freighter SS Santa Elisa, and subsequently the tanker SS Ohio, during Operation Pedestal, a convoy to the besieged island of Malta in World War II. For his actions defending the convoy, considered one of the most important British strategic victories of the war, he was awarded the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award available to the merchant marine.

Initial training Dales began his basic training as a cadet midshipman in temporary facilities at Fort Schuyler in February 1942, and became one of the first graduates of the United States Merchant Marine Academy at its new campus at King's Point.

Axis forces opposing the convoy included land-based Italian and German aircraft, Italian and German motor torpedo boats, Italian submarines and a force of Italian cruisers, as well as naval mines laid by ships and aircraft in the path of the convoy. There were also hostile shore batteries on some of the coastlines the convoy had to pass.

SS Santa Elisa

Most of the merchant ships in the convoy were British owned and crewed. The SS Santa Elisa, a 6,200 ton freighter, was one of two American operated ships. She was carrying 7,000 tons of aviation fuel in drums. Dales had been assigned to the Santa Elisa for sea training. Commanding an anti-aircraft gun on top of the bridge, he took part in the initially successful defence against three days of heavy attacks while steaming eastwards from the straits of Gibraltar towards Malta. but the Santa Elisa would fall to a different foe. In the darkness before daybreak on the fourth day, the Santa Elisa was attacked by two Italian MAS motor torpedo boats. One raked the ship with fire from its heavy machine guns, killing three men from Dales' gun crew, while the other attacked from the opposite side and hit the ship with a torpedo. Dales successfully fired back and hit and sank the first attacking boat, but the aviation fuel carried by the Santa Elisa had been ignited by the torpedo hit, and the crew were forced to abandon the blazing ship about southeast of Cape Bon in Tunisia, and still short of Malta. Seeing that one of the Ohio'''s anti-aircraft guns could be repaired, another survivor from the Santa Elisa, junior third officer Frederick August Larsen, boarded the ship. Dales and four British crewmen volunteered to go with him. Between them, they were successful in bringing the gun back into action. The captain of the Ohio, Dudley William Mason, was awarded the George Cross. The arrival, welcomed by huge crowds of people lining the harbor and waving British and Maltese flags, coincided with the Feast of Santa Marija, and Operation Pedestal became known in Malta as the Santa Marija Convoy. Dales was only the third Cadet Midshipman ever to receive the medal.

Later life Dales was interviewed in connection with the 60th anniversary celebration of Operation Pedestal in 2002, and said that he would always remember the Maltese people's grateful response to his actions on board the Ohio''.

Dales died in Augusta, Georgia, on March 29, 2003. He was inducted into the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy's National Maritime Hall of Fame in 2009, one year after the ship he had defended received the same honor.