A blue-blood purple heart

On he morning of August 31, Commander MinoruYokota, captain of the submarine I-26, stalked the Saratoga east of San Cristobal. When he chose his moment to attack, he closed so aggressively that his periscope scratched the hull of a destroyer in the U. S. screen. The Americans spotted his incoming torpedo wakes, but too late to evade. Shortly before 7 a.m., the carrier shook "like a house in a severe earthquake" as a torpedo struck her. The shock wave whiplashed the hull from below the sea to the flag bridge, tossing Admiral Fletcher up into the overhead and inflicting a forehead wound that would make him - much to his embarrassment - the highest-ranking U. S. naval office to date to receive the Purple Heart.

(from Neptune's Inferno, by James D. Hornfischer. Vice Admiral (later Admiral) Frank Jack Fletcher was at the time of this excerpt in command of the Expeditionary Force at the Battle of Guadalcanal.)