William Anderson (naval officer) was distinguished. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and participated in a total of eleven combat submarine patrols. Anderson was selected by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover to be the second commanding officer of the first nuclear submarine to be placed into service, the USS "Nautilus" and was its commander from 1957 to 1959. Anderson and his crew received international notice when the "Nautilus" became the first submarine to sail successfully under the polar ice cap surrounding the North Pole. That transit was completed under direct orders of President Dwight Eisenhower, under extreme secrecy and was in direct response to
Arctic exploration of his sea plane, during the rescue operations. The first people to have without doubt walked on the North Pole were the Soviet party of 1948 under the command of Alexander Kuznetsov, who landed their aircraft nearby and walked to the pole. On August 3, 1958, the American submarine reached the North Pole without surfacing. It then proceeded to travel under the entire Polar ice cap. On March 17, 1959 the surfaced on the North Pole and dispersed the ashes of explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins. These journeys were part of military explorations stimulated by the Cold War context. On April