He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions as a fighter squadron commander during the crucial struggle for the control of the Solomon Islands at the Battle of Guadalcanal.

[1] Harold William Bauer was born in Woodruff, Kansas, on 20 November 1908 and grew up in North Platte, Nebraska.

Bauer was transferred to the Naval Air Station San Diego, California, in June 1940 where he served as executive officer of VMF-221.

The 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor found Bauer and VMF-221 preparing to embark aboard the Saratoga for transport to Hawaii.

Promoted to major on 29 April 1942, Bauer and VMF-212 were deployed to the South Pacific and were stationed at New Caledonia, and later Efate, Vanuatu.

While leading a reinforcement flight on 16 October 1942, from Espirito Santo, Vanuatu to Guadalcanal, 600 miles (970 km) away, Bauer was about to land at Henderson Field when he noticed a squadron of Japanese planes attacking the USS McFarland (AVD-14) offshore.

Though the long flight from Espirito Santo had almost exhausted his fuel and he knew no friendly planes were able to assist him, he immediately proceeded alone to attack the enemy and succeeded in destroying four of them before lack of gasoline forced him to return to Henderson Field.