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Edwin J. O'Hara is immortalized at the United States Merchant Marine Academy as the first cadet to posthumously receive the Distinguished Service Medal for his courageous actions during World War 2. A picture of him in his final battle hangs in both the academy’s museum and O’Hara Hall, which was named for him. He is also one of six cadets for whom a Liberty ship was named.

O’Hara was a cadet at the academy in the class of 1943. The course of training back then consisted of less than two years. The academy during that period functioned to train men in seamanship to prepare them for the dangerous haul across the Atlantic or anywhere the US armed forces needed them. It consisted of eight weeks of basic training, a six month period at sea, and then nine more months to complete studies.

O’Hara was on his sea period, serving aboard the Liberty ship SS Stephen Hopkins, owned by the Luckenbach Steamship company of New York. The ship was enroute from South Africa to Dutch Guiana to pick up cargo, when it was attacked by German raiders. The small German boats, Stier & Tannenfels, heavily outgunned the Liberty ship, but were far smaller in size, and thus couldn’t take as much punishment. Their armament consisted of machine guns, as well as turrets.

On September 27, 1942, when the SS Stephen Hopkins’s master saw the raiders, he kept the stern towards the raiders, so that his single turret could fire upon them. The Navy guard did a good job of keeping the raiders at bay, despite casualties by shells and bullets, until a shell struck home in the Hopkins’s engine room, where O’Hara was working as a cadet. Two engine workers were killed, and the engine room was at that point no longer functional, so O’Hara went to the deck to assist. The ship, now dead in the water, was an easier target, and would no longer be able to maneuver against the raiders.

After about twenty minutes of fighting, a shell struck near the Hopkins's turret, injuring the man in command of the Naval Armed Guard. O’Hara escorted him to another deck. While away, another shell struck the turret’s ammo store, killing the remaining men at the turret. O’Hara ran back up and fired a final five shells that were lying on the deck. It is said that his final shot sank the Stier, but it is more likely that the Stier already sank and O’Hara’s shots heavily damaged the Tannenfel. A survivor from the Hopkins reported seeing O’Hara succumb to shrapnel from an explosion.