1943 - Navy Destroyer USS The Sullivans is commissioned

Five Irish American brothers, the Sullivans, made the ultimate sacrifice when they were killed aboard the USS Juneau during World War II. On this day, Oct. 10, 1943, the Navy Destroyer USS The Sullivans was commissioned in their honor. 

The USS Juneau sunk on November 13, 1942, a year after being commissioned, killing 687 men on board including the five Sullivan brothers.

Sullivan brothers grew up with little parental guidance

According to the Navy Times,  interviews conducted soon after the disaster and in the years that followed revealed the five Sullivan brothers and their sister Genevieve, or Gen, grew up with little parental guidance in Waterloo, Iowa.

It was reported that locals repeatedly told investigators that their father, Tom, was a physically abusive alcoholic and that their mother, Alleta, was often “blue” spending days in bed. 

The Sullivan brothers all left school around the age of 16

All five of the Sullivan boys left school at age 16 and as a result of the Great Depression, spent much time out of work.

Without jobs, they snitched their dad’s moonshine and shadowed him to the downtown backstreets to pick up drink.

The Sullivan brothers enlisted after Pearl Harbor

News of their friend William Ball’s death aboard the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor prompted them to enlist in the Navy.

The brothers immediately decided to join the navy—even the youngest, Al, who had married at 17 and had a 21-month-old son, Jimmy. 

George and Francis Sullivan had only been discharged from the Navy less than a year before, having served together on the USS Hovey.

“We had 5 buddies killed in Hawaii. Help us,” George wrote.

The Sullivan brothers refused to serve unless assigned to the same ship

The tragic sinking of the USS Juneau was compounded by the fact that five brothers perished which was a rare occurrence because the naval policy did not encourage family members to serve together.

Yet, George, Frank, Joseph, Matt, and Albert refused to serve unless assigned to the same ship, so the policy was not enforced.

George wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, citing his own and Francis’ recent service and asking if he, his brothers and two friends from their motorcycle club could “stick together.” He closed with the phrase, “We will make a team together that can’t be beaten.” The Secretary of the Navy granted the request.

Sullivan brothers photo became an emblem of American sacrifice

On February 14, 1942, the day the brothers’ assigned ship, the Juneau, was commissioned and a photographer took a shot of the five smiling Sullivans aboard the vessel.

The publicity photo would later become a familiar emblem of American sacrifice.

At least one Sullivan brother survived the Japanese attacks on USS Juneau

In November of 1942, the US and Japanese forces were locked in the deadly struggle for Guadalcanal in the South Pacific. Shortly after midnight on November 13, one of the most dramatic naval engagements of the war occurred in the strait between Guadalcanal and Florida Island. American and Japanese naval task forces engaged each other at point-blank range.

The Juneau was an early casualty, hit by a torpedo from Japanese destroyer Amatsukaze which ripped into her port side taking out its steering and guns and killing 19 men in the forward engine room. Her fire control systems destroyed and power knocked out, she limped away from the battle but was able to rejoin the group of five surviving warships from the task force.

At 11:01 am a Japanese submarine tracking the vessels fired another torpedo into the Juneau and blew the ship in half.

Francis, Joseph, and Madison were killed in the initial attack and Albert drowned during the second attack. George was one of 80 men who made it to life rafts but allegedly died from a shark attack.

Two survivors remembered the death of the eldest Sullivan, George, in particular. He had been aboard one of the small life rafts and, after three or four days, was weak and hallucinating.

One night, Gunner’s Mate Second Class Allen Heyn recalled, George declared that he was going to take a bath. He removed his uniform and jumped into the water. A little way from his raft, “a shark came and grabbed him and that was the end of him,” Heyn told a naval interrogator. “I never seen him again.”

Because of the risk of further enemy action, the remaining US ships did not search for survivors as the commander of the task force believed that no one could have survived the blast.

Sullivan brother deaths are the greatest wartime sacrifice of any American family

Not only were their deaths the greatest military loss by any one American family during World War II, but their deaths also remain the single greatest wartime sacrifice of any American family.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote a personal letter of condolence to the Sullivan brothers' mother

The Sullivan brothers have two US navy ships named after them 

USS The Sullivans (DD-537) was named in honor of the five Sullivan brothers and first launched on April 4, 1943. It is a Fletcher-class destroyer and was assigned to the 6th Fleet during World War II and the Korean War receiving nine and two battle stars respectively. Albert’s son James later served aboard the ship named after his father and uncles.

She was decommissioned in 1965, and in 1977 was processed for donation to the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park in Buffalo, New York. The ship now serves as a memorial alongside USS Little Rock and is open for public tours.

USS The Sullivans was also the first ship commissioned in the Navy that honored more than one person.

USS The Sullivans (DDG-68) is an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided-missile destroyer and the second ship of the United States Navy to be named after the five Sullivan brothers.

The ship was launched on August 12, 1995, and sponsored by Kelly Ann Sullivan Loughren, granddaughter of Albert Sullivan. She was commissioned on April 19, 1997, and along with her predecessor, was given the motto that is thought to have been spoken by the brothers when asked to separate during World War II, "We Stick Together."

In 2000 a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda attempted to attack the vessel while in port at Aden, Yemen but the attackers' boat sank before the attack could be carried out.

The plan was to load a boat full of explosives and explode near The Sullivans however the boat was so overladen that it sank, forcing the attack to be abandoned.

Later, al-Qaeda tried the same type of attack a second time, successfully bombing the USS Cole on 12 October 2000.

Wreckage of the USS Juneau was discovered on St. Patricks Day 2018

On March 17, 2018 (St Patricks Day), a research team made the incredible discovery of the WWII US Navy ship USS Juneau on which the five brave Sullivan brothers died in 1942.

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen led the expedition which discovered the famous ship on the floor of the South Pacific Ocean.

WWII ship USS Juneau located by #RVPetrel on St. Patrick’s Day—unexpected coincidence since she is best known for the Sullivans, all 5 brothers were lost, along with the other 682 sailors. Only 10 survived the sinking by Japanese torpedoes. https://t.co/FOkRwR6FXc pic.twitter.com/1PZjNP1uHd

— Paul Allen (@PaulGAllen) March 19, 2018

The words and devotion to country and family of the Sullivans are well worth remembering by all Americans.

Remember the Sullivan brothers by paying tribute in the comment section, below. 

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