Five brothers, one ship
A family from Waterloo
The Sullivans came from Waterloo, Iowa. Their parents were Thomas and Alleta Sullivan. The two eldest, George and Francis, had already served a hitch in the Navy, enlisting in 1937 and serving in the destroyer Hovey.
On 7 December 1941, a friend of theirs, Seaman First Class William V. Ball, was killed in the battleship Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Within weeks, on 3 January 1942, George and Francis enlisted again at Des Moines, and their three younger brothers, Joseph, Madison and Albert, enlisted with them.
One request
The brothers asked for one thing: to serve together in the same ship. The Navy's usual practice in wartime was to separate family members. The brothers persisted, and their request was approved. After training at Great Lakes, Illinois, all five reported to the new light cruiser Juneau (CL-52) at the New York Navy Yard on 3 February 1942. Juneau was commissioned eleven days later, and a photograph from that day shows the five of them together on board.
George was the eldest. Albert, the youngest, was 19 when they enlisted.
Juneau
Juneau was an Atlanta-class light cruiser, built to defend the fleet against aircraft. By the autumn of 1942 she was in the South Pacific, in the fight for Guadalcanal.
In the early hours of 13 November 1942, in the night action that became known as the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, Juneau was badly damaged. Later that morning, as she withdrew with other damaged ships, she was struck by a torpedo from the Japanese submarine I-26. Juneau sank in less than a minute.
Nearly 700 men were aboard. Survivors went into the water, but the ships nearby could not stay to search, and word of the sinking was slow to reach those who could. Days later, only ten men were rescued from the sea. Navy records suggest that George, the eldest brother, survived the sinking itself but was lost in the days that followed. All five Sullivan brothers were among the dead.
What the Navy changed
The loss of five sons from one family was widely reported across the United States. NHHC notes that it led to a new Navy policy discouraging family members from serving together in the same ship.
It also led to a tribute. A destroyer under construction at San Francisco, to have been named Putnam, was renamed The Sullivans in February 1943. She was launched on 4 April 1943, sponsored by the brothers' mother, Alleta, and commissioned as USS The Sullivans (DD-537) on 30 September 1943. She served through the rest of the war. In 1997 a second ship, the guided-missile destroyer The Sullivans (DDG-68), took up the name.
Remembering a family
It is easy to tell this story as a lesson about policy, and the policy did change. But it began as a family story. Five young men from one house in Iowa made a choice to stay together. Their parents, Thomas and Alleta, lived with the loss for the rest of their lives.
Today, the ship that carries their name is a reminder of all five brothers, and of the hundreds of their shipmates who were lost with Juneau. Each of those men had a family waiting for word too.
Our Pier Day Proud collection is made for the families who wait on the pier, and for those who never stop remembering.
Harborborne is an independent brand and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Navy or Department of Defense.
