Feb. 18, 2021 – As a teacher and a mother, Kelly Sullivan spends her days guiding and nurturing the next generation. As the granddaughter of Albert Sullivan, one of the five Sullivan brothers killed together on Nov. 13, 1942, when their ship, the USS Juneau, sank during the Battle of Guadalcanal during WWII, Kelly is carrying on their legacy of sacrifice, service, and indomitable loyalty.

The author first learned of the Sullivan brothers in 2013 when a few spare minutes turned into a few hours exploring the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum in Waterloo. The museum is located near the neighborhood where Thomas and Alleta Sullivan raised their family of five boys and one girl –  George, Francis, Joseph, Madison, Albert, and Genevieve – during the Great Depression.

In July 2017, the author interviewed Kelly Sullivan at the museum to learn more about the Sullivan brothers and the museum exhibit in their honor.

Sullivan brothers motto: We Stick Together
George and Francis had served in the U.S. Navy from 1937-1941 and were back home working in Waterloo when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred on Dec. 7, 1941. Bill Ball, a friend from Iowa whom George and Francis met while serving in the Navy, was killed at Pearl Harbor. The five Sullivan brothers decided to enlist together to honor their friend and support the country. In announcing their decision to their parents, George said:

“Well, I guess our minds are made up, aren’t they fellows? And when we go in we want to go in together. And if the worst comes to the worst, why we’ll have all gone down together.” (The Sullivan Family of Waterloo by Alvin Sunseri and Kenneth Lyftogt, pamphlet at the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum).

The boys wrote a letter to Washington asking that they be allowed to serve together since regulations were in place that would not permit all five brothers from serving on the same ship. They also had to obtain a waiver for Albert to enlist because he was married and the father of an infant son, James. James is Kelly’s father.

On Jan. 3, 1942, less than one month after Pearl Harbor, the five boys were sworn into service in Des Moines and were off to training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station and then San Diego.

They were assigned to the USS Juneau, a new light cruiser docked in New York Harbor at a Staten Island pier. The U.S. Navy snapped a photo of the five boys on Feb. 14, 1942 in New York that is now an iconic image of the brothers. It was used during the war on a poster to raise war bonds.

After a tour spent on patrol in the Atlantic Ocean, the boys returned to Waterloo when granted a leave in May. It was the last time the boys would be in Waterloo.

The USS Juneau had orders to go to the Solomon Islands. According to information from the U.S. Navy, after the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese military quickly captured what is now Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines. By the spring of 1942, Japan controlled Southeast Asia.

Battle of Guadalcanal
In summer 1942, Japan sought to build an airbase on Guadalcanal, an island at the eastern end of the Solomon Island chain. In August 1942, the U.S. Marines landed on Guadalcanal and took control of Japan’s partially completed airbase. But the battle for the area in the Solomon Islands continued into the fall.

On Nov. 12, 1942, the USS Juneau was struck by a torpedo from a Japanese battleship. Still seaworthy, the Juneau rejoined other American ships, trying to find a cove where damages could be assessed. On Nov. 13 at about 11 a.m., a torpedo intended for another ship struck the Juneau and she sank within 20 seconds. From survivor accounts, 114 men survived the second torpedo and were floating in rafts. However, it took several days for rescue boats to reach them. Only 10 of the 114 men were rescued. George Sullivan had been in one of the rafts but did not survive the ordeal.

Thomas and Alleta Sullivan were notified on Jan. 11, 1943 that their five sons were missing. A few days later, one of the Juneau survivors sent a letter to the Sullivans explaining that all five boys were lost. The survivor had been on a raft with George and the other four boys went down with the ship, he told them.

In April 1943, Alleta Sullivan christened a new destroyer – The Sullivans. Thomas, Alleta, and Genevieve, now a member of the Waves (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), traveled the country visiting more than 200 manufacturing plants and reaching one million Americans through radio interviews to raise money for the war effort through the sale of war bonds.

In 1944, Hollywood released The Fighting Sullivans, a movie about the family. Kelly shows it to her students each year on Veterans Day.

The ship Alleta christened in 1943 was decommissioned in 1965. She was moved to Buffalo, New York in the 1970s where the ship can be toured today.

Kelly Sullivan, sponsor of USS The Sullivans (DDG 68)
In 1997, Kelly Sullivan, a high school student at the time, was asked to be the sponsor of the USS The Sullivans, a new guided-missile destroyer. She is the second ship named in honor of Kelly’s grandfather and his brothers (her great uncles.) The ship was commissioned in New York City in 1997 at the same pier where the five Sullivan brothers boarded the USS Juneau in 1942 as they began their service.

As the ship’s sponsor, Kelly has actively supported the ship and her crew for 20 years.

On Nov. 18, 2017, at the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum, the 75th anniversary was observed with a ceremony in the museum lobby featuring Kelly and a member of the U.S. Navy. After the ceremony, the re-release of the Sullivan Family Documentary was shown in the Museum Theatre.

The five brothers are also honored at Arlington National Cemetery with memorial tombstones. The cemetery’s first burial took place on May 13, 1864 during the Civil War. Today more than 400,000 active duty service members, veterans and their families are buried there.

Honor the legacy of the Sullivan brothers and all veterans by learning about the Sullivan brothers and living their legacy of sacrifice, service, and loyalty.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Where did the Sullivan family live?

2. Why did all five Sullivan brothers enlist in the U.S. Navy in January 1942?

3. What was their request to the U.S. Navy?

4. What ship were the five brothers serving on in November 1942?

5. What happened to the ship?

INQUIRY QUESTIONS

1. What is the legacy of the Sullivan brothers?

2. How is Kelly Sullivan carrying on that legacy?