Left to right: Joe, Frank, Al, Matt, and George
November 13, 1942: The cruiser USS Juneau is sunk by the Japanese destroyer Amatsukaze, while it was trying to bring troop reinforcements to Guadalcanal, in the South Pacific, east of Papua New Guinea, northeast of Australia, and north of New Zealand. Of the 697 men on board, only 10 survived.
Among those lost were 5 brothers from a single family. The U.S. Department of War later drew up a policy to never put 2 members of the same family in the same military installation. The 5 Sullivan brothers, of Waterloo, Iowa, were:
* George Thomas Sullivan, 27 (born December 14, 1914), Gunner's Mate Second Class. George had been previously discharged in May 1941 as Gunner's Mate Third Class, but had re-enlisted after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
* Francis Henry Sullivan, 26 (born February 18, 1916), Coxswain. "Frank" had been previously discharged in May 1941 as Seaman First Class, but had also re-enlisted.
* Joseph Eugene "Joe" Sullivan, 24 (born August 28, 1918), Seaman Second Class.
* Madison Abel "Matt" Sullivan, 23 (born November 8, 1919), Seaman Second Class. And:
* Albert Leo "Al" Sullivan, 20 (born July 8, 1922), Seaman Second Class.
The brothers left their parents, and a sister, Genevieve, born between Frank and Joe. and their parents. Genevieve had enlisted in the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), to avenge her boyfriend, Bill Ball, who had been killed at Pearl Harbor. "Gen" lived on until 1975.
Al was the only one who was married, to Katherine, and the only one with a child, Jimmy, then 2 years old. He grew up to enlist in the Navy as well. Joe and Matt each left behind a fiancée.
The "Fighting Sullivan Brothers" became national heroes. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a letter of condolence to their parents. Pope Pius XII sent a letter of regret, a silver religious medal, and a rosary.
In 1944, Twentieth Century-Fox released the film The Fighting Sullivans, starring Thomas Mitchell as father Tom, Selena Royle as mother Alleta, Edward Ryan as Al, John Campbell as Frank, James Cardwell as George, John Alvin as Mat, George Offerman as Joe, Anne Baxter as Al's widow Katherine.
The Amatuskaze did not survive the war, either: On April 6, 1945, it was attacked by B-25s off Amoy (an island now controlled by China and named Ziamen), resulting in enough damage that it had to be scuttled.
The U.S. Navy would pay tribute to those lost with later ships:
* USS The Sullivans, a destroyer already under construction but not yet named when the brothers died, in service from 1943 to 1965, seeing action in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Jimmy Sullivan served aboard her for a time. She is now a museum ship, part of the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park.
* USS Juneau, a cruiser active from 1946 to 1955, serving in the Korean War.
* USS Juneau, an amphibious transport dock, active from 1969 to 2008. It was commissioned at the height of the Vietnam War, served as the Navy's main cleanup vessel after the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 (appropriate, since Juneau is the capital of Alaska, the State where that happened), and transported troops to the Persian Gulf War.
* USS The Sullivans, a destroyer, launched in 1995 and still in active service as of November 13, 2022. As with her predecessor, her motto is the brothers' motto: "We stick together."
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November 13, 1942 was a Friday -- a Friday the 13th. Baseball was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were no games scheduled in the NHL. And the NFL was in midweek. But there was one score on this historic day, and it was in college football: Wake Forest beat George Washington University, 20-0 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.
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