sullivan brothers

The Sullivan brothers were five siblings who all died during the same incident in World War II, the sinking of the light cruiser USS Juneau (CL-52), the vessel on which they all served.

The Sullivans were natives of Waterloo, Iowa. They were: George Thomas Sullivan, 27 (born 14 December 1914), Gunner's Mate Second Class (George had been previously discharged in May 1941 as Gunner's Mate Third Class.) Francis "Frank" Henry Sullivan, 26 (born 18 February 1916), Coxswain (Frank had been previously discharged in May 1941 as Seaman First Class.) Joseph "Joe" Eugene Sullivan, 24 (born 28 August 1918), Seaman Second Class Madison "Matt" Abel Sullivan, 23 (born 8 November 1919), Seaman Second Class Albert "Al" Leo Sullivan, 20 (born 8 July 1922), Seaman Second Class Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Legacy 3 The Sullivan Rule 4 See also 5 References 5.1 Notes 5.2 Books 6 External links //

History

The Sullivans enlisted on January 3, 1942 with the stipulation that they serve together. The Navy had a policy of separating siblings, but this was not strictly enforced. George and Frank had served in the Navy before, but their brothers had not. All five were assigned to the light cruiser USS Juneau.

The Juneau participated in a number of naval engagements during the months-long Guadalcanal Campaign beginning in August 1942. Early in the morning of November 13, 1942, during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the Juneau was struck by a Japanese torpedo and forced to withdraw. Later that day, as it was leaving the Solomon Islands' area for the Allied rear-area base at Espiritu Santo with other surviving US warships from battle, the Juneau was struck again, this time by a torpedo from Japanese submarine I-26. The torpedo likely hit the thinly-armored cruiser at or near the ammunition magazines and the ship exploded and quickly sank.

Captain Gilbert Hoover, skipper of the US cruiser Helena and commander of the US task force, was skeptical that anyone had survived the sinking of the Juneau and believed that his ships would be dangerously exposed as targets for the Japanese submarine if they attempted to look for survivors. Therefore, he ordered his ships to continue on towards Espiritu Santo. Helena radioed a nearby US B-17 bomber on patrol to notify Allied headquarters to send aircraft or ships to search for survivors.

Approximately 100 of Juneau's crew had survived and were left in the water. The B-17 bomber crew, unwilling to disobey orders not to break radio silence, did not pass the message about searching for survivors to their headquarters until they had landed several hours later. The crew's report of the location of possible survivors was mixed-in with other pending paperwork actions and went unnoticed for several days. It was not until days later that headquarters staff realized that a search had never been mounted and belatedly ordered aircraft