Interesting letters by George and the mother. George killed by sharks

Albert, Francis, George, Joseph, and Madison Sullivan.
On January 2, 1942, all five boys were leaving for enlistment in the navy. Not wanting to be separated from his brothers and friends, George sent a letter to the Secretary of the Navy requesting special permission:



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Dear Sir:
I have four brothers and 2 buddies from my Motorcycle club. I talked them into going into the U.S Navy for the U.S.A. As a bunch, there is no-body that can beat us. There is nothing that can back us up. I had 4 years training in the Navy and four in the National Guards. My brother had four years in the Navy and a couple years military training. Otherwise, anyone of our brothers which there are 5 of us and our 2 buddies would like to stick together. We would all do our best to be as good as any other sailors in the Navy. We would appreciate it very much if you could, if possible keep us together. We will all leave for enlistment Jan 2, 1942. I think we will go to the Great Lakes Training Center near Chicago Illinois we would appreciate it very much if you could keep our 5 brothers and their 2 buddies together.
Our names are.
G.T Sullivan
F.H Sullivan
J.E Sullivan
M.P Sullivan
A.L Sullivan

Five brothers and 2 buddies
Arnie Ray
Eddie Fuer.

We Will Make a team Together that can't be beat. I have qualified as a First Class Gun Captain before I left the Navy and I know I can make a first class team out of them. I thank you dearly. We had 5 buddies killed in Hawaii. Help us.

G.T Sullivan
formerly U.S.S Hovey

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The request was granted. The brothers were sent to service on the USS Juneau, a new 6,000-ton warship equipped for anti-aircraft warfare headed for Guadalcanal together with a large task force bringing supplies and reinforcements to the marines on Guadalcanal. Along with the rest of the task force, USS Juneau left New Caledonia November 8, 1942.
On the evening of November 12th, air reconnaissance spotted a large Japanese task force. The two forces met in almost absolute darkness, and opened fire at point-blank range. Within 30 minutes the engagement was essentially over, with heavy losses for the U.S force. The Juneau just barely survived, having suffered a torpedo hit on its port side.

At daybreak, the decimated force began its journey back to their base. A Japanese submarine, the I-26, sighted the force and fired a torpedo which hit near the Juneau's ammunition supply. Captain Gilbert C Hoover, commanding officer of the task force, later described the attack:

When the torpedo hit, there was a single explosion and the air was filled with debris, much of it in large pieces. The whole ship disappeared in a large cloud of black, yellow black, and brown smoke. Debris showered down among ships of the formation for several minutes after the explosion to such an extent as to indicate erroneously, a high level bombing attack.?
Due to the delay a rescue operation would cause and the low probability of survivors, the force was immediately ordered to return to base as fast as possible. A nearby aircraft reported the position of the Juneau, but the report did not reach the proper authorities until much later.
At least 80 of the crew made it into the life rafts, and the oldest brother, George, was among them. They were not worried about being rescued - the American-held island San Cristobal was visible, and since they were sunk among friends, help would soon be on its way. However, Captain Hoover maintained radio silence, confident that the Boeing B-17's report would reach a rescue party, and word of the sinking did not get out until the task force arrived at Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides. During that time, meny of those who survived the explosion and the sinking had died of dehydration, starvation, injuries suffered during the sinking of the Juneau, and sharks. Among the dead was George Sullivan, the last remaining brother. Nine days after the sinking ten (out of 693) survivors were rescued.

The fate of the Juneau and the rest of the task force was considered classified material, but as rumors about the boys' fate started cirkulating and no letters from her sons arrived, Mrs. Sullivan wrote a letter to the Bureau of Naval Personnel:




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Dear Sirs:
I am writing to you in regard to a rumor going around that my five sons were killed in action in November. A mother from here came and told me she got a letter from her son and he heard my five sons were killed.
It is all over town now, and I am so worried. My five sons joined the Navy together a year ago, Jan. 3, 1942. They are on the cruiser, U.S.S JUNEAU. The last I heard from them was Nov. 8th. That is, it was dated Nov 8th, U.S. Navy.
Their names are, George T., Francis Henry, Joseph E., Madison A., and Albert L. If it is so, please let me know the truth. I am to christen the U.S.S. TAWASA, Feb. 12th at Portland, Oregon. If anything has happened to my five sons, I will still christen the ship as it was their will that I do so. I hated to bother you, but it has worried me so that I wanted to know if it was true. So please tell me. It was hard to give five sons all at once to the Navy, but I am proud of my boys that they can serve and help protect their country. George and Francis served four years on the U.S.S HOVEY, and I had the pleasure to go aboard their ship in 1937.
I am so happy the Navy has bestowed the honor on me to christen the U.S.S. TAWASA. My husband an daughter are going to Portland with me. I remain,

Sincerely,
Mrs. Alleta Sullivan
98 Adams Street
Waterloo, Iowa
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The letter re-ignited the debate concerning family members serving together at sea. Commandind officers had been recommended not to forward requests from family members to be stationed on the same ship, but in light of the sinking of the Juneau and a similar case from the USS Arizona, where three brothers died during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Now, members of the same family were not to serve on the same ship, in line with the sole-survivor policy.

In 1942 everyone was used to seeing the long lists of dead war heroes. Nothing, however, could have prepared the nation for the deaths of five young brothers from a small Iowa town.

The Sullivans were a large Irish Catholic family from Waterloo, Iowa. There were Thomas and Alleta who were the proud parents of one girl, Genevieve, and five boys, George, Francis, Joseph, Madison, and Albert. The two oldest brothers, George and Francis, had been away from home for some time while they served in the Navy. Soon after the boysâ return, the Sullivans received some shocking news. A close friend of the family, Bill Ball, had been killed at Pearl Harbor. Outraged by his death, all five brothers then decided to join the Navy.

The five of them asked to be placed on the same ship. Their request was honored and George, Francis, Joseph, Madison, and Albert all went aboard the USS Juneau. The boys realized that something could possibly happen to all of them, yet they still insisted upon being together. Their ship was commissioned on Valentineâs Day of 1942. The brothers were at sea for most of that year. They ran into trouble in the early morning hours of Friday, the thirteenth of November 1942.

The crew of the USS Juneau and a few other US ships were off the coast of the Soloman Islands helping to defend a base located on Guadalcanal. Shortly before 2 am, the Japanese made a surprise attack. The USS Juneau was hit by a torpedo that the crewmates believed to be intended for a neighboring ship. The hull was nearly broken in half. They retreated with some losses, but all five brothers were still alive and well.

Later that same morning, the USS Juneau joined the USS San Francisco so that they might help each other tend to injured men. During this time, a Japanese submarine had closed in on the unsuspecting ships. Two (possibly even three) torpedoes were fired. Both barely missed the San Francisco. The first passed right by the Juneau and ended up sinking to the bottom of the ocean. The second struck the ship in almost the exact same spot as the previous hit. In about twenty seconds the two halves of the Juneau were gone. Those aboard the USS San Francisco found it hard to believe that there might be any survivors. Fearing another attack, they sought safe waters without attempting a rescue. Read the actual report on the loss of U.S.S. Juneau.

In actuality, the number of survivors ranged from 80 to 150, but George was the only Sullivan left alive. His four younger brothers had the misfortune of being below deck when the torpedo hit and more than likely were killed instantly. A few days later, George was killed by sharks while taking a bath in the oil filled ocean water. When rescue efforts were finally made more than a week after the hit, only 10 men remained.

The story did not reach the rest of the Sullivan family until January 1943. The news spread like wildfire. The entire nation felt the blast of heat. How could the military allow such an atrocity? Allowing the five brothers to be placed on the same ship made it easy for them all to be killed in one swoop. Then the question arose as to why no rescue efforts were made. (George could have been saved!) Because of this horrible event, a new policy was put into effect that asked that related persons not be placed in the same area (or on the same ship) during wartime. But then, one could always request otherwise, and mark their fate just as that of the Sullivan brothers.