The Five Sullivan Brothers Stick Together and Answer Pearl Harbor
The Sullivan brothers never knew that they left a patriotic legacy and inspired the navy to name two destroyers for them for fighting for their country. The five Sullivan brothers, sons of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Sullivan of Waterloo, Iowa, probably never dreamed that their legacy to America would include an enduring example of patriotism, Hollywood movies, two ships named after them, and United Nations Cookies. Had they known, they would have heartily endorsed the idea, because they loved their country, their parents, and their sister Genevieve and her chocolate walnut drop cookies.
The Sullivans Have a Large Family
Thomas Sullivan and Alleta Abel were married in 1914 at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and they eventually settled down at 98 Adams Street in Waterloo, Iowa. Thomas worked for the Illinois Central Railroad, a steady job that he needed, because soon he and Alleta like the Irish-Catholic families of that generation, had a large family. George Thomas was born on December 14, 1914; Francis Henry was born on February 18, 1916; Genevieve Marie was born on February 19, 1917; Joseph Eugene was born on August 28, 1918; Madison Abel was born on November 8, 1919; and Albert Leo was born on July 8, 1922. The Sullivan’s last child Kathleen Mae was born in April 1931, but died of pneumonia five months after her birth.
The Sullivan Brothers Join the Navy- Before and After Pearl Harbor
The Depression had America in a tight grip during the 1920s and 1930s and Thomas Sullivan thanked his luck of the Irish that he had a job. Despite the hard times, the Sullivan children managed to have fun, playing baseball and other sports in a lot next door to their house. A few of the Sullivan boys had to quit high school to help the family survive and they worked at the Rath Meat Packing plant. George and Frank, the two oldest boys, served a hitch in the Navy and returned home to work with their brothers once again. Albert, the youngest son got married first and he and his wife Katherine Mary had a son named James Thomas who was born in February 1941.
During the years when a boy’s stomach is bigger than his eyes, the Sullivan boys ate dozens of Genevieve’s chocolate walnut drop cookies. Their special boyhood buddy, William Ball, from nearby Fredericksburg, also enjoyed the Genevieve’s cookies and some sources say that when they got older, Bill and Genevieve Sullivan kept company. When Bill grew up, he joined the Navy and was assigned to the Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes swooped down and bombed the harbor into a boiling inferno. William Ball was one of the hundreds of servicemen killed on the battleship Arizona that fateful Sunday morning. His untimely death changed the Sullivan family forever.
Aletta Sullivan “Cried A Little”
When Joseph, Francis, Albert, Madison, and George Sullivan heard about their friend Bill Ball’s death, they marched into the Naval recruiting office together. They wanted to avenge their friend if they could do it together, they told the recruiter. Their motto had always been, “We Stick Together,” and they intended to stick together. The Sullivan’s hometown paper, The Waterloo Iowa Courier featured a series of stories of about soldiers getting ready to go to war and asked Aletta Sullivan how she felt about all five of her sons going to war together. “I remember I was crying a little,” she said. George Thomas Sullivan summed up the feelings of all of the brothers when he said, “Well I guess our minds are made up, aren’t they fellows? And, when we go in we want to go in together. If the worst comes to the worst, why we’ll all have gone down together.”
The Sullivan Boys Are Assigned to the Juneau
These words would come back to haunt Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan and their daughter Genevieve. Both Gunner’s Mate George, 27, and Coxswain Francis Henry, 25, had already served in the Navy for four years. Joseph Eugene, (Red), 23, Madison Abel, 22 and Albert Leo, 19 enlisted and became seamen second class. They insisted that they all be assigned to the same ship as a condition of their enlistment. The Navy agreed to let the Sullivan brothers enlist together, and on January 3, 1942, the Sullivan brothers were sworn in at Des Moines, Iowa, and left for the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois. The Navy assigned all of the Sullivan brothers to the new $13,000,000 light cruiser, Juneau, the first American war ship commissioned in camouflage.
In November 1942, a U.S. Navy task force left New Caledonia to deliver reinforcements and supplies to the Marines at Guadalcanal. On the other side of Guadalcanal the Japanese sent part of their navy to resupply their army. On November 12, American ships and Marine airpower destroyed an attacking group of Japanese aircraft. The light cruiser Juneau was one of the American ships.
Japanese Submarine I-26 Torpedoes the Juneau
On the night of November 12, 1942, the sky in the Solomons was dotted with stars, but there was no moon. It is possible that the five Sullivan brothers munched on some chocolate walnut drop cookies while they waited for action, because Genevieve, their sister, and her mother often sent them cookies from home. The mood aboard the Juneau was tense, because the Naval fight for Guadalcanal (November 12-15) was about to begin. The Atlantic led the battle formation, followed by the San Francisco, Portland, Helena, and Juneau. Four destroyers provided an escort for the other ships. Suddenly, guns boomed and shells burst like meteor showers across the black sky. In the fierce fight that followed, the Juneau was put out of action when a torpedo exploded in her engine room. The waters around her were covered with oil and crowded with bodies and debris from the ships. The Helena was the least damaged ships, and flanked by three surviving destroyers, she led the crippled San Francisco and the battered Juneau southward into Indispensable Strait on course for the sanctuary of Espiritu Santo.
The Juneau had just cleared the channel at 11 a.m. when she was hit by another torpedo fired by Japanese submarine I-26. She was blown skyward “with all of the fury of an erupting volcano.” All but ten of the 700 sailors aboard the ship went down with her or succumbed to sharks.
No Sullivan Brothers Survive
Eight days after the sinking of the Juneau, a PBY Catalina search airplane spotted the survivors and pulled them out of the water. The survivors reported that Frank, Joe, and Matt Sullivan died instantly, Al drowned the next day, and George survived for four or five days. Gunner’s mate Allen Heyn, one of the ten survivors, told of ten days of intense suffering and the men succumbing one by one to the heat, their wounds, and sharks. He recalled that one night George Sullivan decided to take a bath. He took off his clothes and swam around the raft, attracting a shark. George Sullivan disappeared under the waves.
A Special Navy Envoy Brings Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan Tragic News
The Navy couldn’t reveal the loss of the Juneau or other ships for security reasons, but when the Sullivans in Waterloo, Iowa, didn’t receive any more letters from the Sullivans in the South Pacific, Thomas and Alleta Sullivan worried. Even when one of the Juneau survivors wrote to them, Tom and Alleta prayed that at least one of their sons had survived. The Waterloo Daily Courier ran banner headlines for its story: SULLIVANS MISSING. The Courier reporter quoted Aletta Sullivan as saying that she hoped that they may “Show up somewhere someday soon, but if they are gone it will be some comfort to know that they went together, as they wanted, and gave their lives for their country victory.”
The five Sullivan brothers were listed as “missing in action in the South Pacific and presumed dead,” but almost two months passed before Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan were officially notified of their fate. When they finally got the news in mid-January 1943, the tragic message arrived by a special naval envoy. The Sullivans also received the first of a series of letters from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
February 1, 1943
Dear Mr. And Mrs. Sullivan: The knowledge that your five gallant sons are missing in action against the enemy inspires me to write you this personal message. I realize full well there is little I can say to assuage your grief. As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I want you to know that the entire nation shares in your sorrow.
I offer you the gratitude of our country. We who remain to carry on the fight will maintain a courageous spirit, in the knowledge that such sacrifice is not in vain. The Navy Department has informed me of the expressed desire of your sons, George Thomas, Francis Henry, Joseph Eugene, Madison Abel, and Albert Leo, to serve in the same ship. I am sure that we all take heart in the knowledge that they fought side by side. As one of your sons wrote, “We will make a team together that can’t be beat.” It is this spirit which in the end must triumph.
I send you my deepest sympathy in your hour of trial and pray that in Almighty God you will find the comfort and help that only He can bring. Very sincerely yours, Franklin D. Roosevelt
Mrs. Sullivan said, “I wish everyone here at home would buy all the War Bonds needed to end this war so that other mother’s sons can come home.”
The Surviving Sullivans Campaign for the War Effort
After the death of the five Sullivan brothers, the Navy awarded them posthumous Purple Hearts. The Navy statement after the Juneau sank stressed that the ship’s executive officer repeatedly recommended that the Sullivan brothers not serve together on the same ship, but the brothers had prevailed and stayed together. Another source states that two of the brothers were going to be transferred when the Juneau reached home port. As a result of the Sullivan tragedy, the Navy issued regulations permanently forbidding relatives to serve on the same ship.
In spite of the crushing grief of losing all five of their sons at once, Thomas and Alleta Sullivan vigorously campaigned for the war effort at war plants and ship yards, hoping to help save the lives of other American boys. The loss of all five
Sullivan brothers became a focal point for the war effort. Posters and speeches honored their sacrifice. Newspapers and radios covered the story and a national wave of sympathy and patriotism surged over the Sullivan family in Waterloo, Iowa. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sent a letter of condolence to Tom and Alleta Sullivan and Pope Pius XII sent a silver medal and rosary with a message of condolence. The Iowa Senate and House adopted a formal tribute resolution to the Sullivan Brothers.
Genevieve Sullivan Enlists in the WAVES And Makes United Nations Cookies
Genevieve Sullivan, a slender, soft voiced young woman with deep blue eyes and brown curly hair, and her parents, visited more than 200 manufacturing plants and shipyards. The Industrial Incentive Division, Executive office of the Secretary, Navy Department sponsored their tour. A February 1943, Navy Department Press Release said that the Sullivans..”visited war production plants urging employees to work harder to produce weapons for the Navy so that the war may come to an end sooner.”
By January 1944, the three Sullivans had spoken to over a million workers in 65 cities and reached millions of others over the radio. “People ask me how my family can carry on after the tragedy. I answer that we are carrying on for them – for my five brothers and others like them who have died for their country,” Genevieve said.
After her enlistment in the WAVES on June 14, 1943, she was sent to Chicago to serve as a recruiter for the WAVES. While stationed there, she made the chocolate walnut drop cookies that her five brothers had enjoyed so much.
The United States Navy Names Two Destroyers The Sullivans
The United States Navy honored the Sullivan Brothers by naming two destroyers USS The Sullivans. On September 30, 1943, the Navy commissioned The Sullivans and Mrs. Alleta Sullivan, mother of the five Sullivan brothers, sponsored and christened the destroyer which served the Navy until its final decommissioning on January 7, 1965.
The first The Sullivans earned nine Battle Stars during World War II and two more during the Korean War. Sullivan's son, James, served on board the first USS The Sullivans. In 1977, the Navy donated the destroyer The Sullivans to the city of Buffalo, New York, as a memorial in the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Servicemen’s Park.
The Bath Iron Works Company of Bath, Maine, laid down the second The Sullivans (DDG-68) on June 14, 1993, and the second The Sullivans was launched on August 12, 1995. Kelly Sullivan Loughren, granddaughter of Albert Leo Sullivan, sponsored the second The Sullivans. The ship commissioned on April 19, 1997, at Staten Island, New York, and commanded by Commander Gerard D. Roncolato. The motto of the ship is “We Stick Together.”
The Movie, The Fighting Sullivans, Ancestor of Saving Private Ryan Hollywood contributed heavily to making the Sullivan family a national symbol of heroic sacrifice during World War II when released. The Sullivans, later titled The Fighting Sullivans, in 1944. The film was a biographical war story about the Sullivan family. Edward Doherty, Mary C. McCall, Jr. and Jules Schermer wrote the film and Lloyd Bacon directed it. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story, and 40 years later, inspired in part, the 1998 film, Saving Private Ryan.
Waterloo, Iowa, to Ireland and Back
If a headstone down at Harper’s Creek, Iowa, bearing the name of Thomas Sullivan, has the correct date, he is the grandfather of the five boys. He emigrated from Castletownbeare, Co. Cork, Ireland, with his wife Bridget Agnes and his brother Owen in 1849. Thomas, the father of the five Sullivan brothers was born on a farm near Harpers Ferry, Iowa.
The hometown of the five Sullivan brothers, Waterloo, Iowa, named a convention center “The Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center.” The town established an eight acre Sullivan Brothers Memorial Park at fourth and Adams Street, incorporating the family home site. The Park honors the five Sullivan brothers and the remainder of American soldiers who die for freedom all over the world.
References
Holbrook, Heber A., The Loss of the USS Juneau (CL-52) and the Relief of Captain Gilbert C. Hoover, Commanding Officer of the USS Helena (CL-50),
Callaghan-Scott Naval Historical Monograph, Pacific Ship and Shore Books, 1997
Kurzman, Dan, Left to Die: The Tragedy of the USS Juneau, New York: Pocket Books, 1994
Satterfield, John R., We Band of Brothers: The Sullivans & World War II, Mid-Prairie Books, 1995
The Sullivan brothers never knew that they left a patriotic legacy and inspired the navy to name two destroyers for them for fighting for their country. The five Sullivan brothers, sons of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Sullivan of Waterloo, Iowa, probably never dreamed that their legacy to America would include an enduring example of patriotism, Hollywood movies, two ships named after them, and United Nations Cookies. Had they known, they would have heartily endorsed the idea, because they loved their country, their parents, and their sister Genevieve and her chocolate walnut drop cookies.
The Sullivans Have a Large Family
Thomas Sullivan and Alleta Abel were married in 1914 at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and they eventually settled down at 98 Adams Street in Waterloo, Iowa. Thomas worked for the Illinois Central Railroad, a steady job that he needed, because soon he and Alleta like the Irish-Catholic families of that generation, had a large family. George Thomas was born on December 14, 1914; Francis Henry was born on February 18, 1916; Genevieve Marie was born on February 19, 1917; Joseph Eugene was born on August 28, 1918; Madison Abel was born on November 8, 1919; and Albert Leo was born on July 8, 1922. The Sullivan’s last child Kathleen Mae was born in April 1931, but died of pneumonia five months after her birth.
The Sullivan Brothers Join the Navy- Before and After Pearl Harbor
The Depression had America in a tight grip during the 1920s and 1930s and Thomas Sullivan thanked his luck of the Irish that he had a job. Despite the hard times, the Sullivan children managed to have fun, playing baseball and other sports in a lot next door to their house. A few of the Sullivan boys had to quit high school to help the family survive and they worked at the Rath Meat Packing plant. George and Frank, the two oldest boys, served a hitch in the Navy and returned home to work with their brothers once again. Albert, the youngest son got married first and he and his wife Katherine Mary had a son named James Thomas who was born in February 1941.
During the years when a boy’s stomach is bigger than his eyes, the Sullivan boys ate dozens of Genevieve’s chocolate walnut drop cookies. Their special boyhood buddy, William Ball, from nearby Fredericksburg, also enjoyed the Genevieve’s cookies and some sources say that when they got older, Bill and Genevieve Sullivan kept company. When Bill grew up, he joined the Navy and was assigned to the Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes swooped down and bombed the harbor into a boiling inferno. William Ball was one of the hundreds of servicemen killed on the battleship Arizona that fateful Sunday morning. His untimely death changed the Sullivan family forever.
Aletta Sullivan “Cried A Little”
When Joseph, Francis, Albert, Madison, and George Sullivan heard about their friend Bill Ball’s death, they marched into the Naval recruiting office together. They wanted to avenge their friend if they could do it together, they told the recruiter. Their motto had always been, “We Stick Together,” and they intended to stick together. The Sullivan’s hometown paper, The Waterloo Iowa Courier featured a series of stories of about soldiers getting ready to go to war and asked Aletta Sullivan how she felt about all five of her sons going to war together. “I remember I was crying a little,” she said. George Thomas Sullivan summed up the feelings of all of the brothers when he said, “Well I guess our minds are made up, aren’t they fellows? And, when we go in we want to go in together. If the worst comes to the worst, why we’ll all have gone down together.”
The Sullivan Boys Are Assigned to the Juneau
These words would come back to haunt Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan and their daughter Genevieve. Both Gunner’s Mate George, 27, and Coxswain Francis Henry, 25, had already served in the Navy for four years. Joseph Eugene, (Red), 23, Madison Abel, 22 and Albert Leo, 19 enlisted and became seamen second class. They insisted that they all be assigned to the same ship as a condition of their enlistment. The Navy agreed to let the Sullivan brothers enlist together, and on January 3, 1942, the Sullivan brothers were sworn in at Des Moines, Iowa, and left for the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois. The Navy assigned all of the Sullivan brothers to the new $13,000,000 light cruiser, Juneau, the first American war ship commissioned in camouflage.
In November 1942, a U.S. Navy task force left New Caledonia to deliver reinforcements and supplies to the Marines at Guadalcanal. On the other side of Guadalcanal the Japanese sent part of their navy to resupply their army. On November 12, American ships and Marine airpower destroyed an attacking group of Japanese aircraft. The light cruiser Juneau was one of the American ships.
Japanese Submarine I-26 Torpedoes the Juneau
On the night of November 12, 1942, the sky in the Solomons was dotted with stars, but there was no moon. It is possible that the five Sullivan brothers munched on some chocolate walnut drop cookies while they waited for action, because Genevieve, their sister, and her mother often sent them cookies from home. The mood aboard the Juneau was tense, because the Naval fight for Guadalcanal (November 12-15) was about to begin. The Atlantic led the battle formation, followed by the San Francisco, Portland, Helena, and Juneau. Four destroyers provided an escort for the other ships. Suddenly, guns boomed and shells burst like meteor showers across the black sky. In the fierce fight that followed, the Juneau was put out of action when a torpedo exploded in her engine room. The waters around her were covered with oil and crowded with bodies and debris from the ships. The Helena was the least damaged ships, and flanked by three surviving destroyers, she led the crippled San Francisco and the battered Juneau southward into Indispensable Strait on course for the sanctuary of Espiritu Santo.
The Juneau had just cleared the channel at 11 a.m. when she was hit by another torpedo fired by Japanese submarine I-26. She was blown skyward “with all of the fury of an erupting volcano.” All but ten of the 700 sailors aboard the ship went down with her or succumbed to sharks.
No Sullivan Brothers Survive
Eight days after the sinking of the Juneau, a PBY Catalina search airplane spotted the survivors and pulled them out of the water. The survivors reported that Frank, Joe, and Matt Sullivan died instantly, Al drowned the next day, and George survived for four or five days. Gunner’s mate Allen Heyn, one of the ten survivors, told of ten days of intense suffering and the men succumbing one by one to the heat, their wounds, and sharks. He recalled that one night George Sullivan decided to take a bath. He took off his clothes and swam around the raft, attracting a shark. George Sullivan disappeared under the waves.
A Special Navy Envoy Brings Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan Tragic News
The Navy couldn’t reveal the loss of the Juneau or other ships for security reasons, but when the Sullivans in Waterloo, Iowa, didn’t receive any more letters from the Sullivans in the South Pacific, Thomas and Alleta Sullivan worried. Even when one of the Juneau survivors wrote to them, Tom and Alleta prayed that at least one of their sons had survived. The Waterloo Daily Courier ran banner headlines for its story: SULLIVANS MISSING. The Courier reporter quoted Aletta Sullivan as saying that she hoped that they may “Show up somewhere someday soon, but if they are gone it will be some comfort to know that they went together, as they wanted, and gave their lives for their country victory.”
The five Sullivan brothers were listed as “missing in action in the South Pacific and presumed dead,” but almost two months passed before Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan were officially notified of their fate. When they finally got the news in mid-January 1943, the tragic message arrived by a special naval envoy. The Sullivans also received the first of a series of letters from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
February 1, 1943
Dear Mr. And Mrs. Sullivan: The knowledge that your five gallant sons are missing in action against the enemy inspires me to write you this personal message. I realize full well there is little I can say to assuage your grief. As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I want you to know that the entire nation shares in your sorrow.
I offer you the gratitude of our country. We who remain to carry on the fight will maintain a courageous spirit, in the knowledge that such sacrifice is not in vain. The Navy Department has informed me of the expressed desire of your sons, George Thomas, Francis Henry, Joseph Eugene, Madison Abel, and Albert Leo, to serve in the same ship. I am sure that we all take heart in the knowledge that they fought side by side. As one of your sons wrote, “We will make a team together that can’t be beat.” It is this spirit which in the end must triumph.
I send you my deepest sympathy in your hour of trial and pray that in Almighty God you will find the comfort and help that only He can bring. Very sincerely yours, Franklin D. Roosevelt
Mrs. Sullivan said, “I wish everyone here at home would buy all the War Bonds needed to end this war so that other mother’s sons can come home.”
The Surviving Sullivans Campaign for the War Effort
After the death of the five Sullivan brothers, the Navy awarded them posthumous Purple Hearts. The Navy statement after the Juneau sank stressed that the ship’s executive officer repeatedly recommended that the Sullivan brothers not serve together on the same ship, but the brothers had prevailed and stayed together. Another source states that two of the brothers were going to be transferred when the Juneau reached home port. As a result of the Sullivan tragedy, the Navy issued regulations permanently forbidding relatives to serve on the same ship.
In spite of the crushing grief of losing all five of their sons at once, Thomas and Alleta Sullivan vigorously campaigned for the war effort at war plants and ship yards, hoping to help save the lives of other American boys. The loss of all five
Sullivan brothers became a focal point for the war effort. Posters and speeches honored their sacrifice. Newspapers and radios covered the story and a national wave of sympathy and patriotism surged over the Sullivan family in Waterloo, Iowa. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sent a letter of condolence to Tom and Alleta Sullivan and Pope Pius XII sent a silver medal and rosary with a message of condolence. The Iowa Senate and House adopted a formal tribute resolution to the Sullivan Brothers.
Genevieve Sullivan Enlists in the WAVES And Makes United Nations Cookies
Genevieve Sullivan, a slender, soft voiced young woman with deep blue eyes and brown curly hair, and her parents, visited more than 200 manufacturing plants and shipyards. The Industrial Incentive Division, Executive office of the Secretary, Navy Department sponsored their tour. A February 1943, Navy Department Press Release said that the Sullivans..”visited war production plants urging employees to work harder to produce weapons for the Navy so that the war may come to an end sooner.”
By January 1944, the three Sullivans had spoken to over a million workers in 65 cities and reached millions of others over the radio. “People ask me how my family can carry on after the tragedy. I answer that we are carrying on for them – for my five brothers and others like them who have died for their country,” Genevieve said.
After her enlistment in the WAVES on June 14, 1943, she was sent to Chicago to serve as a recruiter for the WAVES. While stationed there, she made the chocolate walnut drop cookies that her five brothers had enjoyed so much.
The United States Navy Names Two Destroyers The Sullivans
The United States Navy honored the Sullivan Brothers by naming two destroyers USS The Sullivans. On September 30, 1943, the Navy commissioned The Sullivans and Mrs. Alleta Sullivan, mother of the five Sullivan brothers, sponsored and christened the destroyer which served the Navy until its final decommissioning on January 7, 1965.
The first The Sullivans earned nine Battle Stars during World War II and two more during the Korean War. Sullivan's son, James, served on board the first USS The Sullivans. In 1977, the Navy donated the destroyer The Sullivans to the city of Buffalo, New York, as a memorial in the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Servicemen’s Park.
The Bath Iron Works Company of Bath, Maine, laid down the second The Sullivans (DDG-68) on June 14, 1993, and the second The Sullivans was launched on August 12, 1995. Kelly Sullivan Loughren, granddaughter of Albert Leo Sullivan, sponsored the second The Sullivans. The ship commissioned on April 19, 1997, at Staten Island, New York, and commanded by Commander Gerard D. Roncolato. The motto of the ship is “We Stick Together.”
The Movie, The Fighting Sullivans, Ancestor of Saving Private Ryan Hollywood contributed heavily to making the Sullivan family a national symbol of heroic sacrifice during World War II when released. The Sullivans, later titled The Fighting Sullivans, in 1944. The film was a biographical war story about the Sullivan family. Edward Doherty, Mary C. McCall, Jr. and Jules Schermer wrote the film and Lloyd Bacon directed it. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story, and 40 years later, inspired in part, the 1998 film, Saving Private Ryan.
Waterloo, Iowa, to Ireland and Back
If a headstone down at Harper’s Creek, Iowa, bearing the name of Thomas Sullivan, has the correct date, he is the grandfather of the five boys. He emigrated from Castletownbeare, Co. Cork, Ireland, with his wife Bridget Agnes and his brother Owen in 1849. Thomas, the father of the five Sullivan brothers was born on a farm near Harpers Ferry, Iowa.
The hometown of the five Sullivan brothers, Waterloo, Iowa, named a convention center “The Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center.” The town established an eight acre Sullivan Brothers Memorial Park at fourth and Adams Street, incorporating the family home site. The Park honors the five Sullivan brothers and the remainder of American soldiers who die for freedom all over the world.
References
Holbrook, Heber A., The Loss of the USS Juneau (CL-52) and the Relief of Captain Gilbert C. Hoover, Commanding Officer of the USS Helena (CL-50),
Callaghan-Scott Naval Historical Monograph, Pacific Ship and Shore Books, 1997
Kurzman, Dan, Left to Die: The Tragedy of the USS Juneau, New York: Pocket Books, 1994
Satterfield, John R., We Band of Brothers: The Sullivans & World War II, Mid-Prairie Books, 1995
