In all our country’s decades of military history, the greatest wartime sacrifice of any American family still belongs to a family from Iowa. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the five Sullivan brothers of Waterloo were ready to defend their country.
“They decided they wanted to enlist in the Navy, and so they enlisted all five of them as long as they could serve aboard the same ship,” says Bob Neymeyer, historian at the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum in Waterloo, Iowa.
Bond of Brothers
There were initial concerns over having so many family members on one ship, but the Navy still assigned the five brothers to the USS Juneau. The brothers — George, Francis, Joseph, Madison and Albert — were part of the first crew on the new cruiser that was bound for the war in the Pacific.
On Nov. 13, 1942, the Juneau was part of the battle of Guadalcanal. The ship survived but was damaged. “It took off the next morning heading for a station where it could be repaired, and as it pulled out of the Guadalcanal area a Japanese submarine spotted it, fired and hit the cruiser,” Neymeyer says.
A powerful explosion ripped apart the ship, and it sank in just a few minutes. There were only 10 survivors found several days after the ship sank and none of the Sullivan brothers were among them.
“All five of the brothers were lost, the largest single-family loss in American military history,” Neymeyer says.
The family was devastated by the news but wanted to see good come from the story of their loss. “The Navy came up with a plan to escort them around the nation to help sell bonds, to help with recruitment,” Neymeyer says.
The brothers’ parents and sister, Genevieve, made several appearances for about a year. Genevieve later joined the WAVES, a branch of the U.S. Naval Reserve for women.
Honors for Sacrifice
The Sullivan’s story inspired Americans then and now as the family dealt with the toll of losing five members in one event. In 1943 the Navy commissioned a destroyer, the USS The Sullivans. It was the first time in the Navy’s history that a ship was commissioned in honor of more than one person. That destroyer, now decommissioned, is on display in Buffalo, N.Y. Subsequently, another USS The Sullivans, a guided missile destroyer, was launched in 1995. The motto for both ships is, “We Stick Together.”
The story was not lost on the citizens of Waterloo. “A decision was made to expand the existing Grout Museum to have an Iowa Veterans Museum which would use the story of the Sullivans, Iowans and the people of Waterloo had served,” Neymeyer says.
The museum has many exhibits about the Sullivan family and also shares the story of other Iowa veterans. It is a place where the message of freedom and the sacrifices paid, still resonate with visitors over 75 years since the battle that claimed the brothers lives.
