USS Juneau sails into Korean port
with history in its wake
By Franklin Fisher, Taegu
bureau chief
Photo courtesy of the Department of
the Navy
The five Sullivan brothers of Waterloo, Iowa, signed up for the Navy just after the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on condition they be allowed to serve on the same ship.
They were assigned to the first USS Juneau, a light cruiser, which sank after Japanese
torpedo strikes in the Solomon islands in late 1942. |
TAEGU, South Korea — As the visiting USS Juneau pulled into a
Korean port last week, its crew proudly carried a combat lineage through three wars and an
honor roll that includes the five Sullivan brothers during World War II.
The deaths of the Sullivans off Guadalcanal in November 1942 became a
rallying point for the American war effort. Hollywood even took note, filming “The
Sullivans” in 1944.
“I think that the story of the Sullivan brothers is one of those
stories that really gives a testimonial to what our Navy core values are all about,
courage, honor and commitment,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Dennis Young, Fleet Activities
Chinhae’s command chaplain, and regional chaplain for U.S. Naval Forces, Korea.
“That they were able to come in together and stay together on
behalf of their country, it was their patriotic decision to do that, and consequently they
lost their life in the process. But in the process they set a great example of moral
courage for us,” Young said.
The five brothers of Waterloo, Iowa, signed up for the Navy just
after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on condition they be allowed to serve on the
same ship.
“We stick together,” was their motto.
USS Juneau will stop in Pusan this week for a visit. |
They were assigned to the first USS Juneau, a light cruiser, which
sank after Japanese torpedo strikes in the Solomon Islands in late 1942.
Through intense newspaper and radio coverage, the brothers and their
surviving sister and parents quickly became one of the country’s most famous families
during World War II.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote a letter to the brothers’
mother, Alleta Sullivan, consoling her. A new warship was named in their honor on
Roosevelt’s order.
Their deaths came during the seven-month battle for control of
strategic Guadalcanal, an island in the eastern end of the Solomon Islands chain.
By Nov. 12, U.S. forces discovered from intercepted Japanese message
traffic that a strong Japanese naval force was heading for the island to bombard American
positions on Guadalcanal.
To block this foray, an American naval force took up station in
“Ironbottom Sound,” the nickname for the strait between Guadalcanal and Florida
Island. The force consisted of five cruisers, including the Juneau, and eight destroyers.
At almost 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 13, U.S. radar picked up the Japanese
formation, which included two battleships, a light cruiser and 11 destroyers.
The two forces closed fast, and a fierce engagement ensued.
Just minutes into the fight, a Japanese torpedo struck the Juneau on
the port side near the forward fire room. The explosion buckled the deck, knocked out fire
control computers and electric power. The cruiser, down at the bow and straining to make
18 knots, struggled from the scene.
By dawn, she’d rejoined the surviving American vessels and moved
with them to the southeast.
But hours later, just past 11 a.m., the ships were in the crosshairs
of the Japanese submarine I-26. The sub fired three torpedoes at the damaged cruiser USS
San Francisco, but missed.
One torpedo slammed into the Juneau’s port side, close to the
earlier hit. The strike set off the magazine, and the ship blew in half with most of the
crew killed.
Some 115 were still alive.
But because sections of the Juneau sank within minutes and the rest
of the task force feared another sub attack, members could not check for survivors.
And because of uncertainty over how many Japanese ships might still
be in the area, no rescue efforts were mounted for several days.
In the interim, sharks, exposure and exhaustion finished off most of
the survivors.
Eight days later, only 10 were pulled from the water alive.
News that the deaths included the Sullivans set off a flood of
sympathy and condolences from around America.
They’d already had a degree of celebrity as the only five
members of a family serving on the same ship simultaneously.
At their deaths, the Sullivans became a national symbol of patriotic
self-sacrifice.
“And now I wonder how the sugar- and coffee-hoarders feel,”
one woman told The Associated Press at the time.
After the brothers’ deaths, their sister Genevieve enlisted in
the U.S. Naval Reserve as a recruiter. Accompanied by her parents, she visited more than
200 shipyards and industrial plants.
By January 1944, the trio had gone before more than a million workers
in 65 cities; they spoke to millions more by radio.
When Roosevelt learned of the Sullivan brothers’ deaths, he
ordered a ship named in their honor. The Navy chose one that was under construction in San
Francisco. Initially named the Putnam, the Navy renamed it The Sullivans. It was
commissioned Sept. 30, 1943.
The present-day Juneau is an amphibious transport ship, known as an
Amphibious Transport Dock. It began a port visit last Thursday in Pusan.
Seaman Dustin Ingram, 18, of Grant Pass, Ore., is a deck seaman
aboard the Juneau, based in Sasebo, Japan.
“It’s kind of moving to know that there was a ship before
us [named Juneau],” Ingram said. “I’d heard about the Sullivan brothers,
but it’s kind of weird to know that there was a ship before this one that was
attacked by a Japanese submarine. We’re ported out of Japan and that’s
eerie.”
RELATED STORY: Terrorist attacks, Sullivan
brothers' story evoke similar feelings of patriotism
Back to November stories
Page Two news roundup
Stories from October, 2001
Stories from September, 2001
Stories from August, 2001
Stories from July, 2001
Stories from June, 2001
Stories from May, 2001
Stories from April, 2001
Stories from March, 2001
Stories from February,2001
Stories from January, 2001
Stories from December, 2000
Stories from November, 2000
Stories from October, 2000
Stories from August and September, 2000
Stories from June and July, 2000
Home |
