A Marine Corps rifle team fires the three-volley salute for Gunnery Sgt. Thomas J. Sullivan’s funeral July 27, 2015, at Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Agawan, Mass. Sullivan, one of five victims of shootings at military installations in Chattanooga, Tenn., died trying to save others. (J. Gage Karwick/U.S. Marine Corps)
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (Tribune News Service) — Marine Gunnery Sgt. Thomas J. Sullivan was killed 10 years ago, rushing back to the sound of gunfire, trying to save more people, during a terrorist shooting at two military installations in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Hundreds gathered Wednesday to mark the anniversary of the July 16, 2015, slayings at the Gunnery Sgt. Thomas J. Sullivan Memorial Park on South Branch Parkway, a shady oasis named in his honor in 2017. It’s land where he played and got into shenanigans — the word his old neighbors kept using — as a kid.
“I obviously remember him as my brother,” Joseph Sullivan said, “but I want him to be remembered as the hero that he was.”
Thomas Sullivan saved 15 people from gunman Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez that day.
“He got 15 people over that fence,” his brother said. “Then he went back, unarmed, looking for two more people. He didn’t know they were already dead.”
Five victims were killed in the shooting. The perpetrator also died in a gunfight, making six dead in total.
For his work in the military, Thomas Sullivan received numerous commendations, awards and medals, including three Purple Hearts — two for being wounded in combat in Iraq, and one for his role in trying to stop Abdulazeez — as well as the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, the highest non-combat decoration awarded for heroism in those branches of service.
“It’s just knowing his memory is alive and honoring him any way we can,” said his father, Jerry Sullivan.
For years, the family gathered with the families of other victims for ceremonies in Chattanooga. There is a monument to the incident there.
“We got close with the families,” Jerry Sullivan said.
But as time wears on, fewer of those families are in southeastern Tennessee.
The Sullivans wanted to gather as a community in Springfield.
City Police Superintendent Lawrence Akers’ voice cracked Wednesday, describing his experience as part of a police motorcycle detail that escorted Thomas Sullivan’s remains home to Springfield from Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Conn., in 2015.
He sought out the assignment, in part to answer the question of how he would respond to the tragedy. What would he do? What could he do?
Then, he started seeing people on the highway overpasses and fire trucks flying the American flag.
“That moment, I was so proud to be a Springfield police officer. But even more so to be a citizen of the United States of America.”
Joseph Sullivan, in a separate interview, brought up the same feeling. He said he noticed the crowds getting bigger, building as the funeral motorcade got closer to their neighborhood in East Forest Park.
“That’s when you really felt the support,” he said.
The family has returned the support, hosting an annual 5K walk and run at Nathan Bill’s Bar & Restaurant, where Joseph Sullivan is a co-owner.
Proceeds benefit Marine families at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee and a scholarship at Pope Francis Preparatory School in Springfield.
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