Joseph, Francis, Albert, Madison and George Sullivan on board Juneau (CL 52).
The five Sullivan brothers hailed from Waterloo, Iowa. George Thomas (born 14 December 1914) and Francis Henry Sullivan (18 February 1916), the two oldest, enlisted in the Navy on 11 May 1937 and served in the destroyer Hovey (DD-208) into June 1941. At Des Moines, Iowa, on 3 January 1942, George and Francis—accompanied by their younger brothers Joseph Eugene (28 August 1918), Madison Abel (8 November 1919), and Albert Leo (8 July 1922) reenlisted to avenge the loss of Seaman 1st Class William V. Ball, of Fredericksburg, Iowa, a friend who had been killed in the battleship Arizona (BB-39) during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. After instruction at the Naval Training School, Great Lakes, Illinois, all five brothers, at their expressed request (“We will make a team together that can’t be beat,” one had written), joined the light cruiser Juneau (CL-52) at the New York Navy Yard on 3 February 1942.

Commissioned on 14 February 1942, Juneau initially served in the Atlantic but was transferred to the Pacific in August. Late in October, she took part in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands and, on 12 November, fought in the fierce night battle off Guadalcanal. In that action, a torpedo severely damaged the ship. The following morning, the crippled cruiser, down by the bow and struggling to make 18 knots, retired from the battle area. Handling sluggishly as she limped through the glassy-calm sea, Juneau presented a tempting target for Japanese submarine I-26 which lurked nearby. One torpedo, or possibly two, hit the damaged cruiser forward and detonated her magazines. The resulting violent explosion tore the ship apart, and she went down in just 42 seconds.

Four of the brothers—Coxswain Francis Sullivan and Seamen 2d Class Joseph, Madison, and Albert—failed to make it topside in time to abandon their doomed ship. Gunner’s Mate 2d Class George Sullivan, wounded during the 12 November night action, managed to get over the side and pull himself onto a raft, but died of his wounds a few hours later. Only 10 of the approximately 140 men thought to have survived the immediate sinking were rescued.

The Sullivans’ surviving sister Genevieve enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve as a Specialist (Recruiter) 3d Class, and, along with her parents Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Sullivan, visited over 200 shipyards and manufacturing plants to encourage the workers there.