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Hows this?!?......

A Classic Story

The Sullivan Brothers

Albert, Francis, George, Joseph and Madison Sullivan were born in Waterloo, Iowa, between 1914 and 1920. George and Francis enlisted in the Navy in 1937. Their three younger brothers joined the service in early 1942. All five were assigned to the commissioning crew of USS Juneau (CL-52) in February 1942. They remained with the ship through her Atlantic shakedown operations and subsequent combat actions in the Guadalcanal Campaign. All were lost with her on 13 November 1942, a tragedy that received wide publicity in the United States and resulted in a new Navy policy discouraging family members from serving together in the same ship.

In the aftermath of Juneau's loss, the Navy notified Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Sullivan of Waterloo, Iowa, that all five of their sons were missing in action. Two of the brothers had served previous four-year enlistments in the Navy and so, when all five brothers enlisted together on 3 January 1942, the Navy was the obvious choice. They had also insisted on serving together on the same ship. Although the accepted Navy policy was to separate family members, the brothers had persisted and their request was approved.

It was later learned, through survivors' accounts, that four of the brothers died in the initial explosion. The fifth, George Thomas, despite being wounded the night before, made it onto a raft where he survived for five days before succumbing either to wounds and exhaustion or a shark attack.

The brothers received the Purple Heart Medal posthumously and were entitled to the American Defense Service Medal, Fleet Clasp; Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with four engagement stars and the World War II Victory Medal. They had also earned the Good Conduct Medal.

They were survived by their parents, Mr. Thomas F. Sullivan and Mrs. Alleta Sullivan, a sister, Genevieve Sullivan, and by Albert Leo Sullivan's wife, Katherine Mary Sullivan. Their son, James Thomas, was twenty-two months old at the time of his father's death.
 

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GOT ONE FROM MY FAMILY

Just remembered this one as it was told to me (way before my time)......

TRUE STORY!

VJ day, August 15, 1945. My family is having a huge party. Several family members have already been discharged from the military (including my dad) and there were a few family and friends attending in uniform as they were still active duty. My Uncle Joe was recently released from the hospital after spending a year in a coma as a result of a B-24 crash. During the jovial event, him and my dad came up with a devious practical joke.....

My dad had a talent for mechanical and electrical devices. Eventually he would go on and work almost 50 years as an auto mechanic. Anyway he and my uncle constructed a PA hookup to the house radio set. Sometime during the party they ran a microphone wire to the adjoining room. As the party continued my uncle eventually snuck into the room and turned on the microphone. Pretending to be a news reporter the following blared out from the radio....

"NEWSFLASH - THE JAPANESE HAVE JUST RE-ATTACKED THE PHILIPPINES AND OTHER STRATEGIC POSITIONS IN THE PACIFIC! WE ARE AT WAR AGAIN! ALL PERSONNEL ON LEAVE, REPORT TO YOUR UNITS, ALL RECENTLY DISCHARGED PERSONNEL REPORT TO YOUR NEAREST RECRUITING STATION."

The whole apartment went into mayhem! Women starting crying, the men were in disbelief! One guy wanted to jump out a 6 story window! Seeing the panic he caused, my uncle calmed everyone down. As my uncle fessed up to the bad joke, the only thing that preventing the party goers from beating him senseless was he was still in a back brace.....

60 years later when the family gets together they could now laugh at a bad joke......
 
I think thats were they got the idea for Saving Private Ryan FBJ presonely I thought the film about The Sullivans was not very good. I know my old man said that after the death of the Sullivans even the RN adopted a policy of no relitives on the same vessel
That last post of yours FBJ was Brilliant just the sort of humour I like I bet they called your dad all the names under the sun.
 

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