70th Anniversary of "Fighting Sullivans" Death

70 years ago today  the five Sullivan brothers from Waterloo, Iowa,  died when their ship, the USS Juneau was torpedoed in the South Pacific. It survived the first attack  and was limping back to port when it was hit again, exploded and sank. Their sister's boyfriend was killed at Pearl Harbor so the brothers went to the Navy Recruiting office and signed up. They insisted that they all serve together and the Navy complied. Today that would not be allowed.

There is a famous scene in the movie Saving Private Ryan where the mother is at the kitchen sink, looking out at the fields and the dirt road leading up to the house. She sees a military car coming up the road, and when they get out to tell her she has lost one of her sons, she collapses and falls to the floor.  This scene was inspired by the five Sullivan brothers. I can't image parents losing one son in a war let alone five. How did they ever cope with that?  When the brothers were at home, they used to climb the water tower on their property and wave good bye to their father  as he headed off to work on the railroad. After the boys died, when the father left for work each morning, he would look up at the water tower and salute.

One of the brothers was married and left a young wife and baby boy. She is still alive today, and the son married and had a son and daughter. The daughter  teaches 3rd grade and each year she tells her students about her great uncles. And in Waterloo today there is a museum, convention center, park and a street bearing their name. If I ever get to Iowa, I definitely plan to go the museum in Waterloo.

Yesterday was Veteran's Day. I have a section in my book about holidays and their meaning and I discuss Memorial Day but not Veterans Day mainly because I consolidate my thoughts about both holidays under Memorial Day. I went to a Veterans Day luncheon yesterday as a guest of a veteran friend of mine.  A local restaurant puts on a free lunch for several hundred veterans and  their guests. They have been doing this for years. A wonderful gesture on their part! And local school kids wrote notes thanking all the veterans for their service. They were posted throughout the restaurant. Pretty neat.

 I could not help but think of all the veterans who have served and are serving now, many of them far from home and on multiple deployments.  And I thought of all the soldiers over the last 200+ years who have gone over that hill and never came back. I thought of the five Sullivan brothers and what their family went through.  And I thought of all the soldiers in Walter Reed hospital and all the other hospitals and wonder how their recoveries are going. They all paid the price and  many the ultimate sacrifice so I could have a wonderful lunch, looking out at the water, on a beautiful late, fall day.

Thanking you for your time, this time, until next time, Regards, FRAN