DATE: Saturday, April 19, 1997              TAG: 9704190337

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY RICHARD PYLE, ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: NEW YORK                          LENGTH:   85 lines

NAVY TO COMMISSION DESTROYER IN HONOR OF 5 SULLIVAN BROTHERS AMERICAN FAMILY'S LOSS DURING WORLD WAR II REMAINS THE GREATEST SINCE THE CIVIL WAR.

Fifty-five years after a Japanese torpedo destroyed the cruiser Juneau and most of its crew, the Navy will commission its newest destroyer in honor of the five Sullivan brothers who perished in combat.

Hundreds of sailors died in the Battle of Guadalcanal on Nov. 13, 1942, but the deaths of the brothers from Waterloo, Iowa, was particularly painful. It created a Navy legend and led to a rule against brothers serving together on U.S. warships.

The USS The Sullivans, which was christened in 1995, will be commissioned today in the borough of Staten Island.

``It's a real honor, a huge celebration, not only for the Sullivan family but for all the families who sacrificed in the war,'' said Kelly Sullivan Loughren, 25, a teacher from Cedar Falls, Iowa, and granddaughter of Albert, the youngest brother.

The blast instantly killed all but about 140 of the cruiser's 700 sailors, including four of the Sullivans. The survivors were left clinging to rafts and debris for eight days, fending off sharks and dying from exposure while the Navy botched one search effort after another. One brother, George Sullivan, was killed by a shark.

Only 10 men were alive by the time rescuers reached them.

Because of wartime secrecy, it was two months before a stunned nation learned of the disaster and the deaths of George, Francis, Joseph, Madison and Albert Sullivan, ages 20 to 28. Not since the Civil War had an American family lost five sons in battle; none has since.

Just nine months earlier, in February, the brothers stirred American patriotism by declaring ``we stick together'' and demanding that Navy officials suspend a rule against family members serving on the same combat ship.

The Navy assented and assigned the Sullivans to the ill-fated Juneau.

A year after the tragedy, the Navy launched a destroyer called The Sullivans at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Christened by the Sullivans' mother, Alleta, the vessel served in World War II and Korea and is now on display in Buffalo, N.Y.

Relatives of the brothers later went on a tour to sell war bonds and visit defense plants; in 1944, Hollywood released a movie titled ``The Fighting Sullivans.''

For years after the deaths, the Navy banned brothers from serving together. Modified several times, the regulation now allows exceptions for relatives, except husbands and wives, said Lt. Pamela Kunze, a spokeswoman for the Navy Bureau of Personnel.

The new USS The Sullivans is among 32 destroyers replacing older ships in a pared-down Navy and it boasts innovations World War II seamen couldn't have imagined.

There are dual facilities to accommodate women, who comprise 12 percent of the 341-member crew. Women have served on U.S. support ships since 1977 and on combat craft since 1994.

The heart of the new ship is Aegis, a computer-driven radar and weapons system designed for multiple tasks, from firing Tomahawk cruise missiles to fighting off air, surface and submarine attacks - all at once if necessary.

The ship also has a wider, lower profile for greater stability, slanted surfaces to deflect enemy radar, and other features developed after British setbacks in the 1982 Falklands War and the 1987-88 Persian Gulf ``tanker war,'' where two U.S. warships were nearly lost to missiles and mines.

Veterans applauded the decision to honor the Sullivans a second time.

``If they don't deserve it, nobody does - the family, I mean,'' said Frank Holmgren, 74, of Eatontown, N.J., one of two living Juneau survivors. ``They sacrificed five brothers. It just about destroyed that family.''

Loughren said she thinks of the lost brothers almost every day.

``We have pictures of the boys up in the house,'' she said. ``You think about it when you go to a sporting event and sing the national anthem. You think about the pride you have for your family and the pride you have for all military people and their sacrifices.''

The Sullivans' loss was a symbol of the way everyone sacrificed, but ``mothers who lost one child were just as devastated,'' Loughren said.

``You can't say one is more of a tragedy than the other.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

ASSOCIATED PRESS

A fireboat greets the USS The Sullivans in New York's harbor this

week. The new ship honors five brothers who died in the sinking of

the cruiser Juneau in 1942.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu