Monday, May 30, 2016

The Fighting Sullivans -- May 30, 2016

www.listal.com

Happy Memorial Day, everyone.  I thought this was a good day to write about 20th Century-Fox's The Fighting Sullivans, the story of the five Sullivan Brothers from Iowa.  They enlisted in the Navy in early 1942, and all served together on the light cruiser USS Juneau (CL-52).  On 13-November-1942, during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the Juneau was sunk by torpedoes.  All five brothers died in the sinking or in the eight days before the ten survivors were found.

The Navy named a destroyer after the brothers, USS The Sullivans (DD-537).  After serving in World War II and the Korean War, the ship was preserved as a memorial in Buffalo, New York.

At the end of the movie, the Sullivans' mother christens the new destroyer.   As it slides down the ways, she says to her husband, "our boys are afloat again." 

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