Carrying On: The Sullivan Brothers' Survivors
In honor of Memorial Day, I'd like to share the following excerpt from Stories of Faith and Courage from Home Front.
A knock at the door early one January morning in 1943, brought Thomas Sullivan face-to-face with three men in naval dress uniforms. “Which one?” Thomas asked. “I’m sorry,” replied one of them. “All five.” George, Francis, Joseph, Madison, and Albert Sullivan had enlisted in the Navy upon hearing that a friend had been killed at Pearl Harbor. The one condition of their service was that they be allowed to serve on the same ship. Their request was granted, and all five served on the U.S.S. Juneau. And now the Navy declared all five missing in action in the South Pacific after a torpedo sunk their ship on November 13, 1942. The following week, a letter arrived that answered all their questions of their sons’ fates. The letter, reprinted in the Waterloo Courier shortly after it was received, read:
All hope is gone for your boys being found alive. George got off the ship, as his battle station was on a depth charger, but he died on a life raft I was on. The other four boys went down with the ship, and were killed immediately, so they did not suffer . . . I know you will carry on in the fine Navy spirit.
The surviving Sullivans did carry on. Their sister Genevieve joined the Navy Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) on June 14, 1943, and by 1944, Thomas and his wife, Alleta, had spoken to more than a million workers in war-production plants in sixty-five cities, urging them to maximize production so the war might end sooner.
“People ask me and Mother and Father too, ‘How do you manage to keep your chins up and keep going?’ We just do,” Genevieve told a reporter for the Waterloo Courier. “There’s a job to be done, a big one that means the lives of many. So we must keep working hard.”
The Sullivans were carrying on for the cause for which that their sons had given their lives. In the same way, we as believers must carry on for the cause for which Christ gave His life, as well. Christ died so that we might be truly free, not just from other men, but from sin itself. Our job is to share the Good News, and it “means the lives of many.”
Prayer: Lord, help me to carry on your kingdom work.
“We must do the work of him who sent me. ” ~John 9:4
May you have a meaningful Memorial Day!
