USS The Sullivans (DD-537) is a retired United States Navy . The ship was named in honor of the five Sullivan brothers (George, Francis, Joseph, Madison, and Albert) aged 20 to 27 who died when the light cruiser, , was sunk by a Japanese submarine during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on 13 November 1942. This was the greatest military loss by any one American family during World War II. She was also the first ship commissioned in the Navy that honored more than one person.
After service in both World War II and the Korean War, The Sullivans was assigned to the 6th Fleet and was a training ship until she was decommissioned on 7 January 1965.
In 1977, she and cruiser were processed for donation to the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park in Buffalo, New York. The ship now serves as a memorial museum ship and is open for public tours. On 13 April 2022, the USS The Sullivans partially sank from a severe hull breach.
Construction and career The Sullivans was originally laid down as Putnam on 10 October 1942, at San Francisco by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation. She was initially renamed Sullivan until President Franklin Roosevelt changed the name to The Sullivans to clarify that the name honored all five Sullivan brothers.Persico, Joseph E. Roosevelt's Centurions. , page 273 The name was made official on 6 February 1943, and launched 4 April 1943. The ship was sponsored by Mrs. Thomas F. Sullivan, the mother of the five Sullivan brothers. The Sullivans was commissioned on 30 September 1943., accessed 18 October 2025
1944
Following a shakedown cruise, The Sullivans got underway with sister ships and on 23 December 1943. The group arrived at Pearl Harbor five days later. During training operations in Hawaiian waters, the ship was assigned to Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 52. On 16 January 1944, she steamed out of Pearl Harbor with Task Group 58.2 (TG 58.2) bound for the Marshall Islands. En route to Kwajalein Atoll the group was joined by Battleship Division 9 (BatDiv 9). Two days later, as the American warships neared their target, picket destroyers were sent ahead to protect the main force from the enemy. On 24 January, TG 58.2 arrived at the dawn launching point for air strikes against Roi. For two days, The Sullivans screened , , and as they launched nearly continuous aerial raids. Thereafter, the destroyer continued her operations to the north and northwest of Roi and Namur Islands throughout the Battle of Kwajalein until 4 February, when TG 58.2 retired to Majuro to refuel and replenish.
Underway at noon on the 12th, The Sullivans screened (protected) the sortie of Task Group 58.2, as part of Task Force 58's raid on Truk. The same carriers—Essex, Intrepid, and Cabot—whose planes had attacked Roi and Namur steamed in the van now headed for the Japanese fortress-base in the Central Pacific. From the time the group arrived at its launching point on 16 February, the carriers launched what seemed to be nearly continuous air strikes against Truk. "No enemy opposition of any kind was encountered," wrote The Sullivans commander, "indicating that the initial attacks came as a complete surprise."
While the enemy may have been slow to react at the outset, they soon struck back—torpedoing Intrepid at 00:10 on the 17th. The carrier slowed to and lost steering control. The Sullivans, , and stood by the stricken carrier and escorted her to Majuro for repairs. Reaching Majuro on 21 February, the destroyer soon sailed on to Hawaii, arriving at Pearl Harbor on 4 March for drydocking and upkeep.
Underway again on the 22nd, The Sullivans covered the sortie of Task Groups 58.2, 58.9, and 50.15 from Majuro, bound for the Palaus, Yap, and Woleai Islands. On the evening of the 29th, while the American warships were approaching the target area, enemy aircraft attacked but were driven off by the anti-aircraft fire from the ships. The next day, The Sullivans screened the carriers during air strikes and that evening helped to beat off a Japanese air attack.
After returning to Majuro for replenishment, the warship screened TG 58.2 during air strikes on Hollandia (currently known as Jayapura), Tanahmerah, Wakde, and Aitape to support amphibious operations on New Guinea. Late in April, The Sullivans participated in support of air strikes on the Japanese base at Truk. On the 29th during one of these raids, the Japanese retaliated with a low-level air attack. American radar picked up four Japanese planes away, coming in fast at altitudes varying from 10 to . When the planes came within range, The Sullivans opened up with one 40-millimeter twin mount and all five guns. Two aircraft splashed into the sea due to the firing of the American ships, and one crossing ahead of The Sullivans was taken under fire and crashed in flames off her port beam.
The Sullivans arrived off the northwest coast of Ponape on the afternoon of 1 May and provided cover for the battleships led by which bombarded the island. From the disengaged side of the screen, The Sullivans fired 18 rounds from extreme range at Tumu Point. She then noted three beached Japanese landing barges and shifted her fire to them. However, she received the general cease-fire order shortly thereafter.
During the task unit's retirement, The Sullivans refueled from and arrived at Majuro on 4 May. Ten days later, TG 58.2 sortied again, bound for Marcus and Wake Islands. Launching the first raid at 08:00 on the 19th, the American carriers kept up nearly continuous air strikes with no enemy interruptions for three days. En route back to Majuro, The Sullivans and her sister destroyers conducted a thorough but unsuccessful search for a suspected submarine.
On 6 June, The Sullivans got underway again, bound for Saipan, Tinian, and Guam to screen carriers in conducting air strikes. On occasion while in the screen, The Sullivans radar picked up enemy "snoopers" around the periphery of the formation—and before dawn at 03:15 on the 12th, TG 58.2 shot down one in flames.
The second day's strikes against Saipan took place on the 13th to support the American landings there. Assigned to the duty of communication-linking station between task forces, The Sullivans remained within visual sighting distance of both TG's 58.1 and 58.2 during the day. That day, she picked up 31 Japanese merchant seamen after their ship had been sunk offshore and transferred these prisoners to flagship .
On 19 June 1944, during the first day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, Japanese aircraft attacked the task group. The Sullivans picked up a plane visually at a range of less than . "Judies", diving from , pressed home their attacks. One, taken under fire by The Sullivans, took tracer fire from the ship's 20- and 40-millimeter batteries and, moments later, crashed just short of the horizon. American air attacks against Pagan Island, made without enemy retaliation, topped off the Saipan-Tinian-Guam strikes; and The Sullivans proceeded with TG 58.2 to Eniwetok for upkeep.
Underway on 30 June, The Sullivans resumed work in the screen of carriers launching air strikes to support operations against Saipan and Tinian. During this action, The Sullivans served as fighter direction ship for TU 58.2.4.
On Independence Day, The Sullivans joined Bombardment Unit One (TU 58.2.4) to conduct a shore bombardment of airfields, shore batteries, and other installations on the west coast of Iwo Jima. The heavy ships in the group opened fire at 15:00, and smoke and dust soon obscured targets along the western shore of the island, making spotting difficult. The Sullivans, second ship in a column of destroyers, opened fire at 15:48 on planes parked on the southern airstrip. After three ranging salvos, the ship commenced hitting twin-engined "Bettys" parked in revetments along the strip. The Sullivans destroyed five planes, and shrapnel and burning gasoline likely damaged eight other planes. Minutes later, an enemy ship resembling an LST came under The Sullivans gunfire and caught fire astern. While closed to complete the destruction of the enemy vessel, The Sullivans and the remainder of the bombardment unit retired and rejoined TG 58.2.
From 7 to 22 July, TG 58.2 operated south and west of the Marianas, conducting daily air strikes on Guam and Rota Islands before returning to Garapan Anchorage, Saipan, to allow the carriers to replenish bombs. Underway at dawn on the 23d, The Sullivans accompanied the task group as it sped towards the Palaus for air strikes on the 26th and 27th. She joined TG 58.4 for temporary duty on 30 July and continued air strikes until 6 August, when she joined TG 58.7, the heavy bombardment group, and operated with TP 34 until 11 August, when the group returned to Eniwetok for replenishment.
Early in September, as the Navy prepared to take the Palaus, The Sullivans supported neutralizing air strikes against Japanese air bases in the Philippines. At dawn on the 7th, she began radar picket duty for TG 38.2 and continued the task through the strikes of the 9th and 10th. From 18:00 on 12 September, the ships noted an increase in air activity—observing many bogies that merely orbited the formations as snoopers. The carriers conducted further raids on the central Philippines on the 13th and 14th and then shifted course to the north to subject Manila to air attacks commencing on the 21st. Three days later, American planes again hit the central Philippines.
Returning to Tanapag Harbor, Saipan, at dawn on the 28th, The Sullivans went alongside for ammunition, provisions, and routine upkeep. However, the cross-swells in the anchorage swept The Sullivans hard against the battleship's steel hide, damaging the destroyer's hull and superstructure. Following brief antisubmarine patrol duty, she proceeded to Ulithi on 1 October.
While undergoing tender repairs alongside , The Sullivans formed part of a nest of destroyers blown away from the tender during a heavy storm that lashed the anchorage. The Sullivans drifted free downwind and got up steam 'in a hurry'. However, she collided with . Many small boats were being tossed about, and The Sullivans rescued four men from 's gig before it disappeared beneath the waves. As the storm abated on the 4th, the warship returned to Ulithi to complete the abbreviated tender overhaul alongside Dixie.
At 16:15 on 6 October, The Sullivans sortied with the carriers and protected them during raids against targets on Formosa and the Ryukyus. On the evening of the 12th, as the planes returned to the carriers, radar spotted the first of many Japanese aircraft coming down from the north. For the next six hours, approximately 50 to 60 Japanese aircraft subjected the American task force to continuous air attacks. Nearly 45 minutes after sunset, The Sullivans sighted a "Betty", coming in low on the starboard side, and took it under fire. During the next 15 minutes, the formation to which The Sullivans was attached shot down three planes; between 18:56 and 19:54, the destroyer herself took five planes under fire. Varying speed between 18 and , the formation undertook eight emergency maneuvers. Again and again, timely turns and the great volume of gunfire thrown up by the ships repulsed the enemy air attacks.
The second phase of the attack began at 21:05 on the 12th and continued through 02:35 on the 13th. The Japanese increased the use of "window" to jam American radar transmissions while their flares lit up the evening with ghostly light. The formation made smoke whenever enemy flare-dropping planes approached, creating an eerie haze effect which helped baffle the enemy pilots. Meanwhile, The Sullivans and the other ships in formation executed 38 simultaneous turn movements at speeds between 22 and as their guns kept up a steady fire to repel the attackers.