The Saber and Scroll
Although the Atlanta ’ s mounted two quadruple 21-inch torpedo mounts and two anti-submarine depth charge racks , the ship ’ s primary role was fleet anti-aircraft defense . Juneau ’ s main and secondary batteries were ideally suited for this purpose . Her main battery consisted of sixteen 5-inch / 38 caliber , high angle , rapid-fire guns , in six twin mounts arranged along the centerline ( turrets numbered 1-3 and 6-8 ) and one more on either side of her aft deckhouse ( turrets numbered 4 and 5 ). The Juneau ’ s remaining guns , 1.1-inch and 20 mm anti-aircraft machine guns put up an impressive curtain of flak but were woefully ineffective against capital ships . 12 Two powerful high-pressure
Westinghouse turbines gave the Juneau an average top speed of 32.5 knots . Every knot was necessary to keep pace with the fast carrier task forces , the Greyhounds of the Pacific . With a fuel capacity of 1,436 tons , the Juneau had a range of 8,500 nautical miles at 15 knots . 13 Speed and range came at the expense of protective armor , however . Her hull armor was thickest on her sides ( 3¾-inches ), and her deck and gun house armor were 2-inches thick . 14 By comparison , the Imperial Japanese Navy ’ s battleship IJN Hiei , Juneau ’ s future opponent , sported eight 14-inch guns and two-and-a-half times the armor thickness of the outgunned little cruiser . 15
Juneau ’ s keel was laid down in May 1940 , when escorts for the Atlantic convoy duty were in critical demand . She was launched on the Hackensack River in October 1941 , a full four months ahead of schedule . Rushed into service , she was the first ship in the Navy commissioned in her North Atlantic camouflage war paint . 16
The United States added Hull No . CL-52 ( AA ) to the Navy roster on February 14 , 1942 . Transfer from the builder to the Federal government occurred when her sponsor , Mrs . Harry I . Lucas , the wife of Juneau , Alaska ’ s mayor , broke a bottle of champagne on the ship ’ s prow . 17 She was the first ship named for a city in the Territory of Alaska , the remote and mostly uninhabited land that would not become a state for another seventeen years . In the same ceremony , forty-nine-year-old Captain Lyman K . Swenson , of Pleasant Grove , Utah ( Naval Academy Class of 1916 ) became Juneau ’ s first and only commanding officer .
The Navy , having overcome its hesitancy to their joint service , embraced the brothers as a valuable propaganda tool . After the commissioning concluded , the Sullivans gathered on the Juneau ’ s fantail to visit with family and pose for photographs . As newsreel cameras whirred , press cameramen took one of the most iconic photographs of the Second World War . The picture captured the five Sullivans , dressed in pea coats , buttoned to the neck , wearing brimless flat caps circled with embroidered “ US Navy ” ribbons , gathered around a ship ’ s open hatch . The next day their bashful , self-conscience grins dominated the front page of the Waterloo Daily Courier , the last time their friends and family in Iowa would see them .
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