They Gave Their All : The Sullivan Brothers and Tragic Sinking of the USS Juneau
selves in a futile effort to stay warm . After the first few died and drifted out to sea , an ever-increasing armada of sharks shadowed the rafts . As delirious sailors left their rafts ( for whatever reason ), they were set upon and devoured . With airplanes periodically flying overhead , this deadly pattern repeated for eight days .
George Sullivan survived the explosion , but no other brothers lived . Several survivors remember an anguished George swimming from raft to raft calling out in vain to his bothers and wiping the faces of the dead and unconscious to be sure .
The dead included Joseph and James , two of the four Rodgers brothers who elected to split before departing the United States . The Sullivans had also considered splitting up , but now it was too late . George lived until the third or fourth day , when he too succumbed to delirium caused by drinking seawater and dove into the sea . Allen Hyen , a fellow raft mate remembers George saying he was going to swim to the island and get some buttermilk before he disappeared . 48
The Navy organized a determined rescue effort once they awoke to the fact that some of Juneau ’ s crew were alive and adrift in the Solomon Sea . Roger O ’ Neil , Juneau ’ s surgeon , and three of his Pharmacist Mates were already accounted for , having been transferred to San Francisco the morning of the sinking to assist with her casualties . 49 Lieutenant j . g . Charles Wang , the only officer to survive being adrift , and his two raft mates , Signalman 2nd Class
Joseph “ Jimmy ” Hartney and Seaman 1st Class Victor Fitzgerald , were blown by the wind to a nearby island where they were taken by friendly natives to a Dutch planter . 50 Seaman 1st Class Wyatt Butterfield , Seaman 1st Class Arthur Friend , Machinist Mate 2nd Class Henry Gardner , Seaman 2nd Class Frank Holmgren , Chief Gunner ' s Mate George Mantere , and Signalman 1st Class Lester Zook were rescued by two PBY Catalina flying boats , the second nearly crash landing in rough seas . 51 Finally , Allen Heyn , the sole survivor of one raft , was plucked from the water by the seaplane tender USS Ballard . 52 The total number of survivors was ten .
The Navy made Captain Hoover the scapegoat for failing to rescue the survivors . As his punishment , Admiral Halsey relieved him , effectively ending the career of the three-time Navy Cross recipient . But there was plenty of blame to go around . Both Hoover and Gill were handcuffed by woodenheaded Navy regulations that prevented breaking radio silence even to broadcast distress calls . The Army Intelligence Officer who failed to sound the alarm is at least as culpable , if not more so . This fact became apparent to Halsey after Gill demonstrated that on three separate occasions , he tried to escalate his reports to higher headquarters within the 5th Army Air Force , to no effect .
Not since President Abraham Lincoln consoled Mrs . Lydia Bixby on the death of her five sons had an American family been so tragically affected by war . The Navy did not dare report the loss of the Juneau to the public . Nor did it notify the next of kin until after vic-
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