The Saber and Scroll
and the circumstances surrounding the disaster , the Secretary reluctantly concluded that the boys were not missing in action but “ were in fact killed by enemy action .” 68 The Navy ’ s official statement found that , “ The loss of the five Sullivan brothers ranks as the greatest single blow suffered by any one family since Pearl Harbor and , probably , in American Naval history .” 69 The Navy then declared that the four-month tour of Mr . and Mrs . Thomas F . Sullivan had ended . Biographer Satterfield concludes that “ Americans had fought too many other battles and lost too many other sons to preserve the Sullivan brothers ’ special significance .” 70 The nation had moved on from the loss of the Juneau and her crew .
Ironically , the crew of the Helena , the ship whose commander had left the Juneau survivors in her wake , would benefit from the new sensitivity to the plight of survivors that arose after the loss of the Juneau . During the Battle of Kula Gulf ( July 7 , 1943 ), the Helena , now under the command of Captain Charles Cecil , was struck by three Japanese torpedoes causing the cruiser to jackknife amidships and sink in less than twenty minutes . Immediately , two destroyers picked up 735 Helena survivors despite the presence of Japanese warships . 71 A flotilla of whaleboats and life rafts , commanded by Captain Cecil , made landfall on New Georgia , and destroyers Radford and Nicholas rescued more . Of Helena ’ s 1267 crew , fewer than three hundred died during the sinking and the remainder rescued . 72
The tragic death of the siblings had immediate and far-reaching consequences on how the military deployed its personnel . Immediately , the US military began to strictly enforce its policy forbidding siblings to serve together on the same ship , same unit , or even in the same theater of war . This strict enforcement spared the Niland family of Tonawanda , New York a loss like that experienced by Tom and Alleta . 73
With an end to the War in the Pacific in sight , Congress debated several bills related to family members serving together in military units . However , no “ Sullivan Law ” ever passed . Instead , Congress approved the Sole Survivor Policy ( 1944 ), which permitted the “ discharge of the last surviving child of parents whose other children died in the war .” 74 In light of this new legislation , Navy officials encouraged Genevieve to accept an honorable discharge and return home after serving twenty-one months .
Over the decades , the Sole Survivor Policy evolved into the Department of Defense Directive 1315.15 , the Special Separation Policies for Survivorship ( January 5 , 2007 ), and this revised policy protects American military families today . The Hubbard Act of 2008 expanded the definition of a sole survivor to include the missing-in-action or 100 % service-related disabled status of the sole survivor ’ s siblings . 75 Its protections have been activated twice in the last decade with the most profound appreciation of the Hubbard ( Jason Hubbard , Iraq , 2007 ) and Wise ( Beau Wise , Afghanistan , 2011 ) families . 76
Finally , this patriotic , and at the same time tragic , story of the Sullivans has had a profound effect on US popular
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