Veterans Day got its due in a wide range of ceremonies around DMPS on Friday, as usual, but there was an UNusual wrinkle to one of the district’s longstanding traditions associated with the occasion in this the centennial year of Armistice Day.
Teacher John Walling’s been coordinating Goodrell Middle School’s annual salute to vets since it began 18 years ago. It always starts with a solemn gathering of students and staff around the flagpole on the front lawn before school. “Meet Me at the Pole” is a constant feature, but the assembly later in the day varies from year to year.
This year, Walling landed an extra special guest to headline the program.
Kelly Sullivan Loughren is a granddaughter of Albert Leo Sullivan, the youngest of the five famous Sullivan brothers from Waterloo, Iowa who were killed in action together during World War II.
She’s also a 3rd grade teacher in Cedar Falls, so how was she able to be at Goodrell Friday morning?
“John (Walling) was just so relentless that I finally agreed and took a personal day off,” she said just prior to Friday’s assembly. “Most of my appearances are arranged to be in the summertime, but I made an exception so I could be here today.”
George, Francis, Joseph, Madison and Albert Sullivan enlisted simultaneously after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941 with the stipulation that they be allowed to serve together, contrary to a Navy policy that prohibited siblings doing so. They received a waiver and all were lost in November of 1942 when their ship, the USS Juneau, was sunk in battle.
Their mother got worried when letters home stopped coming. Rumors circulated in Waterloo that the Sullivan boys had been killed before the Navy officially notified the family. Other soldiers were writing home to their parents about what they’d heard, and the Sullivans got wind of the rumors.
Kelly read a letter aloud that her great-grandmother wrote to the Navy demanding to know the truth about her sons. It still chokes her up.
Students from East High performed a series of dramatic vignettes, portraying some of the Sullivan boys, their parents and the Navy officer who eventually did come to the Sullivan home in Waterloo bearing the official, tragic news. No other American family has ever sustained so great a personal loss in military service.
Kelly’s father Jim Sullivan is the son of Albert, the only one of the brothers who married before they were killed, despite being the youngest. Jim was not quite two years old when his father and uncles were killed, and Kelly is one of only two grandchildren descended from the Sullivan quintet. Think how many there might have been.
“But as a Sullivan I grew up with a great Navy family around me,” Kelly said. She attended reunions of the 10 men who survived the Juneau’s sinking and she is also the official sponsor of the USS The Sullivans, the Navy vessel that she formally commissioned in 1997. It’s the successor to the ship the Navy first named in honor of the brave brothers in 1943 that was decommissioned in 1965 and now serves as a museum.
“The ship is currently deployed and I feel like I have 327 sailors aboard to pray for,” Kelly said.
To begin the assembly, the Goodrell band played the National Anthem. Every time she hears it, it jogs a poignant memory for Kelly.
“When I was a little girl I remember we were at a sporting event in Waterloo and when the anthem was played before the game I started to cry. I looked around and couldn’t understand why everybody else wasn’t crying, too.”
She couldn’t yet fully realize that her family’s sacrifice surpassed everybody else’s.
Besides Goodrell, we also dropped in at annual Veterans Day celebrations at Willard and Park Avenue Elementary School(s) and North High where the Marine Junior ROTC corps lends an especially fitting touch to the proceedings.
Enjoy our photo gallery here, and feel free to take on the same permanent homework assignment that Kelly Sullivan issued at Goodrell. Whenever you see a military vet, tell them thanks for their service.
