Visiting the USS Sullivans : Buffalo NY

Hello Arnie60 :

Listen , I want to thank you for this trip throught the Museum .When I was a Contractor - Homebuilder in Little Rock , Myself and about thirty others tried for the U.S.S. Little Rock . Couldn't raise the funds !

    here's the funny part ! I had to spend six months with Dad then six months with Mom between ages 10 and 16 ( judge 's order in the custody thing on a Divorce ) .So Buffalo  is , My major family home town ! Gees , isn't it funny how some things go full circle ? Thanks Again ! !       Tanker - Builder       P.S. I do thoroughly claim Little Rock as my home though . Always will .

Donnie, I envy you the opportunity. One time I got to see the Kidd from a distance, while I was crossing the bridge over the Mississippi at Baton Rouge. I was in a hurry and didn't have time to stop.

One very small (three letters) correction. The ship in question is U.S.S. The Sullivans. "The" is part of the ship's name. The Navy wanted to clarify that the name honored all five of the Sullivan brothers, who were killed on board the Juneau at Guadalcanal. According to Wikipedia, she was the first USN ship named to honor more than one person.

Here's a link to a web photo showing the name painted on the transom:

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQSgFKPn0_g1R7w0qu2a0_wuitXgP3hr6SATl8agH2ez7SSTPCs

The current The Sullivans also has "the" as part of her name: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/US_Navy_090213-N-4774B-039_The_guided-missile_destroyer_USS_The_Sullivans_(DDG_68)_flies_the_ship's_battle_flags_during_exercises_at_sea.jpg

The captain of the new The Sullivans gave the graduation address when my stepson graduated from boot camp at Great Lakes.

If you haven't seen the old movie "The Fighting Sullivans," it's worth watching as an interesting museum piece. It passes over their naval careers and deaths in about two minutes, though. As I recall, some theaters refused to show it because the last few scenes were too much for audiences to take.

Our good Forum friend Al Ross has a book in print called Anatomy of the Ship: The Destroyer The Sullivans. Anybody interested in the ship - or any other Fletcher-class destroyer, gotta have that book.

A couple of years ago I had a graduate teaching assistant who was a Navy vet. I nailed him on this one. He said that he'd been required in one of his training schools to memorize the names of two USN ships that had "the" as part of their names. Neither of us could remember the other one. Anybody else know?

We had our USS ESSEX reunion in Buffalo last year, took the trolley to the maritime museum and I spent most of a day there. The ships are pretty well maintained and the on board staff were great to talk with. Well worth the stop I would say, even if you had to go out of your way to get there.

EJ

Arnie60

Thank you so much for providing these pictures. I plan on building the Johnston DD-557, which is the same class and bridge layout as The Sullivans. These pictures will prove invaluable for an accurate build.

Steve

The The Sullivans holds a special place for us dime store kids in the 1960's. It was the first (Revell) destroyer model I ever saw on the shelf, and certainly made me a huge fan of the class.

Dr. Tilley, I would go up against wikipedia with the USS Congress, of which there were six commissioned before 1943.

Great pics! Those engine room pics creeped me out. I just finished reading "Last Stand Of The Tin Can Sailors". Some of the descriptions of the boilers taking a hit and filling the space with steam, killing its occupants, were pretty graphic and so sad. Pics make it that much easier to imagine what battle on a DD was like.

Thanks for posting this up.

Chris

Interesting logic, GM.

It just occurred to me that the other ship with "the" at the beginning of her name probably is the Theodore Roosevelt. Ouch.

jtilley

Interesting logic, GM.

It just occurred to me that the other ship with "the" at the beginning of her name probably is the Theodore Roosevelt. Ouch.

Hi Dirk !

   Listen , I'll have you know my desk and files were in those spaces . I was a Damage Control Petty - Officer on a Gearing still in W .W. 2 fit when I went aboard in 1959 , You are so correct ! they showed a very graphic video in D. C. school about a broken High Pressure steam line leak.

    It had cleanly removed a sailors arm and part of his shoulder . He died of course ! Still , that film stayed with me even to today ! Sailors in those spaces when torpedoed or shelled never knew what hit them ! Unless like the U.S.S. Kidd , they were able to survive the incident . Most " Tin Cans " would have sunk .In three minutes tops !

Yup TB.

Aboard ESSEX, in 62 or 63, a tube in one of the boilers in #1 fire room went. I worked in the evaps in FWD auxiliary, the next space fwd. We were headed to the evaps to relieve the watch, passing through the 1st class mess area when the thing went. Steam poured out of the "hole", filling the first class mess. Our leading first class, a guy named McClain (we called him "Little Mac") and a couple other guys went down the ladder, through all that steam, into the fire room, to find anyone that might be still down there and isolate the leak. Took them just a few minits. No one was hurt, but those guys came out of there looking as red as lobsters. Fortunately it was saturated side steam, not superheated side. They all got commendations from the Captain at a special dress awards ceremony.

I was always uncomfortable standing evaporator watch on the solo shell as it was on the upper level of #3 fire room. The only guys I could see were the guys on check watch kinda amidships, plus, it was hotter than blazes up there.

EJ

The memorial to the USS Juneau on the cruiseship docks in Juneau, AK

Includes the names of the five Sullivan brothres

Modelcrazy -- we've corresponded regarding the USS Johnston.   Be aware that the USS The Sullivans is not in the same configuration as the Johnston,  she is not even in WWII configuration.   She was recommissioned for Korea,  upgraded, and served until 1965 .   The enclosed bridge,  tripod mast,  radar installation, 3-inch guns, and other details are not correct for a WWII era Fletcher destroyer.    Use the photo references with an appropriately-sized grain of salt.

Gentlemen,

Does this mean that you scorn USS Theodore E. Chandler and USS Thetis Bay?

Must be some kind of preoccupation here with big sticks.

(And THIS illustrates the value of plain ol' paper books!  That info came from the Dictionary of American Fighting Ships, Vol VII.  Unfortunately, I was searching for a vessel named for The Dalles, Oregon.  No joy.)

Rick