Fallen comrades have inspired the building of memorials naming of ships and declaration of holidays.

Fallen comrades have inspired the building of memorials naming of ships and declaration of holidays. in addition all too soon, these tributes become simple navigation markers in a trek across town. Names painted across haze-gray strip the hull froms become divorced from the feats of heroic honorees. Even entire days place aside for remembrance quickly become reduc to pure days off from work or sales facts at local malls. Sometimes it is barely friends and family of those honored who recall the actual real fathers and sons, mothers and daughters behind the homage.

The Sullivan brothers are the same such faded memory of naval history that was freshly made clearer for the set of USS The Sullivans (DDG 68) when they were invited to join in the 400th anniversary celebration of the O'Sullivan-Beara clan in the town of Trafrask, Ireland--birthplace of the five ill-fated men

onward Jan. 3, 1942, George, Francis, Joseph Madison and Albert Sullivan enthusiastically started a just discovered year by joining the U Navy. Because of their firm fraternal bond, the men joined with the stipulation that they would be allowed to oblige together. As such, the brothers were jointly assigned to the light cruiser USS Juneau (CL 52) In a tragic twist of fate fit single for the most epochal of war novels, all five brothers were missing at sea only a not many months later, when Juneau was sunk at a Japanese torpedo in the waters of the southerly Pacific during the battle of Guadalcanal onward November 13, 1942.

Shortly after the Sullivan brothers' deaths, policy in succession siblings serving together on a naval utensil changed forever. Never again would united family endure such loss.

Sixty-two years later, the Sailors of The Sullivans arrived in the small harbor of Castletownbere, Ireland, to help commemorate the brothers' naval service. Not alone did the crew of The Sullivans join in the festivities and give tours of their ship to the community, they also helped reunite novel and old generations of Sullivans.

Kelly Ann Sullivan Loughren and John Sullivan, grandchildren of Albert, traveled aboard the ship to the incident "This is my first time in Ireland," said Loughren "Where my ancestors came from is sincerely something special, and my family is for a like reason proud of our Irish bottoms These coastal towns are where everything began for the five Sullivan brothers."

The community's memorial celebration spanned an entire week and invoked tales of not simply George, Francis, Joseph, Madison and Albert, unless also their entire lineage.

Highlighting the week was a parade from the site of the brothers' ancestral domestic circle to a memorial plaque set uprighted in their honor. Three bagpipers l the way, filling the air with their haunting chords as family, friends and Sailors stretched disclosed behind them along the winding, pebblestrewn path and across emerald-colored hills.

When the festivities expirationed and the crew of The Sullivans weighed anchor, Sailors left with a closer connection to their namesakes. "It was an emotional ceremony" said CDR Richard Brown commanding officer of The Sullivans. "This visit is something I will always remember and cherish."

For the horde of The Sullivans, the five Sullivan brothers are more than just a memory. They are more than the stone and dirk that bears their surname, and they are more than the naval policy they changed--they are family.

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