THE SULLIVANS DD 537

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Fletcher Class Destroyer Keel Laid October 10 1942 as PUTNAM Name changed February 6 1943 Launched April 4 1943 USS THE SULLIVANS DD-537 Commissioned September 30 1943 - Decommissioned January 10 1946 Recommissioned July 6 1951 - Decommissioned January 7 1965 Struck from Naval register December 1 1974 Preserved as a memorial June 21 1977 berthed at Buffalo, New York.

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

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1. Covers Page 1     (1945-63)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

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Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Date From to Date To	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

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1st Commissioning September 30 1943 to January 10 1946

 

Locy Type F USCS Postmark Catalog Illus. T-40

1945-11-27

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2nd Commissioning July 6 1951 to January 7 1965

 

Locy Type 2

1951-07-27

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Locy Type 2

1957-10-09

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Locy Type 2(n)

1963-05-04

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USPS Type 9 San Francisco CA

2002-12-19

No Image

Cachet features USS The Sullivans DD-537 to commemorate the 100th Aniversary of Destroyers. Cachet by Alvin Eckert.

 

Other Information

NAMESAKES - The five Sullivan brothers all hailed from Waterloo, Iowa. George Thomas (born 14 December 1914) and Francis Henry Sullivan (18 February 1916), the two oldest, enlisted in the Navy on 11 May 1937 and served in the destroyer Hovey (DD-208) into June 1941. At Des Moines, Iowa, on 3 January 1942, George and Francis—accompanied by their younger brothers Joseph Eugene (28 August 1918), Madison Abel (8 November 1919), and Albert Leo (8 July 1922) reenlisted to avenge the loss of Seaman 1st Class William V. Ball, of Fredericksburg, Iowa, a friend who had been killed in the battleship Arizona (BB-39) during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. After instruction at the Naval Training School, Great Lakes, Illinois, all five brothers, at their expressed request (“We will make a team together that can’t be beat,” one had written), joined the light cruiser Juneau (CL-52) at the New York Navy Yard on 3 February 1942. Commissioned on 14 February 1942, Juneau initially served in the Atlantic but was transferred to the Pacific in August. Late in October, she took part in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands and, on 12 November, fought in the fierce night battle off Guadalcanal. In that action, a torpedo severely damaged the ship. The following morning, the crippled cruiser, down by the bow and struggling to make 18 knots, retired from the battle area. Handling sluggishly as she limped through the glassy-calm sea, Juneau presented a tempting target for Japanese submarine I-26 which lurked nearby. One torpedo, or possibly two, hit the damaged cruiser forward and detonated her magazines. The resulting violent explosion tore the ship apart, and she went down in just 42 seconds. Four of the Sullivans -- Coxswain Francis Sullivan and Seamen 2d Class Joseph, Madison, and Abel -- failed to make it topside in time to abandon their doomed ship. Gunner’s Mate 2d Class George Sullivan, wounded during the 12 November night action, managed to get over the side and pull himself onto a raft, but died of his wounds a few hours later. Only 10 of the approximately 140 men thought to have survived the immediate sinking were rescued. The Sullivans’ surviving sister Genevieve enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve as a Specialist (Recruiter) 3d Class, and, along with her parents Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Sullivan, visited over 200 shipyards and manufacturing plants to encourage the workers there. {DANFS}

The US Navy has named two ships THE SULLIVANS - USS The Sullivans DD-537 and USS The Sullivans DDG-68.

 

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