Portrait of the five Sullivan brothers, (L-R) Joseph, Francis, Albert, Madison and George Sullivan, who all served, and perished, on the USS Juneau in 1942. The result: its 1942 “sole-survivor policy,” later known as Directive 1315.15 Special Separation Policies for Survivorship. In response to the deaths of the Sullivan brothers-and several other sets of brothers who had perished up to this point in the war-the U.S.

In fact, at least 30 sets of brothers were serving on the Juneau when it sank. Some officials saw it as a way to keep family morale high. military to place siblings together, but it wasn’t discouraged either. The Navy agreed to their request that all five would serve together on the same ship. Navy after the death of a friend at Pearl Harbor. Onboard were five brothers: George, Francis, Joseph, Madison and Albert Sullivan, who had all enlisted into the U.S.

On the morning of November 13, 1942, Japanese torpedoes sank the American cruiser USS Juneau during the battle of Guadalcanal in the South Pacific. The real-life story that inspired Spielberg’s film began more than two years before the rescue depicted in Saving Private Ryan. Eventually, they find Private Ryan and send him back home-but at great cost to Captain Miller and his men.Īmerican soldiers amid the rubble of a heavily damaged town in the wake of the D-Day invasion by Allied forces during World War II, 1944. In the film, Captain Miller and his platoon search for the wayward soldier in house-to-house fighting. Private Ryan was what was known as a “sole-surviving son” and the War Department wanted him back with his mother. Ryan (played by Matt Damon), whose three brothers had been killed in the war within a few months of each other. His new mission: locate and rescue Private First Class James F. Just a few days into the invasion, Captain Miller receives revised orders from high command. After getting themselves off Omaha Beach (yes, those horrific fighting scenes), Miller is able to push his platoon up over the ridge and into the French countryside. Their initial mission, along with nearly 175,000 other Allied service men, is to liberate France and defeat the Nazis. Miller (played by Tom Hanks), who leads a platoon of GIs during the D-Day invasion of Normandy near the end of World War II. The film tells the story of Captain John H. War Department directive designed to keep families from losing every one of their sons. The film draws on the story of an actual soldier named Fritz Niland and a U.S. But that isn’t its only element of realism. Steven Spielberg’s 1998 film Saving Private Ryan may include some of the most horrific fighting scenes ever produced on film.

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