Leroy Means Sullivan was born on 20 December 1921 at Chattanooga, Tennessee to Leroy Means Sullivan and Nellie Louise Hooker.
Flying Officer; Royal Canadian Air Force; 56 (R.A.F.) Squadron;
F/O Sullivan died in an air crash at the U.S.A.A.F. Station, Mantlesham Heath, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England on 7 November 1943. He is buried at Brookwood Military Cemetery, Grave 47.E.9., Surry, United Kingdom.
The Chattanooga Times, November 10, 1943 Flight Lt. LeRoy Means Sullivan, son of Mrs. Nell Sullivan of 5415 Alabama Avenue, was killed in action overseas with the Royal Canadian Air Force on Nov. 7, according to a wire received from the RCAF casualty officer in Ottawa, Canada, by his mother early yesterday morning. Sullivan, who would have celebrated his 22nd birthday next month, had just received the rank he had when killed. It is equivalent to that of captain in the American air corps. Joining the RCAF on Feb. 11, 1941, Sullivan was first sent to Canada to receive flight training. He was sent to North Africa, then to Egypt, where he remained until last September when he was assigned to a base in England. At this base he was with a typhoon squadron, operating his own plane and firing the plane’s guns. Graduating from Chattanooga High School in 1940, Sullivan entered the University of Chattanooga but remained there only a few months before joining the RCAF. At high school Sullivan was cadet colonel in the school’s ROTC unit and a member of the National Honor Society. The young flier’s late father, for whom he was named, joined the navy three days after war was declared in World War I. He was based in the Azores as a destroyer gun-pointer and was decorated for sinking a German submarine. He died seven months before his son’s birth. Mrs. Sullivan is chief operator at the St. Elmo telephone exchange. She is the only immediate survivor.
Rank: Flying Officer Date of birth: 20 December 1921 Date of death: 7 November 1943 County: Hamilton Hometown: Chattanooga Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces Division/Assignment: Royal Canadian Air Force, 56 (R.A.F.) Squadron Theater: Europe Conflict: World War II Burial/Memorial Location: Brookwood Military Cemetery, Brookwood, Woking Borough, Surrey, England Location In Memorial: Pillar X, Middle Panel
Source: East Tennessee Veterans Project