In Memoriam: GEN Gordon R. Sullivan

A Short Series

Over the next few weeks, we will honor the legacy of General Gordon R. Sullivan, Norwich University Class of 1959 and 32nd US Army Chief of Staff, who passed away on January 2, 2024. GEN Sullivan came to Norwich in 1955 from Quincy, MA. He studied History at Norwich while working in the mess hall and joining Sigma Phi Epsilon. Even though he spent several years at Norwich, Sullivan wasn’t convinced the military life was for him until he attended a summer camp at Fort Knox in 1958. While there, he fell in love with the Army. 

This week’s tribute comes from the newly appointed Director of the Norwich University Center for Leadership, David Brigham, NU Class of '88.

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By Dave Brigham, NU Class of ‘88

General Sullivan and my father were Norwich University classmates and commissioned together into the United States Army as armor officers in 1959.  I was fortunate to meet General Sullivan over the years and to have him officiate over my last promotion in the United States Army.  Still, when asked to contribute to this journal about General Sullivan, I was hesitant.  I felt my limited interaction with General Sullivan was inadequate to honor him properly.  But then it hit me.  I was raised by General Sullivan’s class; the most influential men in my life were Norwich men from the Class of 1959 – my father Don Brigham, General Gordon Sullivan, Freddy Haynes (’58), Colonel Tony Carbone, Dave MacInnis, Paul Buckley, Jack Joyce, and so many others.  It was from these men, either directly or indirectly, that I learned what it means to be a man – to serve selflessly and that the most important quality of a man, or leader, is humility.  General Sullivan and my father were the epitome of humility.   

There was something very special about the Class of 1959 and that generation of Norwich men.  Maybe it was because they were raised in the years following World War II by what has since been called the greatest generation, or perhaps it was their working-class roots in the communities outside of Boston in towns like Quincy, Chelsea, Dorchester, Waltham, Medford, and Newton, or maybe it was because they grew up earning their keep from an early age, doing the toughest of jobs with gratitude, and without complaint or a Starbucks.  Whatever it was, they possessed a wisdom and simplicity that I think we sometimes lack today.  They taught the men of my generation what it meant to be strong, to serve selflessly, and perhaps most important of all, they taught us the power of humility, no matter how successful an individual may be.  They are slowly leaving the stage now, the stage they helped to set.  Today, I look at the pictures of my father, General Sullivan, Colonel Carbone, and Jack Joyce and I hope that my generation is living up to the principles and values they exemplified.  It’s hard not to feel like we are falling short of these great men.        

I spent the last couple of days reaching out to several of General Sullivan’s classmates and friends, and in the case where his friends had passed, their relatives.  My first call was to my good friend Jim Fagan from the Class of 1987, Colonel (retired) Tony Carbone’s son-in-law.  Jim, with both tears and laughter, recalled General Sullivan’s words at Tony’s funeral and “Sully’s” description of the days when he and Tony “slung sandwiches in the barracks for a few extra bucks.”  I spoke with Dave MacInnis, my dad’s roommate at Norwich, who worked with General Sullivan for four years as “head swillers” in the mess hall; the swillers were the ones who scraped the cadets’ plates off before passing them off to the eminently more qualified dishwashers.  He  recalled how “Gordy” thought the head swiller job was easy when compared to his summer job on the trash trucks in Quincy.  Gordy explained how Mondays were particularly bad days because the Friday fish had been sitting in the trash barrels all weekend.  Or the times when Dave and General Sullivan would rejoice when an untouched T-bone steak came through on a plate and Dave yelling “Gordy, it’s still warm!”     

Another friend of General Sullivan was Major John “Jack” Joyce.  I never met Jack and had only heard about him through my dad and General Sullivan.  Jack was my father’s best friend at Norwich as well as his Ranger buddy at Ranger School.  Jack and General Sullivan were among the first officers to volunteer for the Military Assistance Command-Vietnam (MAC-V).  Jack was killed in Vietnam on December 21^st, 1966, so I reached out to Jack’s son, John H. Joyce Junior, to discuss his dad’s class in general and General Sullivan specifically.  He shared with me that in 2009, General Sullivan and my father and paid for the airfare and lodging for both him and his sister to attend the Class of 1959’s 50^th reunion where Jack was honored with a permanent memorial seat in the Kreitzberg Arena.  After 50 years, the class of 1959 remained loyal to their old friend, and I thought about the countless other people General Sullivan helped along the way.    

By all accounts, including his own, General Sullivan was not the best or most STRAC cadet while at Norwich.  He walked numerous tours and, according to Dave MacInnis, “managed never to march in a single formation during his four years at Norwich”; instead, he kept a permanent “working in the mess hall” note on his barracks’ door.  He never “made rank” at Norwich nor did he intend to, his objective was simple: to earn a commission in the United States Army so that he could serve his nation.  And serve he did.  Not for glory or fame, and certainly not for monetary gain, but simply to serve and to make a difference.  He volunteered to serve in Korea where he lived in a wooden hut on the Demilitarized Zone with another Norwich classmate, Don MacInnis (‘.  He was one of the first officers to volunteer for Vietnam as an infantry advisor, he served four tours in Germany at the height of the Cold War, he rebuilt the United States Army during some of our most precarious times, and he impacted hundreds of thousands of young men and women as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army.  Despite his success, he never lost that personal touch.  I spoke with Freddy Haynes, a friend of General Sullivan from the Class of 1958, who said “Gordy never, ever forgot where he came from.  He was the same humble man at 80 than he was as a Norwich Rook at 18.  He connected with everyone, regardless of their station in life.”        

My dad passed in 2016, three months before I was scheduled to be promoted to brigadier general.  I called General Sullivan from Turkey to ask him if he would promote me in lieu of my dad.  In that old Quincy accent, he immediately responded with my dad’s nickname, “Are you kidding me, Briggs!?  I’ll fly to Turkey to promote you if I need to!”  I invited several of his classmates to the ceremony and saw first-hand the love, respect, and commitment the class of 1959 had for one another.  I also noted their deep and genuine laughter about the times they shared almost 60 years hence.  Laughter, I have found, seems to be the ever-present punctuation in any conversation between Norwich Alumni.  While they were all extremely successful in their own rite, they remained Norwich men – accomplished yet never taking themselves too seriously, humorous but always laughing at themselves and not at others, and humble to the end. 

There is a time in every generation when its stars begin to exit the scene.  Some early, some late, but never at the right time.  They depart leaving behind a world that is better off because of their service.  My daughter will attend Norwich University as a civilian student beginning in 2024.  As she walks across the Class of 1959 Bridge which connects the civilian dormitories from the Upper Parade Ground, it is my profound hope that she reflects upon the values and virtues of General Sullivan, her grandfather, and their 1959 classmates.  And that she strives to emulate them in a life of humble and selfless service, and that she has a few laughs along the way.  A Norwich man could ask for no more.    

Dave Brigham, NU Class of ’88, commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Field Artillery after graduation. As an artillery officer, Special Forces officer, and Foreign Area Officer, his career included service in Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. He eventually attained the rank of brigadier general. Following his retirement, Brigham served as the Director of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies’ African Military Education Program, which helps its African partner nations develop and improve their Professional Military Education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa. He is a 2004 graduate of the Naval War College (MS), a Harvard National Security fellow (2011-2012), a Center for Strategic Studies for International Studies fellow (2014-2015), and an MIT Seminar XXI fellow (2016- 2017). He is currently a doctoral student in strategic leadership studies at James Madison University.