Commentary: Disabled vet honors ‘gold star’ teacher, families

CEDAR FALLS — Kelly Sullivan is a ‘gold star” teacher in many ways, but she and other families who lost loved ones in war received a ‘‘gold star” tribute from one of her star pupils this week ahead of Veterans Day.

Disabled veteran Taylor Morris, who lost parts of all four limbs in a May 2012 bomb blast in Afghanistan, and a cadre of volunteers dedicated a Gold Star Families Memorial at Veterans Memorial Park in Cedar Falls.

Kelly Sullivan was Taylor Morris’s third grade teacher. She is the granddaughter and grandniece of Waterloo’s five Sullivan brothers, who were killed in World War II.

Sullivan not only attended Monday’s dedication, she and staff brought third graders from Lincoln Elementary School in Cedar Falls to the ceremony.

“I am so proud of my former third grader Taylor,” she said.

Not only is Sullivan a member of a Gold Star family which lost loved ones in combat, in 2022 she was among a group of local educators nominated for a Gold Star Teachers award by the R.J. McElroy Trust, a local philanthropic foundation named for the founder of Waterloo television station KWWL.

Sullivan made the dedication a “teaching moment” for her students as well as the public in attendance — many of whom were veterans who already knew the lesson of service and sacrifice.

“To the 52 third graders here today, I want you to look at this hero. Taylor Morris has always been my hero,” an emotional Kelly Sullivan said at the dedication. “Ever since he was eight years old. And it is so wonderful to see him work so hard on this project to make it happen.”

Sullivan has taught the lessons of military service and sacrifice to her students practically throughout her teaching career. She is also the official sponsor of the currently serving Navy destroyer named for her grandfather and great uncles, the USS The Sullivans, hull number DDG-68.

The lessons stuck with Morris.

“Talk about full circle,” Morris said. “She was my third grade teacher; it was her first year too at Lincoln, I think. We asked her to come and speak on behalf of the Gold Star families. And she said, ‘I’ll come, and I’ll speak and I’ll bring 52 third graders!’ Awesome.”

Morris said he talked to her class. “We did a couple of times since we started this project. Seems like it really makes an impact on them. And it’s cool to get kids that age involved.” Some Lincoln fourth graders who heard him speak last school year also attended.

Morris, a U.S. Navy explosive ordnance disposal expert, was injured May 3, 2012 in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, as he was trying to clear an area of improvised explosive devices for a unit of U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers. He began a rigorous rehabilitation and was fitted with prosthetics at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, D.C. His wife and then-fiancée Danielle, then Danielle Kelly, supported him and served as his primary caregiver.

“This is the latest project in Veterans Park,” Morris said. Several were conducted over the past 30 years, including relocating a replica Statue of Liberty to the park from Overman Park downtown, construction of a shelter, sales of commemorative bricks honoring individual veterans for their service to pay for park improvements and upkeep, and location of the official Black Hawk County Freedom Rock at the park by Greenfield artist Ray “Bubba” Sorenson II in 2015.

“This was a special project to me because it was something my grandfather had started on,” Morris said.

Vilas “Sid” Morris was a Korean War veteran, longtime local educator, Cedar Falls City Council member and Black Hawk County Veteran Affairs commissioner who spearheaded many projects at the park over the past three decades. Morris, U.S. Navy Vietnam veteran Mike Butler of the Cedar Falls Veterans of Foreign Wars post and local construction contractor Wayne Magee conceived the idea in 2019.

Sid Morris passed away in 2021, “and did not get to see this through to completion,” Taylor Morris said. “Mike asked me to join the team with him and Wayne Magee. And I was more than happy to do it. It’s been such a blessing and an honor to pick up where he left off, and do that on a project that has this level of significance.”

“I was here six months ago, with Taylor and (wife) Danielle and the kids, early morning Memorial Day, and he was telling me his plans,” Sullivan said, her voice quivering with emotion. “And it’s so wonderful to see someone when they’re so excited about something. It was beautiful. He was so passionate about it. I just admire all that.”

Sullivan noted she was wearing the U.S. Navy Seabees coat of her father, Jim Sullivan, the only child of the five brothers. He is in an assisted living facility. “Unfortunately he couldn’t come today but he’s here with us in spirit,” she said pausing to gather her emotions.

“To be a Gold Star family member, it’s a club you never want to be in,” she said. She and her brother John, who lives in the Kansas City area, attended a reception for Gold Star families in Washington, D.C., a year ago and met and shared experiences with others who have lost loved once in military service.

“When you lose someone, your Christmases are never the same; the holidays, the birthdays,” she said. “Everything is changed forever. And I know my dad, Jim Sullivan, always felt that — not having his dad, his uncles and the big Irish Catholic family we would have had if one of the boys had survived.

“This memorial here is for the over 600 Gold Star families we have registered here in Iowa,” Sullivan said. “This memorial is dedicated to all Gold Star families who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms.

“We have 52 patriots here today — these third graders, who are going to go on and do great things like Taylor did,” Sullivan said. “They’re going to bring their kids to this memorial. And they’re going to bring their grandkids here. Let’s make sure we utilize this space,” for Memorial Day, Veterans Day, “or just a beautiful morning like we have today,” she said.

Taylor Morris received the Bronze Star as well as the Purple Heart for his service. He and Danielle, a Cedar Falls real estate agent, have three children. He returned to a hero’s welcome in Cedar Falls following his rehabilitation. A massive fundraising effort spearheaded by the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation and the namesake foundation of actor Gary Sinise resulted in the construction of an iPad-operated “smart home” to accommodate Danielle and Taylor and Taylor’s disabilities. The effort included a 2013 concert at Gateway Park in Cedar Falls by Sinise’s “Lt. Dan Band,” named for Sinise’s Oscar-winning role as a disabled Vietnam vet in the movie “Forrest Gump” with Tom Hanks.

A video interview with Taylor Morris and Kelly Sullivan is attached here.

The memorial consists in part of a 7-foot-tall silhouette of a saluting service member, set in black granite, with a three-foot gold limestone star situated behind it. It’s positioned so that when the sun rises to a certain part of the sky on or around Memorial Day, the sunlight will be focused through the silhouette and illuminate the gold star. More details on the project can be found at a project website.

“The monument will have a specific solar alignment so that every year the Memorial Day sunrise will create a ‘golden salute,’ saluting the Golden Star within the Memorial,” according to a project description. The silhouette will be positioned directly between the memorial and the gold star, like a sundial.

“The Golden Star will be flanked by six granite Armed Service Tribute benches, with three on each side defining the perimeter,” the project description says. The memorial “will be fully accessible with ample room for groups and individuals to easily navigate around the monument while admiring its beauty and paying their respects.”

Morris has said even the memorial’s measurements have patriotic significance. “The soldier silhouette itself is 7 feet tall,” with three panels. “So that represents your seven-man firing team, with three volleys, That represents a 21-gun salute” by an honor guard, he explained.

The memorial dimensions also symbolize the date of the commissioning of the Continental Army, the first branch of armed forces, on June 14, 1775 during the American Revolution. The two shortest heights on the outside are 3 foot, 6 inches; the middle height is 7 foot 6 inches. “When you add those together you get 14 feet, 6 inches — the 14th day, the sixth month,” Morris has said. “The width of the base in 17.75 feet. It gives the reasoning behind the size, the shape and the form.”

Taylor Morris, the Sullivan Brothers and late Medal of Honor recipient Robert J. Hibbs of Cedar Falls, a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa ROTC program who was killed in Vietnam in March 1966, all are featured on the Black Hawk County Freedom Rock at Veterans Park.

George, Francis, Joseph, Madson and Albert Sullivan, the five sons of Thomas and Alleta Sullivan of Waterloo, died along with all but 14 of their nearly 700 shipmates when the Navy cruiser USS Juneau was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sunk following the naval Battle of Guadalcanal on Nov. 13, 1941 — 85 years ago this Friday. The five brothers’ deaths a considered the greatest combat-related loss of life by one family at one time in U.S. history.

Kelly Sullivan, the granddaughter of Albert Sullivan, youngest of the brothers and the only one who married, has been a very active sponsor of the USS The Sullivans, attending many events related to the ship and has hosted a number of its sailors and commanders on visits to Waterloo-Cedar Falls.

About $190,000 in cash and in-kind donations have been raised to make the Gold Star Families Memorial possible, Mike Butler said, and another $100,000 is needed to finish off the project, which Morris said will be illuminated with footlights at night.

Donations to the Gold Star Families Memorial project in Cedar Falls may be made online at the link here. Donations also may be made by check. Checks may be made out to “Veterans Memorial Fund” and mailed to the Cedar Falls Community Foundation, P.O. Box 546, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613. Questions may be directed to project contact Mike Butler at (319) 239-6214 or [email protected]m