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James Albert Tull was born in Seaford, Delaware on August 27, 1910. He was the second of four children (one of whom died very young) born to Edward Bird Tull (a farmer, 1883–1954) and Marion Louise Tull (née Lank, 1883–1920). His name was listed in some records as Albert J. Tull. When recorded on the census on January 5th, 1920, he was living with his family on Arch Street in Seaford (probably at 206 Arch Street, his father’s address in 1930). Tull married Doris Virginia Waller (later Doris W. Tull Walls, 1915–1977) in Laurel, Delaware on February 1, 1938. He was working as a clerk at the time. The couple had three children.

When Tull registered for the draft on October 16, 1940, he was described as standing 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighing 150 lbs., with brown hair and blue eyes. He was working as a milk dealer in Laurel prior to entering the military.

Tull joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in Camden, New Jersey on February 28, 1944. He began his training in Maryland at the United States Naval Training Center, Bainbridge. A member of his family (likely his wife) who filled out his State of Delaware Individual Military Service Record wrote that after completing training on October 21, 1944, Tull was promoted from apprentice seaman to seaman first class. He or she added that Tull “Was to receive Gunners Mate Rating when he arrived on ship.” U.S. Navy records show that on December 7, 1944, Seaman First Class Tull joined the crew of the heavy cruiser U.S.S. Indianapolis (CA-35) from the Naval Training & Distribution Center at Camp Shoemaker, California. The ship had just been overhauled at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard near San Francisco.

Muster rolls during his service aboard the Indianapolis state that Tull was a “S1c (GM)”. That indicates that he was a seaman first class, “striking” for the rating of gunner’s mate (that is, training for a job aboard a ship at sea rather than in a school on land). Indianapolis escorted carriers of the Fifth Fleet launching airstrikes against mainland Japan on February 16 and 17, 1945. The ship subsequently supported the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. On March 31, 1945, off Okinawa, Indianapolis was struck and heavily damaged by a bomb dropped from a Japanese plane. The ship was out of action for repairs back at Mare Island until mid-July. According to a September 5, 1945 article in Journal-Every Evening, “Seaman Tull spent a five-day leave here with his family” during the overhaul.

In his book A Grave Misfortune, Dr. Richard A. Hulver wrote that “Notice on 12 July that Indianapolis was chosen to perform a top-secret delivery at high speed to Tinian on 16 July pushed up redeployment plans approximately two months.” After delivering personnel and materials for the atomic bomb on July 26, 1945, Hulver continued, Indianapolis was ordered “join Task Group 95.7 for two weeks of training” off Leyte in the Philippines. She departed the Mariana Islands on July 28. Just after midnight on July 30, 1945, the Japanese submarine I-58 torpedoed and sank the Indianapolis. It is unknown of Seaman First Class Tull was killed in the sinking or in the days that followed. Those survivors of the sinking still alive by August 2–3, 1945 were rescued, but Tull was not among them.

The Wilmington Morning News reported on September 19, 1945 that the day before, “Mrs. Doris Waller Tull of near Laurel received a telegram from the War Department today staying that her husband[…]was now assumed to have been lost.” The person who filled out the State of Delaware Individual Military Service Record paperwork wrote: “I received the Purple Heart, thru mail, for him, and am keeping it for the children (3) when they get older.”

Although his body was lost to the sea, Seaman First Class Tull is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines, with a marker in the Beechwood Memorial Cemetery in Princess Anne, Maryland, and at the U.S.S. Indianapolis Memorial in Indianapolis, Indiana. According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, as of January 30, 2021, Donovan is one of 104 Delawareans who went missing during World War II who are still unaccounted for.

Special thanks to the Delaware Public Archives for their photograph of Seaman First Class Tull.

This piece was written as part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/), with the goal of eventually honoring all 400,000 American service members who were killed during World War II.

Bibliography

Delaware Public Archives; Dover, Delaware; Collection Number: Birth Records - 89; Roll Number: 89. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1672/images/31297_212256-00240

Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/160433508/james-albert-tull, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56777981/james-albert-tull, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/194108206/james-albert-tull

Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4295768-00953

Hulver, Richard A. A Grave Misfortune: The USS _Indianapolis Tragedy_ (Peter C. Luebke, Associate Editor). Naval History and Heritage Command, Department of the Navy, 2018. https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/publications/publications-by-subject/a-grave-misfortune.html

Marriage Records. Delaware Marriages. Bureau of Vital Statistics, Hall of Records, Dover, Delaware. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61368/images/TH-266-12592-36498-59

“J. A. Tull of Laurel Lost in Ship Sinking.” Wilmington Morning News, September 19, 1945.

James Albert Tull Individual Military Service Record. Delaware Public Archives, RG 1325-003-053 Record of Delawareans Who Died in World War II. https://cdm16397.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15323coll6/id/21180

“Mrs. George F. Walls”, The Daily Times (Salisbury, Maryland), March 6, 1977.

Muster Rolls of U.S. Navy Ships, Stations, and Other Naval Activities, 01/01/1939-01/01/1949; A-1 Entry 135, 10230 rolls, ARC ID: 594996. Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group Number 24. National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. https://www.fold3.com/image/303699517?rec=274766318, https://www.fold3.com/image/303629979?rec=273985637, https://www.fold3.com/image/303630423?rec=273991459

“State Casualty List Increased.” Journal-Every Evening (Wilmington, Delaware), September 5, 1945.

WWII Draft Registration Cards for Delaware, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947. The National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 71. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2238/images/44003_03_00004-01719, https://www.fold3.com/image/303631502?terms=James%20Albert%20Tull

Article last updated on October 20, 2021

U.S.S. Indianapolis seen on December 9, 1944, two days after James A. Tull joined her crew. Photo 19-N-76904 (National Archives via Naval History and Heritage Command)