CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – A former Marine who now lives in Clarksville is remembering a comrade he served with, who was one of the four Marines and one Sailor killed in the July 16 shooting in Chattanooga. Veteran Brad Kendzierski said shortly after joining the Marine Corp he met Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan in 2005.
Both served in the same artillery gun crew and Kendzierski said this about Sullivan who at the time was his Section Chief. “He was a good guy, a funny guy, he was very smart, a very smart individual. He knew his job well, he knew everything about artillery and it was his job to train us,” said Kendzierski.
Kendzierski said there were a lot of great stories he could share about Sullivan who like to be called “Sully” and one story involved Kendzierski, or “Ski” as his buddies called him and his wife Courtney. Sullivan showed his support for his fellow Marine when Kendzierski and his wife were having a hard time of it while at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
At one point, the couple didn’t have a place to live so Sully came to their rescue. “Out of his own pocket he put us up in a hotel, he paid for two weeks for me and her to have a place to stay while we got on our feet and we eventually found a place,” Kendzierski said.
Kendzierski added Sullivan never asked for anything in return or to be paid back. Kendzierski also said he always looked out for the men in the field but even outside of work, out of uniform, he wanted to hang out and he was a good guy like that.
The two men not only served at Camp Lejeune but also together in a tour of duty in Iraq. During his service in combat Kendzierski said Sullivan had been awarded two purple hearts. Kendzierski left the Marine Corp in 2009 and lived in Detroit for a time before moving to Clarksville.
Talking about his friend and the shooting in Chattanooga Kendzierski said, “It’s one thing to be a Marine in combat, but to go to work in the morning at a recruiting office in the states and to be shot and killed, that’s unacceptable and it breaks my heart knowing that’s the way he passed.”
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