Sunken ship of Sullivan brothers lore discovered nearly 3 miles beneath the surface

They are from Waterloo, IA.

After this 5 Sullivan Brothers were all lost when the sinking of the USS Juneau CL-52 durin WWII, the navy set a policy that was meant to keep family members from serving on the same ships. But I guess that policy must have been discarded by 1969. In 1969, the Battle Group I was in included my first ship as a young sailor, the aircraft carrier USS Kearsarge CVS-33. It departed Long Beach CA on a Westpac deployment to Nam and included destroyers and escorts from the Little Beavers Destroyer Squadron. One of those Destroyers was the USS Frank E. Evans DD-754. In June 1969 The USS Frank E. Evans was providing 5" 38 gunfire support just off shore on the Gun Line off North Vietnam called Yankee Station. She was ordered to depart Yankee station and join the SEATO exercise to the South. At about 0500, while participating on that SEATO exercise in the South China Sea about 100-200 miles South east of Saigon, Vietnam. The USS Frank E. Evans DD-754 was cut almost perfectly in half (between the two stacks) by the Australian Aircraft Carrier HMAS Melbourne. The Bow half sunk in less than two minutes taking 74 sailors to a watery grave to meet King Neptune. Only one body of the 74 was recovered. Among those 74 that died approx 0500 3 June 1969, off the waters of South Vietnam were three brothers that went down with the ship, BM2 Gary L. Sage, RD3 Gregory A. Sage and SA Kelly Jo Sage all of Nebraska. They had requested to serve together and the Navy obliged and all three were serving on the Evans that morning.

To make matters worse, A Chief Petty Officer (CPO) was serving on Evans and requested his son join him as a father-Son duty assignment. The Navy granted that request. That June morning the Chief survived, but his son was among those that went down with the ship. When we eventually returned to Long beach after a lengthy Westpac, it was not the usual homecoming celebration on the pier with a returning battle-group. It returned minus one destroyer and the loss of 74 shipmates.