page_title: USS The Sullivans (DD-537)
section_title: 6th Fleet deployment
hierarchical_section_title: USS The Sullivans (DD-537) / 6th Fleet deployment
caption_attribution_description: English: The U.S. Navy destroyer USS The Sullivans (DD-537) passing the destroyer tender USS Grand Canyon (AD-28) off Newport, Rhode Island (USA), on 29 October 1962. The Sullivans was assigned to the blockading forces during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
context_page_description: USS The Sullivans (DD-537) is a Fletcher-class destroyer. She is a United States Navy ship named in honor of the five Sullivan brothers aged 20 to 27 who lost their lives when their ship, USS Juneau, was sunk by a Japanese submarine during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on 13 November 1942. This was the greatest military loss by any one American family during World War II. She was also the first ship commissioned in the Navy that honored more than one person.
  After service in both World War II and the Korean War, The Sullivans was assigned to the 6th Fleet and was a training ship until she was decommissioned on 7 January 1965. In 1977, she and cruiser USS Little Rock were processed for donation to the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park in Buffalo, New York. The ship now serves as a memorial and is open for public tours.
context_section_description: The destroyer operated out of her home port well into the summer of 1953, before deploying to the Mediterranean for a tour of duty with the 6th Fleet. She remained on this duty through the end of the year and returned to Newport on 3 February 1954 for operations off the east coast and into the Caribbean through May 1955. She again deployed to European and Mediterranean waters from May to August of that year before returning to Newport late in the summer.
  In the years that followed, The Sullivans continued alternating east coast operations with Mediterranean deployments. The summer of 1958 saw a communist threat to the security of Lebanon, and president Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered American ships to land troops there to protect Americans and to help stabilize the tense situation. The Sullivans supported the landings of Marines at Beirut. After their presence had dispelled the crisis, she returned to the United States for a three-month navy yard overhaul and subsequent refresher training at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
  Back at Newport in March 1959, The Sullivans joined a hunter/killer group formed around the aircraft carrier USS Lake Champlain (CV-39). Then, after making a midshipman training cruise for USNA and NROTC midshipmen in which she also conducted antisubmarine warfare operations, the destroyer sailed for another Mediterranean deployment which lasted until she returned home in the autumn.
  Operations out of Newport occupied The Sullivans until early spring of 1960 when she headed south for ASROC evaluations off Key West, Florida. During this deployment to southern climes, on March 31st and April 1st, the warship helped to rescue five of eleven survivors from a U.S. Air Force KC-97 Stratofreighter(Model F Stratotanker) that had ditched 40 miles off the Florida coast near Cape Canaveral.
  Following NATO exercises in September, The Sullivans visited Lisbon, Portugal, prior to a quick trip through the Mediterranean, Suez Canal, and Red Sea, to Karachi, West Pakistan. In late October and into November, she participated in Operation "Midlink III," joint operations with Pakistani, Iranian, and British warships. After returning to the Mediterranean, The Sullivans conducted exercises with the French Navy and with the 6th Fleet and reached home in time for Christmas.
  In January 1961, The Sullivans assisted in the sea trials of the nuclear-powered fleet ballistic missile submarine USS Abraham Lincoln (SSBN-602) off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, before steaming south and taking part in Operation Springboard. While in the Caribbean, she visited Martinique. Briefly back at Newport early in March, The Sullivans soon returned to the West Indies to support marine landing exercises at Vieques, Puerto Rico.
  In April, the ship began intensive training in the waters off Florida to prepare to cover a Project Mercury spaceshot. The Sullivans joined Lake Champlain at Naval Station Mayport, Florida, and took station. On 5 May 1961, Commander Alan Shepard's Mercury space capsule, Freedom 7, passed overhead and splashed down near Lake Champlain and was speedily rescued by helicopters from the carrier. The Sullivans then made a midshipman cruise in June, visiting New York and Halifax, Nova Scotia.
  From September 1961 to February 1962, The Sullivans underwent a major overhaul in the Boston Naval Shipyard. She proceeded to Guantanamo Bay soon thereafter to train for duty as a school ship. She subsequently served as a model destroyer in which officer students could see and learn the fundamentals of destroyer operation. In May and again in August, The Sullivans made training cruises to the Caribbean for the Destroyer School.
  In October 1962, after Soviet missiles were discovered in Cuba, The Sullivans joined American naval forces blockading the island during negotiations with the Soviet Union over the issue. When the Soviet Government withdrew the strategic weapons, the destroyer returned to Newport.
  On 7 January 1963, The Sullivans got underway from Newport bound for the Caribbean and another training cruise. Following her return to Newport,
caption: The Sullivans off Newport, Rhode Island, 29 October 1962.
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