Military

State Capitol Flags At Half-Staff For San Diego Sailors Killed In USS Fitzgerald Crash

By City News Service

Published June 20, 2017 at 1:10 PM PDT

This story was published more than 7 years ago.

Yeoman 3rd Class Shingo Alexander Douglass (left), 25, from San Diego and Controlman 2nd Class Carlos Victor Ganzon Sibayan (right), 23, from Chula Vista were two of seven Sailors killed when USS Fitzgerald was involved in a collision with the Philippine-flagged merchant vessel ACX Crystal.

Gov. Jerry Brown Tuesday ordered flags at the state Capitol to be flown at half-staff in memory of two San Diego-area sailors who died in the collision of a Navy destroyer and a merchant vessel near Japan.

Fire Controlman 2nd Class Carlos Victor Ganzon Sibayan, of Chula Vista, and Yeoman 3rd Class Shingo Alexander Douglass, of San Diego, were among seven crew members of the USS Fitzgerald killed Saturday.

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Brown and first lady Anne Gust Brown said the sailors "bravely gave their lives in service to our state and nation" and extended their "deepest condolences" to the sailors' families and friends.

The victims were asleep in berths that were flooded in the Japan-based ship, which made it back to port.

The destroyer USS Fitzgerald, seen sailing in the Sea of Japan earlier this month.

On Sunday, Sibayan's mother said her 23-year-old son was her hero and acted as the family's father figure during his dad's own Navy deployments. He graduated in 2012 from Chaparral High School in Temecula, where he was active in the school's Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program for four years.

Douglass, 25, was an "adventurous young man" proud to be a part of his crew and of service to his country, his family said. The publication Stars and Stripes reported that he grew up in Okinawa before moving to San Diego County and graduating from Fallbrook High School in 2010.