On Monday, the U.S. Navy announced that its divers found and recovered the remains of all 10 sailors who went missing after the USS John McCain collided with an oil tanker near Singapore. Emergency personnel working the scene initially called off their search for the remains at sea on Thursday, at which point crews had spent 80 hours combing the area. Instead, the Navy determined it would focus its recovery efforts on the ship’s flooded compartments — which is precisely where the sailors’ remains were found.
Officials also identified the 10 deceased sailors, who range in age from 20 to 39 years old and hail from eight states. They are Charles Nathan Findley (Electronics Technician 1st Class), Abraham Lopez (Interior Communications Electrician 1st Class), Kevin Sayer Bushell (Electronics Technician 2nd Class), Jacob Daniel Drake (Electronics Technician 2nd Class), Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr. (Information Systems Technician 2nd Class), Corey George Ingram (Information Systems Technician 2nd Class), Dustin Louis Doyon (Electronics Technician 3rd Class), John Henry Hoagland III (Electronics Technician 3rd Class), Logan Stephen Palmer (Interior Communications Electrician 3rd Class), and Kenneth Aaron Smith (Electronics Technician 3rd Class).
An ongoing investigation into the McCain collision, citing the recent (and similar) USS Fitzgerald disaster, resulted in the removal of a Navy vice admiral who was responsible for both ships, which were a part of the Japan-based 7th Fleet. “Admiral Scott Swift, commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet, today relieved the commander of Seventh Fleet, Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command,” explained a press release at the time. As the Associated Press and other outlets noted then, Aucoin’s firing was a “rare dismissal” of a high-ranking naval commander.
(Via Associated Press)