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Navy Identifies 10 Sailors Killed or Missing After Collision Off Singapore Navy Identifies 10 Sailors Killed or Missing After Collision Off Singapore
(about 5 hours later)
The Navy released the names on Thursday of one sailor who was killed, and nine others who are still listed as missing, after a collision between the destroyer John S. McCain and an oil tanker near Singapore on Monday. They were young men, petty officers all, whose lives were lived at sea and then lost there.
All 10 sailors are presumed to have perished. It was the second fatal collision involving a Navy vessel in the past two months, and the commander of the Seventh Fleet was removed on Wednesday. John Henry Hoagland III grew up in Killeen, Tex., and he spoke about serving his country when he was just five and still confronted with kindergarten. His family said he joined the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps in high school, and then visited recruiters for different branches of the military before deciding on the Navy, as an uncle and a grandfather had.
The search for the bodies has been slowed by the extensive damage to the vessel. At least 20 divers from the Navy and the Marine Corps have been working underwater with hydraulic cutters to try to enter the McCain’s crushed and flooded berthing compartments. Aboard big ships plowing waters far from land, he found serenity and exhilaration. Cynthia Kimball, his mother, shared one of her son’s Facebook posts, written in June, that captured his feelings.
Two House Armed Services subcommittees announced on Wednesday that they will hold a joint hearing on Sept. 7 about readiness issues associated with two destroyer collisions in the western Pacific — the one involving the John S. McCain, and another in June between the Fitzgerald and a cargo ship that killed seven sailors. “I’ve been to a few gorgeous places since I’ve made it out to the Fleet,” he wrote. “But man,” he added, “I still can’t get over just looking out at the ocean, or staring up at all of the stars at night. I think those two things are at the top of my list of favorite reasons for going Navy over any other branch.”
In advance of the hearing, Representative Rob Wittman, a Virginia Republican who leads the panel’s seapower subcommittee, is expected to meet on Aug. 28 in Japan with the new commander of the Seventh Fleet, Vice Adm. Phillip G. Sawyer. Ms. Kimball last spoke with her son, 20, an electronics technician, third class, last Friday afternoon. He let her know “that they were going to dock soon and he would call me when they did,” she said. “He was headed to bed. Told me good night and he loved me.”
The Senate Armed Services Committee is also expected to hold hearings in September into the accidents. The destroyer John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker in the waters near Singapore on Monday. Ten sailors, including Petty Officer Hoagland, are presumed to have died, said two Naval officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential aspects of the investigation. They represented a scattered group of men with early and pointed desires to do service on the world’s oceans. They then became victims in the latest of a spate of accidents involving Navy vessels.
Here is what is known about the sailors, all petty officers: After 80 hours of looking across 2,100 square miles of water, the Navy suspended search and rescue efforts on Thursday. Attempts to find the bodies inside the ship continued, but were complicated by the heavy damage to the vessel. At least 20 divers from the Navy and the Marine Corps have been working underwater with hydraulic cutters to try to pierce the McCain’s crushed and flooded berthing compartments.
• Kenneth Aaron Smith, 22, an electronics technician, third class, from Cherry Hill, N.J., is the first and so far only sailor to be confirmed dead. He grew up in Michigan and moved to Virginia as a teenager, where he enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Corps to prepare to join the Navy, following his father and grandfather, his mother told The Detroit Free Press. “He’s very patriotic,” said his mother, April Brandon. “He’s my hero. His father’s hero, too.” The crash came just two months after the deadly collision of another ship from the Navy’s Seventh Fleet, the destroyer Fitzgerald, which hit a freighter off the coast of Japan. Seven people died aboard the American ship. Two other Navy accidents occurred in Asia this year.
• Dustin Louis Doyon, 26, an electronics technician, third class, from Suffield, Conn. The family of Petty Officer Doyon said in a statement this week it wanted “to thank all those who have expressed concern and offered prayers and support as we await word from the U.S. Navy on our son and brother Dustin.” In the wake of these incidents, the commander of the Seventh Fleet, the Navy’s largest overseas, was removed on Wednesday. On Thursday, Adm. Bill Moran, the Navy’s second-ranking officer, issued detailed instructions to the four-star admiral assigned to conduct a 60-day review into possible systemic problems plaguing Navy ships worldwide, especially the Seventh Fleet based in Japan.
• Jacob Daniel Drake, 21, an electronics technician, second class, from Cable, Ohio. Petty Officer Drake joined the Navy after high school out of a desire to travel, his sister, Veronica, told The Springfield News-Sun of Ohio. “When I think of Jake I just think of when he’d have all his friends over and they’d be sitting in the living room with their computers, taking stuff apart,” she said. “It’s little things like that. He always had a lot of friends and a lot of people that care about him.” The instructions direct Adm. Phil Davidson, the head of the Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., to examine issues including pace of operations, readiness, and whether the fleet was properly training its officers and crews.
Last month he was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, according to his ship’s Facebook page. The cause of the latest crash remains under investigation. A pair of House Armed Services subcommittees on Wednesday said they will hold a joint hearing on Sept. 7 about readiness issues associated with the two destroyer collisions. Representative Rob Wittman, a Virginia Republican who heads the panel’s seapower subcommittee, is expected to meet on Monday in Japan with the new commander of the Seventh Fleet, Vice Adm. Phillip G. Sawyer. The Senate Armed Services Committee is also expected to hold hearings examining the accidents in September.
• Charles Nathan Findley, 31, an electronics technician, first class, from Amazonia, Mo. Petty Officer Findley liked rebuilding cars and working on computers, said his sister, Amy Winters. A statement from the White House on Tuesday expressed “great sadness” and said, “As the Navy begins the process of recovering our fallen sailors, our thoughts and prayers go out to their families and friends.”
“He wanted to make something of himself and make his family proud,” Ms. Winters told Fox 4, a Kansas City television station. The sailors came from eight states and ranged in age from 20 to 39. Eight were in their 20s.
“That is his dream,” she added. “He loved traveling the world with the Navy, and he had so many friends and the Navy truly is his family.” Inside the flooded ship, divers found the remains of Kenneth Aaron Smith, 22, an electronics technician, third class, from Cherry Hill, N.J. After growing up in Michigan, he moved to Virginia as a teenager, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press, and followed his grandfather and father, who both served in the Navy, into the military
• John Henry Hoagland III, 20, an electronics technician, third class, from Killeen, Tex. Petty Officer Hoagland’s mother said he had wanted to serve in the military since he was a child. Niana Jasso knew Petty Officer Smith in high school and talked to him frequently over Skype while he was serving aboard the McCain. “We’d talk about the latest video games he was playing,” Ms. Jasso said. “After the military he wanted to be a YouTube star and be a game developer.”
“The first time John said he wanted to serve his country, he was 5,” his mother, Cynthia Kimball, told KTRK, a Houston television station. “It’s the only thing he’s ever wanted to do.” He would joke to her that no one showered aboard the ship, so everyone smelled. Sometimes he sent Ms. Jasso videos from the deck. “Just him just walking around,” Ms. Jasso said. “He’d be looking out at the sea and the stars.”
• Corey George Ingram, 28, an information systems technician, second class, from Poughkeepsie, N.Y. A fellow sailor, Chris Eaton, told The Straits Times of Singapore that Petty Officer Ingram made friends wherever he went. She last spoke to him last week. He had been badgering her to watch his favorite show, Rick and Morty, and she wanted to tell him that she finally had.
“He was very outgoing, always willing to lend a hand,” Mr. Eaton said. “If we were ever in the same city, we would meet up and go looking for a party. He could befriend anyone in any room — he just had one of those personalities.” The allure of travel brought Jacob Daniel Drake, 21, to the Navy. An electronics technician, second class, from Cable, Ohio, he joined the Navy after high school.
• Logan Stephen Palmer, 23, an interior communications electrician, third class, from Decatur, Ill. Aaron Wiggins, a childhood friend, said that Petty Officer Palmer’s family was very proud that he had joined the Navy. He loved gadgets and technology, according to Brandie Roberts, his cousin. “He was ridiculously smart,” Ms. Roberts said in an interview over Facebook messenger, adding that he was “awkward, but it made him even more fun to be around” and that “he could make anyone laugh.”
“He’s always been a great person,” Mr. Wiggins told The Chicago Tribune. “He was in Boy Scouts and made it all way to Eagle Scouts. He was a person you knew you could count on. You tell him what you need, and he’d do it.” Ms. Roberts said she last spoke with Petty Officer Drake a little over a week ago. He inquired about her daughter, she said, who has been having health problems. She tried to talk with him about once a month, but she said he never mentioned the recent crash involving the Fitzgerald. “I think maybe he didn’t bring it up because I’m sure it bothered him and he didn’t want us to worry even more,” she said.
• Abraham Lopez, 39, an interior communications electrician, first class, from El Paso. She said her cousin had made lots of friends in the Navy and enjoyed his experience there, but “was ready for his deployment to end because he was ready to be closer to home.”
• Kevin Sayer Bushell, 26, an electronics technician, second class, from Gaithersburg, Md. Pride was a big motivation for Charles Nathan Findley, 31, an electronics technician, first class, from the tiny village of Amazonia, Mo. Fond of rebuilding cars, he, too, wanted to travel and make himself and his family proud, his sister, Amy Winters, told Fox 4, a Kansas City television station.
• Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr., 23, an information systems technician, second class, from Manchester, Md. Logan Stephen Palmer, 23, an interior communications electrician, third class, from Decatur, Ill., was known for his ingenuity. Caleb Stamper, who attended boot camp with him, said in an interview over Facebook messenger that he was “very outgoing” and “very courageous,” and was “always stepping up and leading with new ideas on how we could do things.”
He added, “He wanted to serve his country before he took what it had to offer. He thought that was the right thing to do.”
One of the things that stood out about Corey George Ingram was his winning personality. Petty Office Ingram, 28, was an information systems technician, second class, from Poughkeepsie, N.Y. “He was very outgoing, always willing to lend a hand,” a fellow sailor, Chris Eaten, told The Straits Times of Singapore. “If we were ever in the same city, we would meet up and go looking for a party. He could befriend anyone in the room — he just had one of those personalities.”
The other missing sailors are Dustin Louis Doyon, 26, an electronics technician, third class, from Suffield, Conn.; Abraham Lopez, 39, an interior communications electrician, first class, from El Paso, Tex.; Kevin Sayer Bushell, 26, an electronics technician, second class, from Gaithersburg, Md; and Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr., 23, an information systems technician, second class, from Manchester, Md.
There was little question that the collision involving the Fitzgerald had gotten the attention of the McCain sailors. But it didn’t seem to worry them.
Ms. Kimball, Petty Officer Hoagland’s mother, said that she had discussed that accident with her son.
“We talked about the other collision,” she said. “No, he was not worried it would happen to them.”