SINGAPORE -- The U.S. Navy on Thursday called off the search at sea for sailors still missing after a collision between a destroyer and an oil tanker, and it confirmed the identity of a body.
The 7th Fleet said divers will continue to search flooded compartments inside the USS John S. McCain, where some remains have been found. The Navy has not provided specifics.
Ten sailors were missing and five others were injured in the accident, which occurred Monday as the McCain was heading to Singapore for a routine port call.
The fleet said it had identified the remains of Electronics Technician 3rd Class Kenneth Aaron Smith, 22, of New Jersey. His mother, April Brandon, said Smith grew up in Novi, Mich., and moved to Norfolk, Va., as a teenager with his father.
Darryl Smith called his son "a great young man" who made his family "incredibly proud."
The third-generation sailor, who worked in radar technology, was in his fourth year of a seven-year commitment and had considered a military career like his father. Brandon, who lives in Michigan, told Detroit news outlets that her son joined the Navy out of a desire to serve his country but also for the education it provided. His long-term goal was to develop video games.
The search for the remaining sailors, which also involved aircraft and ships from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia, was suspended after 80 hours of scouring a 2,100-square-mile area east of Singapore, the Navy said.
A Malaysian navy vessel found a body at sea Tuesday, but it turned out to be the decomposed corpse of an elderly man and was unrelated to the collision, the U.S. Navy said. The remains were medically examined and will be returned to Malaysian authorities.
Meanwhile, the twisted steel of the flooded compartments of the ship is hindering divers' access, slowing their search for sailors whose bodies might still be on board.
The damage to the ship is so extensive that the divers must enter through a gaping hole on its port side. According to one Navy official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because investigations were underway, the oil tanker appears to have hit the McCain nearly head-on.
"It's a challenging environment, and the safety of the divers is paramount," said Lt. Paul Newell, a spokesman for the 7th Fleet in Yokosuka, Japan. "While they are working as expeditiously as they can, the entire team is taking great measures to safeguard the divers."
The commander of the 7th Fleet was relieved of duty Wednesday after the McCain collision and other accidents this year that raised questions about its operations in the Pacific. Seven sailors died in June when the destroyer USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship off Japan. Two lesser-known incidents occurred earlier in the year.
The firing of Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, a three-star admiral, was a rare dismissal of a high-ranking officer for operational reasons.
Aucoin was to retire in a few weeks, and the officer named to succeed him, Vice Adm. Phillip Sawyer, assumed command immediately.
Sawyer, speaking Thursday at a maritime security meeting in Bali, Indonesia, thanked regional navies for helping in the search for the McCain sailors.
"Often it is a brutal reminder that what we do is dangerous work in an unforgiving environment, requiring honed skills and constant vigilance," he said. "And even with those, bad things can happen."
Lawrence Brennan, an adjunct law professor at Fordham University and a retired Navy officer, called Aucoin's dismissal "an unprecedented peacetime move."
"Four incidents in a short time in an operational area is a problem," he said, though he cautioned against rushing to assign blame. The four incidents this year concerned three 7th Fleet ships and one from the 3rd Fleet.
The Navy has ordered an operational pause for its fleets worldwide to make sure all steps are being taken to ensure safe and effective operations. The Pacific Fleet also will carry out a ship-by-ship review of its vessels, looking at navigation, mechanical systems, bridge resource management and training.
The 7th Fleet said four of the sailors injured in the collision and taken to a Singapore hospital were released Wednesday.
It identified the nine sailors still missing as Electronics Technician 1st Class Charles Nathan Findley, 31, of Missouri; Interior Communications Electrician 1st Class Abraham Lopez, 39, of Texas; Electronics Technician 2nd Class Kevin Sayer Bushell, 26, of Maryland; Electronics Technician 2nd Class Jacob Daniel Drake, 21, of Ohio; Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr., 23, of Maryland; Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Corey George Ingram, 28, of New York; Electronics Technician 3rd Class Dustin Louis Doyon, 26, of Connecticut; Electronics Technician 3rd Class John Henry Hoagland III, 20, of Texas; and Interior Communications Electrician 3rd Class Logan Stephen Palmer, 23, of Illinois.
Information for this article was contributed by Jeff Karoub, Annabelle Liang of The Associated Press; by Richard C. Paddock of The New York Times; and by Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Alex Horton of The Washington Post.
A Section on 08/25/2017