Commander to meet the grieving families
Bodies flown back to US
TOKYO, June 20, (Agencies): The US Navy’s top commander visited Japan Tuesday to meet the grieving families of seven sailors killed in a weekend accident, as investigators probe questions over the timing of the collision with a container ship.
Admiral John Richardson arrived at the US naval base in Yokosuka on the outskirts of Tokyo to meet bereaved relatives and officers who served on the USS Fitzgerald.
“It’s an intimate meeting, very solemn grieving with families, so we’re not even taking photos,” Commander Ron Flanders, press officer at the US Naval Forces in Japan, told AFP.
The sailors, aged 19 to 37, were found in flooded sleeping berths a day after the collision tore a huge gash in the side of their guided-missile destroyer.
Their bodies were being flown back to the US on Tuesday morning, according to the Commander US Naval Forces Japan.
“Fitzgerald 7 are headed home; just left Japan ...#FITZ crew, family on hand to say goodbye,” it said on Twitter.
Japanese coastguard investigators have been interviewing the Filipino crew of the cargo ship ACX Crystal, and hope to directly hear accounts of sailors aboard the much-smaller US destroyer. The cargo ship’s crew — who were not injured — apparently took nearly an hour to report the collision in a busy shipping channel near the warship’s home base, a gateway to container ports in Tokyo and nearby Yokohama.
Originally, Japan’s coastguard said the crash happened at 2:20 am Saturday (17:20 GMT Friday) based on when it was reported by the Crystal’s crew.
But they later told Japanese investigators the incident actually happened almost an hour earlier at 1:30 am.
Japanese officials are also investigating why the 222-metre (730-foot) cargo ship made a sudden turn at about 1:30 am, and a sharp turn after it reported the accident around 2:20 am, as shown in data from the Marine Traffic website.
It was not clear why the crew waited almost an hour to report the collision or what prompted the turns.
The US destroyer did not report the accident to local authorities and was not obliged to, he added.
The United States has primary jurisdiction in investigating accidents involving its military.
There have been around 30 ship collisions over the past decade in the area, including a 2013 incident in which six Japanese crew died.
Richardson would also meet Japanese Maritime SelfDefence Force and coastguard officials to express his appreciation for their help in the search, Kyodo News reported.
Among the seven US Navy sailors who died in the Saturday collision between the USS Fitzgerald and a Philippine-flagged container ship off Japan were an Ohio man expecting to retire soon, a Maryland man who was his father’s best friend and a former volunteer firefighter in his Virginia hometown.
Sailors Among the seven US Navy sailors who died in the Saturday collision between the USS Fitzgerald and a Philippine-flagged container ship off Japan were an Ohio man expecting to retire soon, a Maryland man who was his father’s best friend and a former volunteer firefighter in his Virginia hometown.
Here are snapshots of them taken from interviews of family and friends:
Richardson
Yeoman 3rd Class Shingo Alexander Douglass followed in his father’s footsteps in joining a maritime branch of the military, enlisting in the Navy in 2014.
He started working aboard the destroyer that same year and last October joined his shipmates on a visit to an orphanage in South Korea as part of a community service project. Douglass was seen pushing a disabled orphan in a wheelchair, according to the San Diego Union Tribune.
His father, Ret Marine Corps Master Sgt Stephen Douglass, told the newspaper his 25-year-old son was an avid videogame player “and a really good kid.”
He had just gotten promoted in May. A 2010 Fallbrook High School graduate in Fallbrook, north of San Diego, he was unmarried.
His family described him as “adventurous” and said his hobbies included scuba diving and tennis.
“Shingo served his Nation proudly, and we are also very proud of him and his service,” his family wrote in a statement.
Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Noe Hernandez was a tremendous source of pride for his family, a relative told Dallas television station KTVT.
“We all came from poverty in Guatemala. He was the one who made it,” said cousin Aly Hernandez-Singer. “We lived through his experiences. His travels.”
The 26-year-old Hernandez, of Weslaco, Texas, had been stationed in Illinois, Italy, California and Japan since joining the Navy in 2009.
He died in the collision from a head injury as he slept, Hernandez-Singer told the TV station.
She said Hernandez met his wife in high school and also is survived by a 2-year-old son.
Sonar Technician 3rd Class Ngoc T. Truong Huynh, 25, always “had the brightest smile,” his sister said.
He was selfless, Lan Huynh told WVIT-TV, of Hartford, Connecticut, and the family is coping as best it can.
Huynh graduated from Watertown High School and attended Naugatuck Valley Community College before enlisting in the Navy in 2014. The family moved to Oklahoma soon after.
Connecticut’s governor has ordered flags to fly at half-staff in Huynh’s honor.
Personnel Specialist 1st Class Xavier Alec Martin was trying to call his father after the vessels collided but didn’t get through, his father told WJZ-TV in Baltimore.
All Darrold Martin can think of are his son’s final moments. The 24-year-old sailor, of Halethorpe, Maryland, followed in his father’s footsteps and was quickly rising in the ranks, said Darrold Martin, who referred to his son as his best friend. “It’s very hard,” the elder Martin said. “He’s my only child, he’s all I have.”
Martin graduated in 2010 from Landsdowne High School, where he ran track and had many friends, said Daneace Jeffrey, Martin’s aunt. He loved being in the military and was considering turning it into a career.
“He always put others before his own safety,” she said. “I’m sure in his last moments he was probably more concerned with the other servicemen than himself, that’s the kind of person he was.”