Sailor, 20, is feared dead after ship fall

The Navy said it was conducting search-and-rescue operations over theweekend for a San Antonio sailor who is believed to have fallen overboard off the California coast nearly three days ago, but his father said Saturday night he fears his son is dead.

The search for Aviation Ordnanceman Airman Apprentice Ethan Goolsby, 20, who served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, began after a lookout spotted what appeared to be a person in the water Thursday.

His father, Kelly Goolsby, said he will have been missing for 72 hours as of Sundaymorning without protective clothing or safety gear.

“Ethan is a good swimmer, but I don’t know that any swimmer without something to assist him could survive 60 hours in water,” he said, noting the Roosevelt’s captain told the family the water ranged from 60 to 70 degrees with swells of 6 to 8 feet.

“So I do believe that he is dead,” Goolsby added. “We know of crazy 1 percent miracles, but we are prepared for the eventuality that it is, we hope, a recovery mission for his body, but we know that could be difficult as well.”

The Navy said nothing had changed since revealing Friday that the Roosevelt had launched search-and-rescue efforts Thursday off the southern California coast. A brief Navy press release stated that three helicopters and a Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat were launched in response.

The Navy said the U.S. Coast Guard, USS Bunker Hill, USS Russell, USS Howard and USS Charleston were participating in the search along with aircraft.

A single sailor was unaccounted for during a muster.

The Navy release did not identify the missing sailor, but Goolsby said it was his son and posted on Facebook that the ship was “still in search-and rescue-mode and that is their primary focus at this time, though an NCIS investigation is running concurrently.”

He spoke twice with the Roosevelt’s commander, Capt. Eric J. Anduze, and was told Ethan Goolsb had been last seen between 7 and 7:15 a.m., a period called morning quarters, following a night shifted he had served.

The younger Goolsby had been inspired to join the Navy because of a cousin who was a sonarman and another relative who’d served in the Seabees.

Kelly Goolsby said his son wanted to travel.

“Japan was the thing he wanted tosee themost,” hesaid, adding his son wanted “to go see and experience the food culture and the entire culture of Japan. A primary goal of his was to see the world.”