Divers find lost crew in Navy wreck

DIVERS SEARCHING the flooded destroyer John S. McCain have found the remaining 10 sailors who died after the ship collided with an oil tanker near Singapore, military officials said Sunday.

Search crews had been combing a large stretch of water in the South China Sea, as well as the punctured vessel’s crew berths, machinery and communications rooms since the Aug. 21 wreck.

Navy technician Corey Ingram, 28, of Poughkeepsie, who was among those feared lost following the crash, was identified Sunday as among the casualties.

When Ingram’s body was not immediately recovered, his mother, Jacqueline Ingram, held out hope that her eldest son had survived.

“We miss him and love him,” Jacqueline Ingram, 52, told the Daily News on Friday. She said her son always knew he wanted to join the military, partly because his dad set a proud example in the Air Force.

The victims ranged in age from 20 to 39 and hailed from Missouri, Texas, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois and Connecticut. The military also identified a technician, Kenneth Smith, 22, from Cherry Hill, N.J., as a victim of the Navy’s second tragedy since the destroyer Fitzgerald collided June 17 with a Philippine container ship.

Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin was fired from the Navy’s 7th Fleet following the latest incident with the McCain.