Navy recovers 7 sailors’ bodies
YOKOSUKA, Japan — The U.S. Navy identified the seven sailors who died when their destroyer collided with a container ship off Japan on Saturday.
Seven crew members, including one from Elyria, Ohio, had been unaccounted for after the collision flooded berths with seawater. Navy divers recovered the bodies after the severely damaged USS Fitzgerald returned Saturday to a Navy base in Yokosuka, Japan, aided by tugboats.
The Japan-based 7th Fleet identified the victims on Monday as:
Gunner’s Mate Seaman Dakota Kyle Rigsby, 19, from Palmyra, Virginia
Yeoman 3rd Class Shingo Alexander Douglass, 25, from San Diego
Sonar Technician 3rd Class Ngoc T. Truong Huynh, 25, from Oakville, Connecticut
Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Noe Hernandez, 26, from Weslaco, Texas
Fire Controlman 2nd Class Carlosvictor Ganzon Sibayan, 23, from Chula Vista, California
Personnel Specialist 1st Class Xavier Alec Martin, 24, from Halethorpe, Maryland
Fire Controlman 1st Class Gary Leo Rehm Jr., 37, from Elyria
The mother of a Fitzgerald sailor who survived the direct hit to his sleeping berth said he kept diving to try to save his shipmates until their quickly flooding berth began running out of air pockets. Other sailors, believing the ship was under attack, hurried to its guns.
Mia Sykes of Raleigh, North Carolina, told The Associated Press on Sunday that her 19-year-old son, Brayden Harden, was knocked out of his bunk by the impact of the USS Fitzgerald colliding with the Philippine-flagged container ship four times its size off the Japanese coast about 2:20 a.m. Saturday.
The Navy said most of the 300 sailors on board would have been sleeping.
Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, the commander of the 7th Fleet, also described a harrowing scene as sailors fought to keep the ship from sinking. Most of the damage is below the waterline, including a large gash near the keel, Aucoin said.