Navy recovers body of missing Ohio sailor
The wait is over. And it wasn’t the outcome anyone had hoped for.
Megan Partlow, the fiancee of missing Ohio sailor Jacob Drake, was notified early Saturday that Drake’s body has been recovered and identified. He was one of 10 sailors originally listed as missing after the USS John S. McCain collided with a merchant ship last Monday in the Strait of Malacca in the South China Sea.
The Navy has not yet issued a formal release about the discovery and a publicaffairs officer could not be reached, so no other details are available.
Petty Officer Drake, 21, enlisted in the Navy right after graduating from Triad High School in Champaign County in 2013. He was an electronics technician second class.
A relative said Drake’s parents and Partlow were too distraught Saturday and not yet ready to say more.
In a Facebook post, Partlow, 20, wrote on Saturday: “My heart has just shattered in a million pieces. I don’t want this to be real but I am glad we at least have an answer now.” She went on, “You are loved by so many and will be missed just as much.”
Ten sailors were listed as missing and five were injured after the McCain collision. The Navy recovered and identified two sailors earlier this week: Petty Officers Dustin Louis Doyon, 26, of Connecticut; and Kenneth Aaron Smith, 22, of New Jersey. Both were electronics technicians third class.
On Thursday, after more than 80 hours, the Navy suspended search efforts in an approximately 2,100-squaremile area east of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore and brought in additional divers for searches that continue in the ship’s flooded compartments.
Though hope waned, the Champaign County community where Drake grew up has continued to wrap his family in love. More than 300 people turned out at the Drake local ballfields in the village of North Lewisburg Thursday night, many praying for a miracle that he would somehow be found alive. Partlow was among them.
Partlow and Drake had been a couple since high school and planned to marry next summer. She had said that she fell in love with him the first time she saw him.
She said Drake loved being a part of the military because he liked that it helped so many people.
“He was constantly volunteering and trying to make others’ lives easier,” she said. “He wants the best for everyone and is just all around a loving and caring person.”
A cousin of Drake’s, Brandie Roberts, told The New York Times that the idea of traveling and seeing the world with the Navy appealed to Drake when he joined.
Roberts also said her cousin loved gadgets and technology and was “ridiculously smart.”
When she recalled Drake, Partlow talked about how he loved all animals, especially cats. And she said no one could stop laughing at what she called “his crazy dance moves.”
“He was beyond smart and is honestly my perfect soul mate,” she said.
The other sailors, all petty officers, still listed by the Navy as missing are:
■ 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.
■ 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 John Henry Hoagland III, 20, of Texas.
■ Interior Communications Electrician 3rd Class Logan Stephen Palmer, 23, of Illinois.