The Navy released the names Thursday of one sailor who was killed, and nine others who are still listed as missing, after a collision between the destroyer John S. McCain and an oil tanker near Singapore on Monday.
All 10 sailors are presumed to have perished. It was the second fatal collision involving a Navy vessel in the past two months, and the commander of the Seventh Fleet was removed Wednesday.
The search for the bodies has been slowed by the extensive damage to the vessel. At least 20 divers from the Navy and the Marine Corps have been working underwater with hydraulic cutters to try to enter the McCain’s crushed and flooded berthing compartments of the ship.
Here is what is known about the sailors, all petty officers:
■ Kenneth Aaron Smith, 22, an electronics technician, third class, from Cherry Hill, N.J., is the first and so far only sailor to be confirmed dead. He grew up in Michigan and moved to Virginia as a teenager, where he enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Corps to prepare to join the Navy, following his father and grandfather, his mother told the Detroit Free Press. “He’s very patriotic,’’ said his mother, April Brandon. “He’s my hero. His father’s hero, too.’’
■ Dustin Louis Doyon, 26, an electronics technician, third class, from Suffield, Conn.. The family of Doyon said in a statement this week it wanted “to thank all those who have expressed concern and offered prayers and support as we await word from the US Navy on our son and brother Dustin.’’
■ Jacob Daniel Drake, 21, an electronics technician, second class, from Cable, Ohio. Drake joined the Navy after high school out of a desire to travel, his sister, Veronica, told the Springfield News-Sun of Ohio. “When I think of Jake I just think of when he’d have all his friends over and they’d be sitting in the living room with their computers, taking stuff apart,’’ she said. “It’s little things like that. He always had a lot of friends and a lot of people that care about him.’’
Last month he was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, according to his ship’s Facebook page.
■ Charles Nathan Findley, 31, an electronics technician, first class, from Amazonia, Mo. Findley liked rebuilding cars and working on computers, said his sister, Amy Winters.
“He wanted to make something of himself and make his family proud,’’ Winters told Fox 4, a Kansas City television station.
“That is his dream,’’ she added. “He loved traveling the world with the Navy, and he had so many friends and the Navy truly is his family.’’
■ John Henry Hoagland III, 20, an electronics technician, third class, from Killeen, Texas. Hoagland’s mother said he had wanted to serve in the military since he was a child.
“The first time John said he wanted to serve his country, he was 5,’’ his mother, Cynthia Kimball, told KTRK, a Houston television station. “It’s the only thing he’s ever wanted to do.’’
■ Corey George Ingram, 28, an information systems technician, second class, from Poughkeepsie, N.Y. A fellow sailor, Chris Eaton, told The Straits Times of Singapore that Ingram made friends wherever he went.
“He was very outgoing, always willing to lend a hand,’’ Eaton said. “If we were ever in the same city, we would meet up and go looking for a party.He could befriend anyone in any room — he just had one of those personalities.’’
■ Logan Stephen Palmer, 23, an interior communications electrician, third class, from Decatur, Ill. Aaron Wiggins, a childhood friend, said that Palmer’s family was very proud that he had joined the Navy.
“He’s always been a great person,’’ Wiggins told the Chicago Tribune. “He was in Boy Scouts and made it all way to Eagle Scouts. He was a person you knew you could count on. You tell him what you need, and he’d do it.’’
■ Abraham Lopez, 39, an interior communications electrician, first class, from El Paso, Texas.
■ Kevin Sayer Bushell, 26, an electronics technician, second class, from Gaithersburg, Md.
■ Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr., 23, an information systems technician, second class, from Manchester, Md.
