YOKOSUKA, Japan (AP) — The Latest on the U.S. Navy ship collision off the Japanese coast (all times local):
The U.S. Navy has identified the seven sailors who died in a collision between the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship off Japan on Saturday.
They are:
— Gunner’s Mate Seaman Dakota Kyle Rigsby, 19, from Palmyra, Virginia
— Yeoman 3rd Class Shingo Alexander Douglass, 25, from San Diego, California
— 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, Ohio
#BREAKING: Statement from Acting Secretary of the Navy Sean Stackley on #USSFitzgerald – https://t.co/r6K7mXn32r #HonorTheFallen pic.twitter.com/TsBfCbDpZb
— U.S. Navy (@USNavy) June 18, 2017
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3:15 a.m.
The mother of a U.S. Navy sailor who survived a direct hit to his sleeping berth during a collision at sea says her son kept diving back down to try to save his shipmates until the flooded berth began running out of air pockets.
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, and water immediately began filling the berth.
Sykes says her son told her that the men sleeping on bunks above and below him were among those who died.
Sykes says her son told her that sailors initially believed they were under attack and some immediately went to man the guns.
Harden is from Herrin, Illinois, and recently was redeployed.
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11:10 p.m.
The search for the seven U.S. Navy sailors who went missing after their destroyer collided with a container ship off the Japanese coast has ended after bodies were found in the destroyer.
Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, the commander of the Navy’s 7th Fleet, told reporters that “a number of” bodies were recovered Sunday, a day after the USS Fitzgerald collided with a Philippine-flagged container ship four times its size. He wouldn’t say how many, pending notification of next of kin.
Aucoin said that much of the crew of about 300 was asleep when the collision happened at 2:20 a.m. Saturday, and that one machinery room and two berthing areas for 116 crew members were severely damaged. He said the destroyer was hit on the side and there was a significant impact.
A Navy spokesman said the victims might have been killed by the impact of the collision or drowned in the flooding.
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