The US Navy yesterday dismissed the commander of the Asia-based Seventh Fleet after a series of warship accidents raised questions about its operations in the Pacific.
A two-sentence statement said Admiral Scott Swift, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, had relieved Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command.”
The move follows four accidents in the Pacific since late January, including two collisions that left sailors dead and missing.
“While each of these four incidents is unique, they cannot be viewed in isolation,” Swift said earlier.
The navy would carry out a “deliberate reset” of all its ships in the Pacific, focused on navigation, mechanical systems and bridge resource management, he said. It will include training and an expert assessment of each ship.
Rear Admiral Phillip Sawyer, who had already been named as Aucoin’s successor, would assume command immediately, the navy said.
On Monday, the destroyer USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker collided off Singapore, injuring five sailors and leaving 10 missing.
Seven sailors died in June when the destroyer USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship off Japan.
The fleet said in a statement yesterday that navy and US Marine Corps divers are searching flooded compartments in the McCain in the hope of locating more of the missing sailors.
The sea-based search east of Singapore “is expanding to encompass a greater area as time goes on,” it said.
The search area more than doubled yesterday to about 5,500km2, with aircraft and vessels deployed by the US, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia, the Singaporean government said.
Swift on Tuesday said that navy divers had found remains of some of the missing in a flooded compartment in the ship.
Malaysians assisting in the search had also found a body, but it had not been determined if it was a McCain crew member, he said.
At least three of the 10 missing sailors have been identified by relatives.
Crew member Logan Palmer is from the Decatur, Illinois, area and his mother identified him as missing, US Representative Rodney Davis said.
April Brandon in Michigan said the military informed her that her son, Ken Smith, is missing.
Smith’s father, stepmother and grandfather served in the navy, she said
“His father and I couldn’t be prouder of our son,” Brandon said.
The family of Jacob Drake of Ohio was told he was among the missing, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
The collision at daybreak in a busy shipping area tore a gaping hole in the McCain’s left rear hull and flooded adjacent compartments, including crew berths and machinery and communication rooms.
The cause of the collision has not been determined.
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