2 Maryland Sailors Missing From USS John McCain

Two sailors from Maryland have been identified as among the missing crew members of the U.S.S. John S. McCain when the war ship collided Monday with a merchant vessel in the South China Sea. The Navy says Electronics Technician 2nd Class Kevin Sayer Bushell, 26, and Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr., 23, both from Maryland, are among the sailors unaccounted for after the collision with the tanker.

One sailor has been confirmed dead and nine others are still missing. The Navy says that search and rescue efforts have been suspended, and instead efforts will turn to finding the bodies of those who are missing. The dead sailor has been identified as Electronics Technician 3rd Class Kenneth Aaron Smith, 22, from New Jersey.

Bushell is a 2009 graduate of Gaithersburg High School who joined the Navy seven years ago, WBAL reports. (SIGN UP: Get Patch’s daily newsletter and real-time news alerts, or like us on Facebook. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

"Our family asks for privacy during this very difficult time as we continue to wait for further information from the United States Navy. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the other missing sailors," a Bushell family spokesperson said in a statement to NBC.

Eckels is from Manchester, according to The Baltimore Sun, where he graduated in 2012 from Manchester Valley High School after attending North Carroll High School his freshman year.

His mother, Rachel Eckels, told The Sun that in high school Timothy wanted to join the Army, and she urged him to instead enlist in the Navy, thinking it would be safer if the country was at war. He was first assigned to the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, and disappointed to remain in Maryland, she said. In October he flew to Japan en route to his station on the McCain, and he was excited at the chance to see the world.

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The remaining crew members who are still missing are:

• Electronics Technician 1st Class Charles Nathan Findley, 31, from Missouri
• Interior Communications Electrician 1st Class Abraham Lopez, 39, from Texas
• Electronics Technician 2nd Class Jacob Daniel Drake, 21, from Ohio
• Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Corey George Ingram, 28, from New York
• Electronics Technician 3rd Class Dustin Louis Doyon, 26, from Connecticut
• Electronics Technician 3rd Class John Henry Hoagland III, 20, from Texas
• Interior Communications Electrician 3rd Class Logan Stephen Palmer, 23, from Illinois

The McCain collided with the Alnic MC on Monday in the South China Sea. The McCain was headed to Singapore for a routine port call. The bodies of some of the missing sailors have been located inside of the McCain.

Meanwhile, the Navy announced Thursday that they have suspended search and rescue efforts and shifted to recovery after more than 80 hours of a multinational effort. The Navy says that they searched a 2,100-square mile area. Efforts to recover the bodies of sailors from inside flooded compartments within the McCain will continue.

The crash involving the McCain was the second in just over two months involving a destroyer from the 7th Fleet. Last week, the Navy announced the preliminary results of one of several ongoing probes into the incident involving the Fitzgerald, finding cause to relieve three of the ship's top commanders of their duty.

The latest crash led Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson to order a pause in operations for the Navy's nearly 300 ships.

"This trend demands more forceful action," Richardson said. "As such, I have directed an operational pause be taken in all of our fleets around the world."

Richardson said there would also be a review to address what the "root causes" of these accidents are and that there would be a "very tight timeline."

"We need to get to the bottom of this," Richardson said. "So let's get to it."

There have been two other incidents this year. In May, the Lake Champlain collided with a South Korean fishing ship in an incident that had no injuries, and in February, the Antietam, another guided missile ship, ran ashore in Tokyo Bay, spilling hundreds of gallons of fuel.

The four crashes led the House Armed Services Committee to schedule a hearing for September 7th to examine "Navy Readiness - Underlying Problems Associated with the USS Fitzgerald and USS McCain."
Vice Admiral Thomas Rowden, the Navy's commander of Naval Surface Forces and John Pendleton, the Government Accounting Office's director of defense force structure and readiness issues are both scheduled to testify.

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— Patch Editor Colin Miner contributed reporting to this story.

Photo courtesy United States Navy