2 Maryland Sailors Confirmed Dead In USS John McCain Collision

The bodies of two missing Maryland sailors have been recovered, the U.S. Navy said on Sunday, the remains of all 10 sailors killed when the destroyer U.S.S. John S. McCain collided with a merchant vessel were located. Officials say Electronics Technician 2nd Class Kevin Sayer Bushell, 26, and Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr., 23, both from Maryland, died in flooded compartments after the destroyer collided with a tanker near Singapore.

On Thursday the Navy said that search and rescue efforts were suspended, and instead efforts focused on finding the bodies of those who are missing. Bushell was a 2009 graduate of Gaithersburg High School who joined the Navy seven years ago, while Eckels graduated in 2012 from Manchester Valley High School. (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.

Navy Recovers Remains Of All 10 Missing Sailors After McCain Collision

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.

Carroll County Superintendent of Schools Stephen Guthrie said of Eckels in a statement, "As a student at Manchester Valley High School, Tim was a wonderful young man and a pleasure to be around. He was known for making everyone better by his presence, whether it was as a member of the baseball and soccer teams, or as a student at the school. As a school system, we are saddened by this tragedy, but proud of Tim for his commitment and service to his country. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends during this difficult time."

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The bodies of some of the sailors were found in sealed compartments inside the USS John McCain, the Navy said last week. On Sunday, officials said U.S. Navy and Marine Corps divers had recovered the bodies of all the missing sailors:

• Electronics Technician 1st Class Charles Nathan Findley, 31, from Amazonia, Missouri
• Interior Communications Electrician 1st Class Abraham Lopez, 39, from El Paso, Texas
• Electronics Technician 2nd Class Kevin Sayer Bushell, 26, from Gaithersburg, Maryland
• Electronics Technician 2nd Class Jacob Daniel Drake, 21, from Cable, Ohio
• Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr., 23, from Manchester, Maryland
• Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Corey George Ingram, 28, from Poughkeepsie, New York
• Electronics Technician 3rd Class Dustin Louis Doyon, 26, from Suffield, Connecticut
• Electronics Technician 3rd Class John Henry Hoagland III, 20, from Killeen, Texas
• Interior Communications Electrician 3rd Class Logan Stephen Palmer, 23, from Decatur, Illinois
• Electronics Technician 3rd Class, Kenneth Aaron Smith, 22, from Cherry Hill, New Jersey

Four soldiers who were injured in the collision and flown off the ship to a hospital in Singapore were released and returned to duty, the Navy said Thursday.

The McCain collided with the Alnic MC Aug. 21 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.

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.

— Patch Editor Colin Miner contributed reporting to this story.
Photos courtesy United States Navy