In a scathing report, the Navy has relieved the commander and the executive officer of the USS John S. McCain, a guided missile destroyer, for what it said was a “preventable” collision with a tanker off Singapore on Aug. 21 that killed 10 sailors. “It is evident this collision was preventable, the commanding officer exercised poor judgment, and the executive officer exercised poor leadership of the ship’s training program,” the Navy’s report said.
In an earlier collision, seven sailors were killed in June when another destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, also collided with a civilian tanker off the coast of Japan.
In Washington, Senator John McCain, son of the admiral for whom the John S. McCain is named, said the accidents were part of a larger trend of the military being asked to do too much with too little. Senator McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the military needs to make better assessments of what they need. Read more:
