Navy Fires Admiral, Captain in USS Fitzgerald, USS McCain Crash Probes

[Boats]

Navy Fires Admiral, Captain in USS Fitzgerald, USS McCain Crash Probes
By: By Joe Crowe | Monday, 18 Sep 2017 01:41 PM
RE: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/adm.../18/id/814239/

(On site only: Four sailors mourn at the casket of Corey Ingram before his funeral, at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York on Sept. 12, 2017. Ingram was among the 10 sailors killed when the USS John McCain collided with an oil tanker off Singapore on Aug. 21. (Frank Ritter/AP)

The U.S. Navy has fired Rear Adm. Charles Williams and Capt. Jeffrey Bennett amid probes into multiple incidents of warship collisions in the Western Pacific over the summer, according to US Naval Institute News.

Williams was the officer in charge of Combined Task Force 70 and Bennett was commodore of Destroyer Squadron 15.

"Both reliefs were due to a loss of confidence in their ability to command," a Navy statement said.

Bennett's command included USS John S. McCain and USS Fitzgerald. The Fitzgerald collided with a merchant tanker on June 7 and seven sailors died; the McCain collided with a tanker on Aug. 21, which resulted in the deaths of 10 sailors, according to USNI.

The Navy also announced replacements for both. Rear Adm. Marc Dalton, assumed Task Force 70's command, and Capt. Jonathan Duffy, deputy commander, assumed the Destroyer Squadron post.

Bennett and Williams are the fifth and sixth officials to be removed from their 7th Fleet positions in the aftermath of the collisions, USNI reported.

The USS Fitzgerald's top three leaders — Commander Bryce Benson, executive officer Sean Babbitt, and command master chief Brice Baldwin — were removed in August, USNI reported.

Also in August, the Navy fired Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, the commander of the 7th Fleet, after the accidents.