USS John McCain

Noticed discussion of the USS John McCain in a few threads.  Seems that the worst fears have come to pass:

Divers have found remains of missing American sailors in the flooded compartments of the Navy destroyer John S. McCain, which collided with an oil tanker on Monday off the coast of Singapore, the commander of the United States Pacific Fleet said Tuesday.

The commander, Adm. Scott H. Swift, also said that “potential remains” had been located by the Malaysian Navy, which is involved with the search effort at sea for the 10 missing sailors.

On the question of whether there’s a connection between this and the USS Fitzgerald collision… it’s really too early to say. Unrelated coincidence is certainly a possibility. A technical glitch that is systematically affecting navigation procedures (either on the military or civilian side, or both) also seems plausible. It’s also possible that the USN has overstretched itself, and that crews are consistently overworked and exhausted. We don’t have a full report yet of the causes of the Fitzgerald crash, and it will be some time before we know enough about the McCain to make any clear judgements.