The Navy will relieve the Seventh Fleet’s admiral of his command after four of his ships suffered collisions this year.
Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, the three-star commander of the fleet in Japan, will be made to step down on Wednesday in connection with the crashes, sources have revealed.
Aucoin was expected to retire in a few weeks anyway, the insiders told The Wall Street Journal, but is going now because his superiors have lost confidence in him.
Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin (pictured) will be relieved of his command on Wednesday, insiders said. Four crashes have happened to the Seventh Fleet in the Pacific under his watch this year
On Monday the USS John McCain (pictured) suffered massive damage after it was struck by a commercial vessel while heading into Singapore for a port visit. Ten sailors are missing
An investigatoin into why the John McCain (pictured after collision) was hit is ongoing. Aucoin hasn’t been blamed for anything – but his superiors have lost confidence in him so he must go
Aucoin is expected to be relieved of his command by the commander of the US Pacific Fleet, Admiral Scott Swift.
The sources stressed that the three-star-general’s removal isn’t due to any specific findings in the ongoing investigations.
Those investigations are examining what effect training, manning and other internal fleet processes may have had on the crashes.
But under the Navy’s rules of public accountability, the doubt that Aucoin’s superiors have in his leadership mean that he cannot continue.
On Monday, the Navy announced that it was imposing an operational pause across the planet after the USS John S McCain, on its way to a port visit in Singapore, hit the commercial vessel the Alnic MC.
Ten sailors were left missing in the crash, and a search and rescue operation is now underway to locate them.
On Tuesday, remains were found in the John McCain; here, Navy sailors cover an unidentified body, believed to be one of those found in the wreckage after it was recovered
In June the USS Fitzgerald was struck by another commercial vessel near Yokosuka, Japan. It suffered damage under the waterline, causing sleeping compartments to flood
Seven US Navy sailors were killed in the Fitzgerald collision in June. They were (top row, left to right) Fire Controlman 2nd Class Carlos Victor Ganzon Sibayan, 23, from Chula Vista, CA; Gunner’s Mate Seaman Dakota Kyle Rigsby, 19, from Palmyra, VA; Sonar Technician 3rd Class Ngoc T Truong Huynh, 25, from Oakville, CT; and Yeoman 3rd Class Shingo Alexander Douglass, 25, from San Diego, CA. Bottom row (left to right): Fire Controlman 1st Class Gary Leo Rehm Jr., from Elyria, OH; Personnel Specialist 1st Class Xavier Alec Martin, 24, from Halethorpe, MD; and Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Noe Hernandez, 26, from Weslaco, TX
Just two months before, on June 17, the USS Fitzgerald hit a commercial ship, the ACX Crystal, near Yokosuka, Japan.
Seven sailors, aged 19-26, were killed as water flooded the ship’s sleeping quarters.
Those were the third and fourth crashes in the area this year.
In May, another crash saw the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain colliding with a South Korean fishing boat.
And in January the cruiser the USS Antietam ran aground off the coast of Yokosuka, near where the Fitzgerald collision took place.
No-one was killed in either of those incidents.
On Tuesday, it emerged that bodies had been found in the flooded compartments of the USS John S McCain.
The compartment was sealed after a collision tore a hole in the left rear hull, filling the crew’s sleeping area and communication rooms with water.
As well as the ten missing crewmembers, five others were injured.
The first crash to occur in the waters happened in January, when the USS Antietam (pictured in 2016) ran aground while anchoring near Yokosuka base, the Seventh Fleet’s home port
On May 9 the USS Lake Champlain (pictured in 2016) was struck by a South Korean fishing boat off the Korean Peninsula
Photos released by the Royal Malaysian Navy shows personnel covering up the remains of a missing sailor with a body bag, on the deck of KD Lekiu frigate, after the body was recovered in the waters off the Johor coast of Malaysia.
Authorities have not yet released the identities of the servicemen and women whose bodies have been recovered from the flooded ship.
It was also announced Tuesday that the possibility of a cyberattack will be examined by authorities investigating how so many ships in the area suffered collisions.
Admiral John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, said yesterday that there were ‘no indications right now’ that the two ships were hacked, but added investigators ‘will consider all possibilities’.
The top three commanding officers on the Fitzgerald have been relieved of their command and more than a dozen other sailors will be punished.
The US Navy said that commanding officer Cmdr Bryce Benson; executive officer Cmdr Sean Babbitt and Master Chief Petty Officer Brice Baldwin would be removed from the ship after the ‘avoidable’ night-time collision.