US Navy dismisses two commanders over collisions

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The US Navy dismissed two senior commanders on Monday after two collisions involving Navy ships in recent months, citing a loss of confidence in their ability to command.

Rear Admiral Charles William, commander of Task Force 70, and Captain Jeffrey Bennett, commander of Destroyer Squadron 15, were both relieved of duty by Vice Admiral Phil Sawyer, commander of the Japan-based Seventh Fleet, a Navy statement said Monday.

The guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (foreground), seen with a hole on its port side after a collision with a tanker, docks next to the USS America (behind) at Changi naval base in Singapore, August 22, 2017. /AFP Photo

William will be replaced by Rear Admiral Marc Dalton, commander of Task Force 76, while Captain Jonathan Duffy, deputy commander of Destroyer Squadron 15, will assume the place of Bennett in the fleet, the statement said.

Their dismissals came after USS John S. McCain, a guided-missile destroyer, collided with an oil and chemical tanker near Singapore in August, leaving 10 US sailors dead and five injured.

In June, seven sailors were killed when the USS Fitzgerald, also a guided-missile destroyer, and a container ship collided off the coast of Japan.

A large-scale video screen displays a television news program, reporting on the collision between a US Navy destroyer and a container ship off Japan, in Tokyo, June 19, 2017. /AFP Photo

The disciplinary steps taken by Sawyer were part of a purge of leadership in the Seventh Fleet, the largest of US Navy's forward-deployed fleets. A total of six senior commanders were fired recently, including the top three officers of the Fitzgerald.

Headquartered in Yokosuka, Japan, the fleet operates roughly 50 to 70 ships and submarines, 140 aircraft, and approximately 20,000 sailors.

The two deadly incidents were among four collisions involving US Navy vessels over the past year or so. The two non-fatal collisions included one between guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain and a South Korean fishing boat off the Korean Peninsula in May and the other between a nuclear ballistic-missile submarine and a support vessel off Washington State late August.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency