Lives Aboard The U.S.S. Fitzgerald: Saved By Heroism, Lost By Failure

The 300 or so sailors aboard the U.S.S. Fitzgerald missile destroyer had to know even before the Friday they departed their port in Japan for the Philippines that relaxation would be in short supply during their trip. Busy shipping routes meant a busy crew, they knew, and the Fitzgerald was headed for some of the world’s most congested waters.

They could not have known, though, that their trip would end with seven of them dead — the greatest loss of life suffered by the Navy since 17 sailors were killed in a terrorist attack on the U.S.S. Cole 17 years before. Nor is it likely that the sailors aboard the Fitzgerald knew that those deaths would be of the crew's own making or that the character of some of them would rise to the level of hero.

Onboard accounts of the accident that killed the Fitzgerald's sailors clearly indicate the chaos on the ship that day and the failures that led to it. The accounts also vividly illustrate that while the deaths likely could have been prevented with a closer adherence to basic nautical procedures, far more lives would have been lost if not for the heroism of several of the surviving sailors.

Barely into the trip, the sailors were very busy, indeed. Huge container ships and other oversized commercial vessels cluttered the Fitzgerald’s route almost from the beginning. Before traveling to the Philippines, the destroyer had tipped the scales at 9,000 tons, which seems protective only until considering that it has frequently traveled in the same lanes as freighters triple its weight heading in the opposite direction.

Most ships are equipped with electronics designed to detect vessels cruising nearby. The military adds another line of defense all the time, deploying lookouts to the front, rear and both sides of its ships. They scan the seas as backup, really, should the ship’s detection systems fail. On open seas, deploying lookouts may seem like more of a formality than a necessity but there is now incontrovertible proof that lookouts in congested waters can be more valuable than the most sophisticated of electronics.

That proof though, is based not on any uplifting account of heroism that saved lives but on the death of seven young people and the details of the utter failure that cost them their lives.

Those details were released this week in a Navy report on the Fitzgerald’s collision with a 29,000 ton freighter on June 17, only hours after the carrier had departed for the Philippines.

A separate report, not yet complete, will address the cause of the collision. The report released last week, though, clearly indicates that the collision likely could have been avoided, and certainly minimized enough to have saved the lives of those seven sailors.

The captain’s absence from the bridge of the ship was a failure but his presence may not have changed a thing.

Had alarms on the ship not failed, maybe all seven sailors would have escaped the ship alive. Maybe only one would have been saved. Maybe none of them.

The report leaves no question, though, that the deployment of lookouts who would had met even minimal standards for their job performance would almost certainly have saved the Fitzgerald and its sailors. How could a sailor standing on the side of the destroyer not have seen or not reported that a 29,000 freighter was approaching? Was a sailor even there?

For now, only the failure is known. What led to it remains a mystery.

The report does clearly detail how heroic sailers who had been asleep when the Fitzgerald was hit jumped from their bunks and saved lives before water filled their sleeping quarters in less than a minute.

The Fitzgerald was named for William Fitzgerald, who was killed during the Vietnam War while acting as an adviser to the South Vietnamese Navy. The destroyer, deployed at Yokosuka for more than a decade, had become a familiar ship off the Japanese landscape. When Japan was jolted by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011, the Fitzgerald - along withe aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ronald Reagan - played a key role in relief efforts.

In February, the ship had completed $21 million in upgrades and repairs.

One of eight destroyers the Navy has deployed in Yokosuka, the Fitzgerald - just two weeks before - was one of nearly one dozen American and Japanese ships that participated in a joint exercise taken as some as meant to send a message to North Korea.

June 17 should have been just another day.

At 1:30 in the morning, that changed. The Fitzgerald was jolted.

The container ship, the ACX Crystal, had plowed into it. The captain of the Crystal would later say that they had tried to signal the Fitzgerald with flashing lights but the destroyer had not responded, just continuing toward the container ship.

The Crystal tried to avoid the oncoming ship but to no avail and ripped a 13-foot by 17-foot hole in the second and third decks of the Fitzgerald, allowing water to pour into the ship.

The force of the water pushed a non-water tight door leading to the Berthing 2 compartment inward, pulling the door away from the ceiling.

Berthing 2 is an area where some of the crew sleeps. It is approximately 29-feet long and 40-feet across, with ceilings 10-feet high. There are 42 beds, a bathroom and shower, along with sofas, chairs, a table, a television. It is a space where crew can relax when not on duty.

Of the 42 sailors assigned to the area, 35 were there. Five were on watch and two were not on the ship.

Death And Heroism

“Water on deck!” “Get out!”

The cries rang through Berthing 2 immediately after the collision.

Sailors were knocked from their beds. Some had managed to sleep through the collision only to be frantically awakened by others. One sailor was pulled from his bed into the water by others trying to rescue him. The senior sailors took responsibility to check the beds.

The space was nearly flooded in less than one minute.

By the time the third sailor reached a ladder in the area to get to a higher deck, the water was already waist deep. Mattresses, furniture, wall lockers, even an exercise bike - were floating in the area.

Gary Leo Rehm, Jr., a 37-year-old Fire Controlman 1st Class from Elyria, Ohio who would be the last body to be recovered from the ship, pushed a colleague to safety from beneath a falling locker.

Despite the chaos of the quickly-flooding compartment, sailors were organized and helping each other escape up the ladder. By the time most were working their way out, they were already up to their necks in water.

One sailor managed to escape into the Berthing 1 compartment. He had been in the top bunk and the water had quickly reached him.

“Go, go, go, it’s blocked” he head someone shout and went another way. He was losing his breath but managed to swim. He lost consciousness only to end up in the other Berthing area. He does not know how he got there but, suddenly, he was able to stand, breathe.

Sailors continued to search, reaching into the dark water to try to find anyone they could. Two last sailors made it out, pulled to safety by their colleagues. The two had been completely underwater right before they made it out.

The last sailor had been in the bathroom when the collision occurred. He had been knocked to the floor and scrambled as quickly as possible, He saw lockers and other debris floating past him as he made his way to the only light he saw. As he took his last breath - he was completely under water - he was pulled to safety.

Eventually, the area had to be closed off. Sailors went to various locations to assist where needed. Some went to the mess to help with the injured. One went to the bridge to help. One took the helm and stood a 15-hour watch. Others assisted with damage control efforts.

The most severely injured were evacuated by helicopter.

Saving Commander Benson

The commanding officer of the Fitzgerald, Commander Bryce Benson, had been in his cabin.

A native of Green Bay, Benson had joined the Navy after graduating from Marquette University in 1999.

He worked a variety of assignments — often alternating between staff assignments and deployments aboard ships.

Benson was the Weapons Officer aboard the U.S.S. Forrest Sherman, the Executive Officer and then Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Guardian.

He served internships on the Navy Staff of the Joint Staff and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He also served as the Executive Assistant to the Director of Operations for the United States Pacific Command.

Benson was first assigned to the Fitzgerald in November 2015 when he was named the ship's Executive Officer.

He was named commanding officer in May.

When the Crystal struck his ship, it hit just below Benson's cabin, trapping him. He radioed the bridge for help.

Five sailors used a sledgehammer, kettlebell, and their bodies to break through the door into his cabin, remove the hinges, and then pry the door open enough to squeeze through. Even after the door was open, there was a large amount of debris and furniture against the door, preventing anyone from entering or exiting easily.

The rescue team tied themselves together with a belt in order to create a makeshift harness as they retrieved Benson, who was hanging from the side of the ship.

They took him to the bridge, where a medical team assessed his condition. As he was being monitored by personnel on the bridge, his condition worsened. He would be evacuated by helicopter.

Heroes Amid Chaos

Every ship in the Navy has a Damage Control Assistant, the person who works with the Engineering Officer to coordinate damage control in the event of an accident - or worse.

In this case, the Fitzgerald's DCA was asleep in her bed when the crash happened.

The lurch of the ship jolted her awake.

The ship's collision alarm sounded and she quickly dressed and headed to the Central Control Station where she supervised all damage control efforts.

From there, she would sound the general quarters alarm and make sure everyone was in position, that all efforts were being made to keep the ship afloat.

As this was going on, efforts were being made to check on the safety of the crew.

Head counts were being performed.

At 2:25, less than one hour after the collision, two Sailors were reported missing.

Forty-five minutes later, another head count revealed worse news: four Sailors were unaccounted or.

At 5:40, there was a final muster and the news was even more grim: seven Sailors were missing.

Death

Meanwhile, the Japanese Coast Guard sent two ships - the Izanami and the Kano, to help the Fitzgerald. Both arrived just before 5 a.m. and helped with search and rescue efforts along with aircraft from the U.S. Maritime Patrol.

The U.S. Navy sent the U.S.S. Dewey to assist.

The focus shifted to getting the Fitzgerald back to port, back to safety.

If the ship moved too quickly, it would take on more water.

The Navy used a helicopter to send a deputy commodore, a doctor, a chaplain, others to support the crew.

As the Fitzgerald approached Yokosuka Naval base, it was met by two tugboats who would help guide it the rest of the way. Given the damage to the ship, it had lost its ability to steer in a straight line.

Just after 4 p.m., the ship entered the inner harbor of the Naval base.

A third tugboat was hired to provide an additional buffer.

Just before 7 p.m. the Fitzgerald was once again pier-side at the Naval base. Divers would search the flooded cabins in the ship in search of the bodies.

Lost At Sea, Found Onboard

It didn’t take long for the Navy dive team to find the first body.

It was the morning of June 18, just before 5 a.m. when the team entered the twisted hull of the U.S.S. Fitzgerald. The ship had arrived at the Japanese port of Yokosuka the night before after a deadly collision the previous morning.

The divers knew that seven sailors were unaccounted for and they were likely in the area of the ship known as Berthing 2. There were some critical of the Navy for waiting but the Fitzgerald had no dive equipment on board, nor did it it have trained and qualified divers.

It was actually the second dive into the ship in just about 12 hours.

Once the Fitzgerald was safely moored in Yokosuka, a dive team had gone in the night before to assess the situation, looking for a way for the divers to enter the damaged spaces.

Now, the morning of the 18th, they were in, having entered through a hole on the starboard side of the ship.

They immediately came on Dakota Rigsby. His foot was caught between a ladder and a wall. It wasn’t clear if this happened as he tried to flee the onslaught of water or if he had floated into that position after he had died.

A diver was able to easily free Rigby’s foot. His body was brought to a dive boat and he was placed on board at 5:23. The dive boat was sheathed so onlookers - the curious, the media - would not be able to see what happening.

Dakota Rigsby, of Palmyra, Virginia, was 19-years-old.

Over the next 90 minutes, the ritual would be repeated six more times. The bodies would be brought to the U.S. Naval Hospital at Yokosuka where they would be positively identified.

Praise And Punishment

Earlier this week, the Navy released the partial results of the first of three investigations it is conducting into the collision.

This investigation - focused on the actions of the crew after the collision - was a "line of duty" probe to determine if those who died did so while acting in the line of duty.

The report concluded each injury, each death, had occurred in the line of duty and none was due to any member's own misconduct.

“Through their swift and, in many cases, heroic actions, members of the Fitzgerald crew saved lives,” Rear Admiral Charles Williams, who led the probe, wrote in a memo that was released with it. “No damage control efforts, however would have prevented Berthing 2 from flooding completely within the first two minutes following the collision, or the deadly circumstances in that situation.

“The loss of seven shipmates is a tragedy beyond words and a reminder of the dangers inherent in the mission of every ship and sailor.”

It was also, the report makes clear, a tragedy that didn’t have to happen.

“The collision was avoidable and both ships demonstrated poor seamanship,” the Seventh Fleet said in a release.

“Within Fitzgerald, flawed watch stander teamwork and inadequate leadership contributed to the collision that claimed the lives of seven Fitzgerald Sailors, injured three more, and damaged both ships.

“It was also evident from this review that the entire Fitzgerald crew demonstrated real toughness that night. Following the collision these Sailors responded with urgency, determination and creativity to save their ship. Their rigorous damage control efforts and dauntless fighting in the immediate wake of the accident prevented further loss of life.”

The Navy this week relieved Benson of his command "due to a loss of confidence in his ability to lead."

The Executive Officer, Commander Sean Babbitt, was also relieved of his duty after the Navy concluded that he had shown "inadequate leadership."

The Fitzgerald's command master chief, Master Chief Petty Officer Brice Baldwin, was also relieved of duty after the Navy concluded that he had contributed to the lack of preparedness.

Several junior officers were also relieved of their duties after the Navy found that they had shown "poor seamanship and flawed teamwork."

The other investigations - which will address such crucial questions as why did the crash happen, why was the captain not notified that the Crystal was bearing down on the Fitzgerald, and was the crew of the Fitzgerald even aware of that fact - continue.

Photos courtesy: United States Navy