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Via USNINews

Divers have discovered remains of USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) sailors during an evaluation of the ship after it arrived at Changi Naval Base in Singapore, Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Scott Swift told reporters on Tuesday.

Following McCain’s collision with Liberian-flagged chemical tanker Alnic MC, 10 sailors were reported missing.

Swift, speaking dockside at Changi, also confirmed reports Malaysian naval forces recovered a body at sea, but as of 7 a.m. EST said the Navy had yet determined whether these remains were from McCain. Search and rescue operations will continue, Swift added, until there is no likelihood of discovering anyone.

“We have found remains in the John S. McCain,” Swift said.
“The Malaysian Navy has found some remains as well. It is to be determined if the remains that were discovered by the Malaysian Navy are one of the ten missing sailors but we look forward to starting the process to identifying those remains.”

The news is not surprising, unfortunately.  And worse, the fact that the number of remains recovered wasn't disclosed raises the question if all the sailors will be recovered. Lost at sea is an all too common fate for the seafaring. 

Again, as with the USS Fitzgerald, we urge you to wait for the investigation. 

But while we wait for that investigation, there are reasonable questions to ask.  Are there risks to operations unique to the 7th Fleet area of operations and the Forward Deployed Naval Forces (FDNF)? Have the changes in Surface Warfare Officer training pipelines created a systemic risk of poor seamanship? Is the current Operational Tempo unsustainable? The SWO community has a long tradition of competing to do more with less, never saying no to a tasking. It's leading to exhaustion throughout the fleet. Was the eight year tenure of Ray Mabus as Secretary of the Navy too focused on social justice at the expense of readiness and training (yes, yes it was)?

One more question- do these operational questions extend to other communities in the Navy, and to the other services, increasing operational risk across the force?

Let us mourn are sailors, but let us also take a cold, sober look at the challenges we need to keep the forces from becoming the hollow force of the 1970s.