Two U.S. Navy sailors died late last month within days of their aircraft carrier’s arrival at its new homeport in Japan, a spokesman for the ship confirmed this week.
The two sailors, assigned to the USS George Washington, died in separate incidents, according to the Navy Times. They were identified by Stars and Stripes as Petty Officer 2nd Class Cuyler Burnett Condon and Seaman Dimitri Isacc Morales.
Condon was found unresponsive in an on-base hotel room on Nov. 22 — the day the carrier docked at Yokosuka Naval Base — while Morales was found somewhere off base in Yokosuka three days later. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
No cause of death was provided for either case. The Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) is looking into both of the incidents, and working with local Japanese law enforcement on Morales’ case.
“We still do not know what happened to him and have zero details about his death,” Morales’ mother, Svetlana Kashirina, told NBC News. She said her son planned to be an electrical engineer.
The USS George Washington had departed Norfolk, Va. in April after undergoing several years of maintenance and repairs. During the ship’s lengthy stay at the Newport News shipyard between 2017 and 2023, 11 sailors died by suicide, according to the NCIS.
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