Baku. 23 August. REPORT.AZ/ Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin has been relieved of his duty as the commander of the US 7th Fleet, based in Yokosuka, Japan.
Report informs citing the CNN, Rear Adm. Phil Sawyer, who has already been nominated and confirmed for position and promotion to Vice Adm., will assume command immediately.
This follows an incident Monday in which the guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with a merchant ship.
The seventh fleet of the US Navy is based in the Japanese city of Yokosuka.In recent months, several incidents have occurred at once: the collision of the destroyer John McCain with an oil tanker near Malaysia was only the last of them.
In June, seven sailors died after the USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship off Japan. Searchers found the bodies of the seven sailors in flooded berthing compartments. Before that, the guided-missile cruiser Lake Champlain collided with a South Korean fishing vessel in May. And in January, the guided-missile cruiser Antietam ran aground in Tokyo Bay.
Aucoin served as commander of the US 7th Fleet from September 2015.