Sailor found dead aboard sub Nebraska - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Sailor found dead aboard sub Nebraska

A sailor was found dead Monday aboard the ballistic-missile submarine Nebraska at sea, according to a Navy spokeswoman, marking the third death aboard the ship in the last five years.

Machinist’s Mate Fireman William Mack, 21, was found dead in the submarine’s berthing spaces while the ship was underway in the Pacific Ocean. The cause is under investigation, said Lt. Kellie Randall, a spokeswoman for Submarine Group 9; she said there was no damage to the ship and there had not been an accident.

Mack’s mother, Susan, of South Pittsburg, Tenn., told Navy Times on Thursday she had not yet been told what happened to her son, or exactly where the ship was when his body was found.

“He died at 10 a.m. That’s all I know. I asked them, ‘Where did my son die?’ and they said, ‘Ma’am, you will never know.”

The Nebraska sailed March 18 from Naval Submarine Base Bangor, Wash., on a normal deterrence patrol. It surfaced this week “off Hawaii,” Randall said, to take aboard agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, who conducted an investigation for about 36 hours. Nebraska then met up with another boat, as was scheduled, to deliver people as part of an exercise. Mack’s body and the NCIS agents were transferred to the second boat, Randall said.

Nebraska, in the hands of its Gold Crew, will continue its patrol without a replacement crew member.

Mack is the boat’s third sailor to die aboard since 2005. On Jan. 6 of that year, Machinist’s Mate 3rd Class Aaron Scrimiger, 25, hanged himself in the machinery spaces while the ship was in port. On Sept. 20, 2008, Machinist’s Mate 3rd Class (SS) Michael Gentile was killed after being “entangled and pinned” as he worked on the rudder machinery while Nebraska was at sea.

Susan Mack told Navy Times that her son wanted to be a college professor; he was planning to study history at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

“Poor little Will,” she laughed, “in all his vacations he never knew about Disneyland — he thought we were supposed to go to old cemeteries and courthouses and historic things like that.”

He hadn’t been quite ready for college when he finished high school, so he elected to join the military. It was a choice between the Army and the Navy, she remembered.

“The Navy’s been so good to our family. That’s how all my uncles were educated. And Will loved Annapolis — we visited Annapolis when he was a little kid, and he used to say, when I get married I want to get married at Annapolis, with the crossed swords and everything.’ And I reminded him of that, so he said, “You’re right, that’s the good one — the Navy’s the good one.’ ”

He enlisted Dec. 3, 2008, and reported to Nebraska Aug. 4, 2009, records show. He was on his first deployment.