{"id":45356,"date":"2022-09-16T20:01:10","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T20:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/09\/16\/fighting-fitz-recently-wrapped-up-its-first-post-collision-deployment\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:54:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:54:26","slug":"fighting-fitz-recently-wrapped-up-its-first-post-collision-deployment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2022\/09\/16\/fighting-fitz-recently-wrapped-up-its-first-post-collision-deployment\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting Fitz recently wrapped up its first post-collision deployment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Five years ago, any sailor, veteran or Navy watcher would have been understandably skeptical of the guided-missile destroyer Fitzgerald ever returning to operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A collision with the cargo ship ACX Crystal off Japan on June 17, 2017, killed seven crewmembers in their berthing quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It left the warship with a 13-by-17-foot hole in its starboard side, spanning several decks, and the commanding officer\u2019s quarters had been obliterated as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But five years later \u2014 even as the loss of crewmembers Shingo Douglass, Noe Hernandez, Tan Huynh, Xavier Martin, Gary Rehm, Dakota Rigsby and Carlos Sibayan continues to reverberate through the lives of those who loved them \u2014 the Fighting Fitz has returned to the fray and recently wrapped up its first post-collision deployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Navy spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars getting Fitzgerald back into fighting shape, the momentousness of the ship\u2019s January-to-August deployment this year with the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group wasn\u2019t lost on the destroyer\u2019s leadership or its sailors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The seven sailors of the warship Fitzgerald who died following a collision on June 17, 2017. They are, clockwise from top left, Xavier Martin, Shingo Douglass, Dakota Rigsby, Carlos Sibayan, Gary Rehm, Noe Hernandez and Tan Huynh.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Every step working up to and during the deployment carried added weight and meaning, the Fitz\u2019s commanding officer, Cmdr. Dave Catterall, told Navy Times this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything was a milestone, he said, the first time the ship had done a given task since the harrowing collision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was already an understanding we\u2019re bringing Fitz back,\u201d Catterall said. \u201cWe wanted to show Fitz in a good light, because we knew that people were watching Fitz, whether those were families of the fallen sailors, or our namesake\u2019s family, we knew that people cared a lot. \u2026 That was important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gravity and sanctity of getting Fitz back out there hit early in the deployment, during a January port visit to Yokosuka, Japan, where the warship was based before the collision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Fitz sailors and those who had helped the ship after the collision came to check out the revitalized vessel, Catterall said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were proud that they left with a positive impression of how the ship looked and where we were,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 17, Fitz\u2019s crew held a memorial for the seven lost, five years ago to the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Graffiti aboard the warship Fitzgerald shortly after seven sailors died in a June 2017 collision. (Photo provided to Navy Times)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was a chance to remember their fallen comrades, but also a chance to remember the grim consequences when a ship isn\u2019t operating correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigations<\/a> into the Fitz collision revealed a culture of dysfunction not only onboard the ship, but within the Japan-based U.S. 7th Fleet as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn that remembrance ceremony, we tried to focus on those sailors who were lost and the families, and what it means to be out there, not just for those families, but families that send their sailors out to sea\u201d in general, Catterall said. \u201cThe importance of professional competence, and thoughtful planning, and good debrief practices to apply lessons learned \u2026 that was wrapped into that, but the primary focus was on remembering the cost that is paid when things don\u2019t go right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a pretty significant milestone and we honored that at sea, in the waters of the Pacific, the same waters the collision happened in,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were other moments from this deployment that remain with the CO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the ship pulled into Diego Garcia, the harbor pilot that brought Fitz into port was the same one who brought Fitz back to the Yokosuka waterfront after the collision, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was almost by chance we ended up going to Diego Garcia, the way our schedule played out,\u201d Catterall said. \u201cSo many little things on deployment reinforced how special it was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sonar Technician (Systems) 3rd Class Hasan Gaines mans the rails on the foc\u2019sle of the guided-missile destroyer Fitzgerald during a visit to Sri Lanka in March. (MC3 Catie Coyle\/Navy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Fitz\u2019s \u201cmemorial pway\u201d is adorned with a plaque remembering the collision, as well as seven plaques for the lost sailors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crew remembers what\u2019s at stake every time they pass, Catterall said, and he brings newly qualified officers of the deck there \u201cto reinforce the price that comes with not doing things properly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as the crew works to move the ship beyond the collision, that day is ingrained in the ship\u2019s bones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sailors come in and out of Berthing 2 hatches through which survivors clambered upward as seawater filled the Fitz five years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t speak for every sailor, I\u2019m sure there were some who were apprehensive \u2026 but it wasn\u2019t something that was evident in my conversations with sailors,\u201d Catterall said. \u201cPeople were able to get past that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lingering remnants of the ship\u2019s trauma aren\u2019t lost on Catterall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He sleeps in the same CO\u2019s cabin that was crushed in the collision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d be lying if I said there weren\u2019t times when it crossed my mind,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you look at the pictures of the CO\u2019s cabin crushed, that\u2019s where I sleep every night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while the collision will forever be a part of the ship, class-wide berthing designs that impeded escape have since changed for the better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the destroyer fleet, \u201ckickout panels\u201d are on racks, and berthing vestibule double doors have been replaced with curtains to eliminate egress choke points, according to Cmdr. Arlo Abrahamson, a Naval Surface Forces spokesman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Fitz sailors who escaped the sea, which filled the berthing in less than a minute, later blamed lockers that weren\u2019t bolted down strongly enough for impeding escapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The guided-missile destroyer Fitzgerald after a fatal 2017 collision that killed seven crewmembers. (Navy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Today, the \u201cstructural rigidity\u201d of racks and lockers has been improved, Abrahamson said, and crews undergo mass egress training from their assigned racks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a long deployment that took the Fitz to Japan, India, Sri Lanka, Bahrain and back to its new homeport in San Diego, the crew kept the ship in the fight in ways that impressed the CO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been on a deployment where we were just able to keep going, keep fixing things within days \u2026 diagnose and repair, stay in the fight,\u201d he said. \u201cVery impressive to me, based on my prior deployment experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ship and crew also did well during their Board of Inspection or Survey, or INSURV, assessment last year, according to Catterall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe sailors understood their equipment and they took pride in ownership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fleet-wide, Catterall said he is proud of the rapid advances in ship driving training he is seeing among junior officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He came up during the bad old days of \u201cSWOS in a box,\u201d where surface warfare officer training was a shadow of what it is today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was commissioned, went to the waterfront and was given a stack of CDs to learn this stuff,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cmdr. David Catterall, the commanding officer of the guided-missile destroyer Fitzgerald, just saw the warship through its first deployment after a 2017 collision killed seven crewmembers. While honoring the sacrifices of the Fitzgerald Seven, Catterall said he and his crew have focused on getting Fitz back in the fight. (Navy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But today, officers coming out of the basic and advanced division officer courses are much more prepared to get to it when they arrive, Catterall said. He also lauded advances in quartermaster and junior officer of the deck schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several SWOs who spoke with Navy Times this summer echoed this sentiment, that the surface fleet\u2019s fundamental training has changed quickly over the past five years \u2014 for the better.<\/p>\n\n\n\t