Defense

Sailors facing Courts Martial

U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class James Reyher, 28, of Caldwell, Ohio, and Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan Harris, 23, of Gladstone, Missouri, died on Feb. 26, whe...

Federal News Radio Custom Media@WTOPWFEDcustom

October 10, 2013 10:48 am

< a min read

U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class James Reyher, 28, of Caldwell, Ohio, and Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan Harris, 23, of Gladstone, Missouri, died on Feb. 26, when they ran out of air while trying to locate a sunken helicopter in 150 feet (46 meters) of water at the Super Pond training site at Aberdeen Proving Grounds near Baltimore. As a result four sailors have been charged with dereliction of duty resulting in the deaths of Reyher and Harris during a training exercise. Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jason Bennett, the command diving officer for a salvage and diving unit, was charged with failing to ensure that safety procedures were followed and with failing to tell the commanding officer of a request to deviate from the training scenario. Senior Chief Navy Diver David Jones, Senior Chief Navy Diver James Burger and Chief Navy Diver Gary Ladd Jr also were accused of failure to follow safety procedures.