The USS George Washington aircraft carrier arrived in Japan as part of its home port shift less than two weeks ago, but its brief time in the country has been turbulent and marked by drunkenness, liberty restrictions and the deaths of two sailors.
Just days after the ship's arrival, reports of arrests over drunken behavior began to circulate on social media, and Navy officials now say that the ship has taken steps to curb alcohol consumption among the crew.
Then, in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, the ship lost two of its sailors in separate events that are still being investigated, a Navy official told Military.com.
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On Nov. 22, Electrician's Mate (Nuclear) Petty Officer 2nd Class Cuyler Condon was discovered unresponsive in a hotel room on the Navy base in Yokosuka, Japan.
A service official said that medical staff from U.S. Naval Hospital Yokosuka responded to the scene and pronounced the sailor dead.
Three days later on Nov. 25, Electrician's Mate Fireman Dimitri Morales was also discovered unresponsive but off base in Yokosuka, and local emergency responders declared him deceased.
The Navy said that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is leading the investigation into Condon's death while local Japanese authorities are leading the investigation into what happened to Morales.
The deaths come at a time when the crew appears to be dealing with at least a temporary spate of sailors causing trouble in their off-hours.
A Navy official said that, because of liberty incidents that occurred both prior to and since the ship's arrival in Japan, ship leaders decided to extend restrictions on what sailors can do in their off-hours and the ship's crew is barred from drinking alcohol.
Military.com asked the USS George Washington for a more detailed accounting of how many incidents its sailors have been involved in since arriving in Japan, as well as a confirmation of reports on social media that a number of arrests have been made, but those questions went unanswered.
The military newspaper Stars and Stripes, which was the first to report the restrictions, quoted the ship's spokesman as saying that the restrictions went into effect just four days after the aircraft carrier arrived in Japan and, while temporary, no end date has been set.
The subject of sailors and drunken antics is a thorny one in Japan, a country where past crimes committed by drunk service members range from minor offenses all the way to rape and kidnapping.
In 2021, Navy Lt. Ridge Alkonis caused uproar after he lost consciousness and drove his car into the parking lot of a noodle shop, hitting multiple cars and killing two Japanese nationals, an 85-year-old woman and her 54-year-old son-in-law.
More recently, several alleged sexual assaults on the island of Okinawa this summer by Marines and an airman led the prefecture governor to tell U.S. reporters that those crimes were painful not only for their nature but because of the lack of transparency on the part of American forces.
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