A South Texas sailor was among those killed when a civilian container ship collided with a U.S. Navy destroyer off the coast of Japan Saturday.
Twenty-six-year-old Gunner’s Mate Second Class Noe Hernandez, a native of Weslaco, near Brownsville, was found dead along with several of his shipmates in flooded berthing compartments on board the USS Fitzgerald.
A cousin of Hernandez’s told Texas State News that that the death is "like a kick to the chest."
Most of the ship’s crew were asleep during the late-night collision.