A sailor aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 146 died Thursday “following a medical emergency,” the Navy said in a statement.
The sailor’s name is being withheld pending next-of-kin notification.
It remains unclear if the sailor’s death was related to COVID-19, which infected more than 25 percent of the carrier’s approximately 5,000 sailors this spring, forcing a months-long emergency port call in Guam before the ship returned to its scheduled deployment last month.
“The Sailor, like all personnel embarked aboard Theodore Roosevelt, had been tested for COVID-19 multiple times during the outbreak of the virus aboard the ship earlier this year and those results were consistently negative for COVID-19 throughout the entire deployment,” U.S. 3rd Fleet said in a statement.
The sailor had received medical care aboard the ship and was then flown to a military medical facility ashore where he was pronounced dead at 5 a.m. local time.
RELATED
Officials declined to say where the TR was when the sailor’s death occurred, but 3rd Fleet is a San Diego-based command and the carrier had in recent days been operating in the Philippine Sea, waters overseen by the Japan-based U.S. 7th Fleet.
The carrier left San Diego in January.
A chaplain team and medical psychologist are aboard the TR assisting the crew, according to 3rd Fleet.
Geoff is the managing editor of Military Times, but he still loves writing stories. He covered Iraq and Afghanistan extensively and was a reporter at the Chicago Tribune. He welcomes any and all kinds of tips at geoffz@militarytimes.com.
