Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and sailors with the USS Wasp Amphibious Ready Group conduct amphibious operations from a landing craft air cushion, or LCAC, at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., April 15, 2024. (Adam Scalin/U.S. Marine Corps)
Thirty sailors and Marines suffered injuries when two amphibious watercraft collided off the coast of Jacksonville, Fla., during a training exercise late Wednesday, Navy officials said.
Five of the injured sailors were medically evacuated to Savannah Memorial University Medical Center after the incident involving two so-called landing craft, air cushions, or LCACs, the Navy’s 2nd Fleet said in a statement. Four of the five injured sailors were released from the Level 1 trauma hospital in Savannah, Ga., by Thursday, according to the Navy.
One sailor remained “under medical care” in the Savannah hospital on Friday, said Lt. Cmdr. Kristi Johnson, a 2nd Fleet spokeswoman. She did not detail the sailor’s condition.
“Our primary focus is on our sailor’s health and well-being,” Johnson wrote in an email Friday afternoon.
The other sailors and Marines hurt in the incident suffered minor injuries and were treated aboard the USS Wasp amphibious assault ship and the USS New York amphibious transport dock, where the troops had boarded the LCACs, Navy officials said.
Navy officials did not say what caused the two LCACs to collide during the operation described as a routine “composite training unit exercise.” An investigation was ongoing Friday, Johnson said.
She said a third LCAC involved in the training immediately evacuated all 38 troops aboard the LCACs that crashed. Both disabled boats “remained afloat” after the incident and have since been recovered, Johnson added.
One of the crashed LCACs came from the Wasp and the other from the New York, 2nd Fleet said. Both of those ships belong to the Wasp Amphibious Ready Group, which has been training in recent weeks off the Atlantic coast with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejeune, N.C. Those units are expected to deploy later this year.
LCACs are 91-foot-long armed, high-speed hovercraft used to ferry Marine Air-Ground Task Force assault units from Navy ships to shore, according to the Navy. They are crewed by five sailors and can carry 60 to 75 tons of gear, weapons and troops.
The incident was at least the second in recent weeks that saw troops harmed during training involving the Wasp and the 24th MEU in the western Atlantic.
Marine Sgt. Colin Arslanbas of the 24th MEU died April 18 in a parachute accident during a training exercise near Camp Lejeune while his unit was training with the Wasp Amphibious Ready Group, Marine officials said.
