The Navy has relieved the commanding officer of the USS Truman -- the aircraft carrier that had a collision with a merchant ship outside the Suez Canal last week.
Capt. Dave Snowden was relieved Thursday for "loss of confidence in his ability to command" by Rear Adm. Sean Bailey, the commander of Carrier Strike Group 8, a Navy statement announced Thursday.
Snowden's replacement will be Capt. Chris "Chowdah" Hill, the commander of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower who rose to fame online last year while he commanded his aircraft carrier in the Middle East amid Houthi attacks.
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A Navy official told Military.com that Snowden is the only member of the Truman's crew to be relieved from their job at this time, but they said the investigation into the collision is still ongoing.
While the official reason for the relief is listed as "loss of confidence" -- a boilerplate reason provided by the Navy that can encompass anything from consistent poor performance by a command on key evaluations to personal actions like drunken driving -- the statement on Snowden's firing took the unusual step of connecting it to the collision days prior.
In a statement last week, the Navy revealed that the Truman had collided with a merchant vessel roughly half its size, the Besiktas-M, just before midnight local time on Feb. 12 while operating near Port Said, Egypt, in the Mediterranean Sea.
The city, which sits at the northern opening to the Suez Canal, is an area of dense maritime traffic, with ships coming in and out of the canal, as well as others waiting to begin their transit.
The Navy, in its statement, said that the collision did not result in flooding or injuries aboard the Truman and later posted photos of the ship that showed some hull damage on its right back quarter.
In a social media post Sunday, the Navy said that most of the damage inside the ship was to the exterior walls of several storage spaces, while on the outside of the carrier there was damage to a space reserved for handling the lines that keep the ship moored when in port as well as some platforms.
The Navy noted that the aircraft elevator near the area of the collision was fully operational.
The Truman pulled into port at Souda Bay in Crete on Sunday and began repairs. Navy officials have not offered an estimate of how long they expect the repairs to take.
Snowden appears to be the second Navy commander to be relieved of command by the service this year.
The collision and firing come just months after the Truman was involved in a friendly fire incident that downed a Navy jet.
On Dec. 22, the USS Gettysburg crew fired on an F/A-18 that had just flown off the deck of the Truman, destroying the aircraft and forcing its two aviators to eject.
One of the two sailors suffered minor injuries.
The commander of the Gettysburg was not relieved after that incident. Instead, he turned over his command as was planned earlier in February.
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