The Big Story

We've been reporting on the Navy’s 7th Fleet for over a year, and today we published our latest story, a profile of Cmdr. Bryce Benson. It has been a long ordeal for Benson and his family that still isn’t over.

With the crash, the worst fear of any military commander had come true: men died under his watch. He was almost killed himself. The Navy community he’d devoted his entire life to had largely abandoned him. His career had come to an abrupt end. He had debilitating PTSD and contemplated suicide. In nearly every way, Benson was already broken.

Then the Navy charged him with negligent homicide — a move that some current and former Navy officials said went too far. The Navy had said the charges were informed by an obligation to exercise due diligence given the scope and complexity of the tragedy.

Megan Rose reports on the Navy’s troubling new legacy.
 

More From This Investigation

Iran Has Hundreds of Naval Mines. U.S. Navy Minesweepers Find Old Dishwashers and Car Parts.

As tensions heat up in the Persian Gulf, the Navy’s minesweeping fleet may once again be called into action, but its sailors say the ships are too old and broken to do the job. “We are essentially the ships that the Navy forgot.”

Sailors Report Enduring Concerns About Navy Readiness and Leadership

Sailors from every active fleet responded to a ProPublica callout, noting a continued lack of training, widespread exhaustion and an acute sense of vulnerability.

How the Navy’s Top Commander Botched the Highest-Profile Investigation in Years

On Wednesday, the Navy said it was abandoning all remaining criminal charges against sailors involved in fatal accidents in the Pacific. Here’s how the actions of the chief of naval operations helped doom the cases.

An Admiral Told a Senator Most Navy Reforms Were “Complete.” Navy’s No. 2 Says Otherwise.

Adm. Bill Moran told ProPublica this week that none of the promised reforms had been completed, but that work had started on the pledges.

Navy Promised Changes After Deadly Accidents, but Many Within Doubt It’s Delivering on Them

Interviews and an examination of the Navy’s publicly announced reforms raise uncertainty over whether senior leaders have fully followed through on them after the 7th Fleet disasters in 2017.

In Navy Disasters, Neglect, Mistakes, and 17 Lost Sailors

Snapshots of the sailors who perished in a pair of collisions in the Pacific in 2017.

How We Investigated the Navy’s Twin Disasters in the Pacific

Years of Warnings, Then Death and Disaster

How the Navy failed its sailors

Death and Valor on an American Warship Doomed by its Own Navy

Investigation finds officials ignored warnings for years before one of the deadliest crashes in decades.