{"id":12543,"date":"2018-12-02T03:01:24","date_gmt":"2018-12-02T11:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=12543"},"modified":"2018-12-02T10:02:32","modified_gmt":"2018-12-02T18:02:32","slug":"us-navys-middle-east-chief-scott-stearney-found-dead-in-bahrain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=12543","title":{"rendered":"US Navy’s Middle East chief Scott Stearney found dead in Bahrain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vice Admiral Scott\u00a0Stearney, who oversaw US Navy forces in the\u00a0Middle East<\/a>, was found dead on Saturday in his residence in\u00a0Bahrain<\/a>, according to navy officials.<\/p>\n

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Bahraini Ministry of Interior are cooperating on an investigation. However, no foul play was suspected.<\/p>\n

“This is devastating news for the Stearney family, for the team at 5th Fleet, and for the entire Navy,” Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson said in a\u00a0video statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Scott Stearney was a decorated naval warrior. He was a devoted husband and father, and he was a good friend of all of us,” Richardson said.<\/p>\n

Stearney was the commander of US Naval Forces Central Command and of the US Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, which is responsible for patrolling the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, Red Sea, Arabian Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

In recent years, the fleet has dealt with potential threats from pirates and weapons smugglers as well as\u00a0Iranian Revolutionary Guard<\/a>\u00a0boats and\u00a0Houthi<\/a>rebels firing missiles at commercial ships from\u00a0Yemen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2004, the fleet’s surface warships were ordered to hold an “ethics, trust, responsibility and mission stand down” after two sailors were\u00a0accused of stealing money<\/a>\u00a0and other valuables during an inspection of a Singaporean vessel in the Gulf.<\/p>\n

Decades of service<\/h2>\n

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Stearney graduated from the University of Notre Dame with an economics degree before joining the US Navy in 1982.<\/p>\n

\n

Two years later, he became a pilot and logged more than 4,500 flight hours over the course of his career, which also included stints as a trainer and service in\u00a0Afghanistan<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In May, Stearney was appointed as commander of the US Naval Forces Central Command and of the Fifth Fleet, positions he occupied until his death.<\/p>\n

Rear Admiral Paul Schlise, the deputy commander of Fifth Fleet, has assumed its command, while Vice Admiral James Malloy, a deputy chief of naval operations, is preparing to fly out to Bahrain to take command in the interim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vice Admiral Scott\u00a0Stearney, who oversaw US...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12544,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12543\/revisions\/12544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}