Just found out a kid I knew passed away while serving aboard a submarine on Monday.

[antigone382]

My brother and I were in a play with him and his father a few years back...he would have been fifteen or so. Actually it was the summer of 2004; we all hated Bush.I remember this wired, skinny teenage boy, rebellious but sweet, with a dark sense of humor. I hadn't seen or heard from him in years...

This is the first person I know of who has died while in uniform (apparently the circumstances are pretty mysterious; he's the third sailor to die on this submarine in the last five years). One of my older brothers served in 2002-2003. He had a close call or two, and eventually retired because of a previous leg injury. I can't imagine what it would have been like to lose him.

Story is here:

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/04/navy_nebraska_death_042210w/

Sailor found dead aboard sub Nebraska

By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Apr 23, 2010 18:56:51 EDT

A sailor was found dead Monday aboard the ballistic-missile submarine Nebraska at sea, according to a Navy spokeswoman, marking the third death aboard the ship in the last five years.

Machinist’s Mate Fireman William Mack, 21, was found dead in the submarine’s berthing spaces while the ship was underway in the Pacific Ocean. The cause is under investigation, said Lt. Kellie Randall, a spokeswoman for Submarine Group 9; she said there was no damage to the ship and there had not been an accident.

Mack’s mother, Susan, of South Pittsburg, Tenn., told Navy Times on Thursday she had not yet been told what happened to her son, or exactly where the ship was when his body was found.

“He died at 10 a.m. That’s all I know. I asked them, ‘Where did my son die?’ and they said, ‘Ma’am, you will never know.”

(snip)

Susan Mack told Navy Times that her son wanted to be a college professor; he was planning to study history at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

“Poor little Will,” she laughed, “in all his vacations he never knew about Disneyland — he thought we were supposed to go to old cemeteries and courthouses and historic things like that.”

He hadn’t been quite ready for college when he finished high school, so he elected to join the military. It was a choice between the Army and the Navy, she remembered.

“The Navy’s been so good to our family. That’s how all my uncles were educated. And Will loved Annapolis — we visited Annapolis when he was a little kid, and he used to say, when I get married I want to get married at Annapolis, with the crossed swords and everything.’ And I reminded him of that, so he said, “You’re right, that’s the good one — the Navy’s the good one.’ ”

He enlisted Dec. 3, 2008, and reported to Nebraska Aug. 4, 2009, records show. He was on his first deployment.

(Edited: for some reason the link I posted to the Navy Times story is no longer working. I don't understand why. Here's a link to a story in the Chattanoogan: http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_174092.asp

I want to keep the quotes from the original article because it includes an interview with his mother)