David Spearman: Mother writes HEARTBREAKING post after sailor falls to death from destroyer
ETOWAH, NORTH CAROLINA: soldier David "Dee" Spearman died after falling from a guided-missile destroyer patrolling in the Baltic Sea on August 1. Spearman, 19, fell off the USS Arleigh Burke in the vicinity of Helsinki, Finland, reports said.
Six days after this horrifying incident, Nikki McKeithan Spearman, his mother, has expressed her devastation through a heart-breaking Facebook post.
ALSO READ
Heartbroken mom of four warns other parents, reveals how she lost two of her daughters to drugs
The post read, "Nothing can prepare you for this ….I am on a never ending rollercoaster climbing and falling and it want stop. I can barely go to sleep and if I dare wake up it grabs me again and slings me all around," said the distressed mother who recently lost her father too.
"I want to run away and hold everyone close at the same time. I want to be in control of myself and then I loose myself to pure anguish at a drop of a word, song, picture or memory," she added.
"I can smile when I think of Dee and breakdown in the second after. I know to be absent from the body as a believer of God is to be present with the Lord and it calms me for a moment or even an hour and then I feel this deep wrenching squeezing of my body and I cannot control any of my emotions or tears. I am overcome again with such deep sadness and emptiness of losing my son."
She concluded, "Losing my Dad & Dee at the same time Is beyond any reasoning that my mind can conceive. Knowing they are together is my only hope and peace left."
Currently, not much information is available about the fatal fall of the North Carolina native.
The Navy said in a statement that David had arrived on the vessel in April. Additionally, he had recently completed his training camp for the Navy at the Surface Warfare Engineering School Command, Great Lakes, Illinois in January 2022.
The ship's commanding officer, Cmdr Pete Flynn, said, "This bright, young man made an oversized, positive impact on Arleigh Burke. My entire crew's thoughts and prayers are with Seaman Recruit Spearman's family and friends. We offer our most sincere condolences for their loss. "
According to WLOS-TV, Spearman was a native of Etowah in Henderson County, in western North Carolina. His family has been in the Navy for multiple generations. According US Fleet Forces Command, David was formally enrolled on November 10, 2021.
The search for the sailor's body was called off after it was spotted in the ocean earlier this week.
The family of David confirmed that he was the one who fell off the destroyer, but uncertainty still surrounds the specifics of Spearman's fatal fall. According to Cmdr Richlyn Ivey, a spokesperson for the US 6th Fleet, Spearman's body is yet to be recovered.
Cmdr Flynn added to his statement, "Thank you to the Swedish and German navies, the US Air Force, and the sailors from Arleigh Burke for their extensive efforts to search for our shipmate."
The teen naval officer was the second sailor to die while on duty in the previous 12 months. On July 18, 2021, 26-year-old Petty Officer 1st Class Robin Nicole Collins passed away while on duty. Two months later, the Navy Times stated that she died due to a shelter ceiling and chimney crumbling during strong climate conditions.
Details have not been made public by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Collins' cause of death and final resting place is yet to be known as the inquiry is still under wraps.