Kenneth Aaron Smith

Electronics Technician 3^rd Class, United States Navy

January 27, 1995 – August 21, 2017

Age – 22

Jackson, MI

USS John S. McCain

Died when his ship the USS John S. McCain collided with

 a Liberian oil tanker

Kenneth Aaron Smith “Kenny” of Cherry Hill, NJ, died August 21, 2017, when the ship on which he was serving, the USS John S. McCain, collided with an oil tanker just southeast of Malaysia. He was 22. Smith, a 2013 graduate of Cherry Hill High School East, was born in Jackson, MI, and moved to Chesapeake, VA, when he was 10. He spent his years as a teenager in Norfolk when his father was a Navy sailor. Smith became the third generation to join the Navy in his family.

Described by classmates and friends as adventurous and fun-loving, he wrote recently on social media, “My bucket list of things to do before I die is close to completion already. I’ve skydived, jumped headfirst from an 8 story tower, have seen virtual reality at its baby stages, and will soon be traveling to the other side of the world.”

Kenny was fiercely loyal to his friends and family, and was proud to serve in the US Navy, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. In his spare time while aboard the McCain, Kenny wrote extensively on Wattpad, where 280 followers were treated to his fan fiction works based on the Legend of Zelda, Rick and Morty, and Undertale characters. An avid gamer, he was president of his school’s video game club, and shared his expertise and love of games like Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) on his YouTube channel, KiloVarietyGaming. His tag line read, “Life is a game; the question is, do you have the controller?”

The Navy identified ten crew members who died when their ship, a Navy destroyer collided with an oil tanker on Aug. 21, 2017 off the waters of Singapore. The ten crew members are:
Charles Nathan Findley, Abraham Lopez, Kevin Sayer Bushell, Jacob Daniel Drake, Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr., Corey George Ingram, John Henry Hoagland III, Logan Stephen Palmer, Kenneth Aaron Smith and Dustin Doyon.

The USS John S. McCain collided with the Alnic MC, a 30,000-ton chemical and oil tanker sailing under the Liberian flag, on Aug. 21 local time in the waters east of the Straits of Malacca, near Singapore.