Funeral services have been held for a graduate of Cherry Hill High School East who was among the 10 U.S. sailors killed last month when a Navy ship collided with an oil tanker off Singapore.
Dozens of mourners gathered Saturday at Saint Andrews United Methodist Church in Cherry Hill to mourn 22-year-old Kenneth Smith.
Smith was an electronics technician 3rd Class aboard the USS John McCain when it collided with the tanker on Aug. 21.
Navy divers recovered the victims' remains inside flooded compartments of the ship in the days after the accident.
Smith's mother, April Brandon, told NBC10 earlier that her son was "a compassionate, smart man." His father, Darryl Smith, is also in the Navy.
"Kenny is an online sci-fi author, an animal and human rights activist, and a compassionate, smart man," she said.
Lexie Mullner, Smith's friend and former classmate at Cherry Hill East High School, said he always wanted to join the Navy and follow in his father's footsteps.
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"He's one of the best people I know, he always has time for the people that he cares about," she said.
The collision remains under investigation. The other victims have been identified as:
- Electronics Technician 1st Class Charles Nathan Findley, 31, from Missouri
- Interior Communications Electrician 1st Class Abraham Lopez, 39, from Texas
- Electronics Technician 2nd Class Kevin Sayer Bushell, 26, from Maryland
- Electronics Technician 2nd Class Jacob Daniel Drake, 21, from Ohio
- Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr., 23, from Maryland
- Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Corey George Ingram, 28, from New York
- Electronics Technician 3rd Class Dustin Louis Doyon, 26, from Connecticut
- Electronics Technician 3rd Class John Henry Hoagland III, 20, from Texas
- Interior Communications Electrician 3rd Class Logan Stephen Palmer, 23, from Illinois
