Worker who fell off Vinson found, identified

[unhappycamper]

Worker who fell off Vinson found, identified
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Feb 14, 2008 13:38:06 EST

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The body of a Northrop Grumman shipyard worker who fell from an aircraft carrier was pulled from the James River early Thursday, authorities said.

The shipyard identified the man as Kevin Batten, a 19-year-old sheet metal worker from Newport News.

Batten was part of a “heritage shipyard family” that includes a master shipbuilder uncle and several cousins who work at the yard, and he had just been accepted into the shipyard’s Apprentice School, Mike Petters, president of Northrop Grumman’s shipbuilding sector, wrote in a letter Thursday to employees.

“He had an entire life and career in front of him, which makes this loss all the more painful,” Petters wrote.

When Batten fell off the carrier Carl Vinson at about 8:10 a.m. Wednesday, two sailors aboard the George H.W. Bush, a carrier under construction next to the Carl Vinson, immediately jumped into the river but were unable to find Batten, the shipyard said in a statement.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_cgoverboard_080213/



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