Eville's wife later told investigators the men had planned to go fishing. Posted on 06/03/2002 7:56:28 AM PDT by ValerieUSA
Coast Guard helicopters found the bodies of three Fort Lewis soldiers in the waters of Willapa Bay yesterday, a day after the men went on a weekend fishing trip.
Sgt. 1st Class David Eville and his friends, 1st Sgt. Howard Hinkle and Sgt. 1st Class Robert Hulin, launched Eville's 20-foot power boat from the boat ramp at Westport Saturday morning, Coast Guard Petty Officer Robert Lanier said. All three wore flotation devices.
Eville's wife later told investigators the men had planned to go fishing.
The bodies were turned over to the Pacific County Coroner's Office, but no cause of death had been determined by yesterday evening, Lanier said.
Coast Guard officials didn't know the circumstances of the tragedy, Lanier said, although they did discover some odd details.
A resident found the men's boat washed up about 9 p.m. at Bay Center on a small peninsula in the center of Willapa Bay. The boat was right side up, Lanier said. Its interior was dry. Its cooler still contained lunches and drinks.
"It doesn't usually occur like that," Lanier said. "So it's really kind of unknown what happened."
The Coast Guard quickly sent an HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Astoria, Ore., to search the water with a thermal imaging system.
Two Jayhawks continued the search yesterday morning, joined by a mobile unit and a motor lifeboat from the Grays Harbor Coast Guard station. Bay Center Fire Department searchers combed the shoreline and found Eville's truck and boat trailer in a parking lot at Westport, which is to the north at the mouth of Grays Harbor.
The boat had to venture into the open Pacific Ocean to get from Westport to Willapa Bay.
The first body was spotted three miles south of Bay Center at about 9 a.m. yesterday, washed up on a tideflat.
The other two were found about 45 minutes later, floating in the water off Leadbetter Point at the entrance to Willapa Bay.
The water temperature was about 55 degrees Saturday night, Lanier said. Winds blew from the northwest at 15 knots, or 11 to 12 mph, and waves were at about 8 feet -- not particularly severe conditions for the often wild Pacific Coast.
The open power boat was apparently not equipped with a VHF radio. It's unknown whether the men were able to call for help if they ran into mechanical problems or other trouble.
The Coast Guard Marine Safety Office Puget Sound in Seattle is investigating the case, Lanier said.
A member of Eville's family, contacted in Olympia, declined to be interviewed.
Eville and Hinkle were with the 1st Special Forces Group, also known as the Green Berets. Some members of the Fort Lewis group were sent to Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
A base press release yesterday did not say whether Eville or Hinkle were on that mission.
Hulin was attached to the 25th Infantry Division (Light).
Hinkle and Eville were members of the 1st Special Forces Group, while Hulin was in the 25th Infantry Division, according to a Fort Lewis news release. The Army did not disclose their ages or hometowns.
One was recovered from a mud flat about three miles south of Bay Center, on the east side of the bay.
The other two were on the western side of the bay near Leadbetter Point, about 75 yards apart. The men appeared to have died of hypothermia — a lowering of body temperature.
In 55-degree water, the temperature of Willapa Bay yesterday, hypothermia takes between two and five hours, according to Coast Guard figures.
Their 20-foot boat had been spotted Saturday at 9 p.m. by a Bay Center woman who noticed it sitting upright on a mud flat at low tide, with no one aboard.
Inside the boat were a portable Global Positioning Unit, a cooler with uneaten lunches, binoculars, a first-aid kit and fishing gear.
One of the fishing rods was rigged with an orange flag, indicating the men may have tried to signal for help. There was less than a foot of water in the boat.
The woman reported the boat's registration number, printed on the hull, to the Coast Guard. The wife of boat owner David Eville was then telephoned. She said her husband and two friends had left Olympia, where the Evilles live, at 3:30 a.m. Saturday. The men apparently drove to Westport and launched the boat around 6 a.m., a time deduced from the fact that the Coast Guard closed the Grays Harbor bar at 7:30 a.m. to vessels under 26 feet due to rough conditions.
After the boat was discovered Saturday night, a Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter was dispatched from Astoria.
Using night-vision goggles and a thermal-imaging system that detects heated objects, the five men aboard the helicopter searched Willapa Bay throughout the night, stopping only to refuel. A second Jayhawk from Astoria arrived after daylight and began searching the Pacific Ocean west of Willapa Bay.
"The mystery that everybody would like to know" the answer to, said Lt. Andy Eriks, a pilot aboard the second Coast Guard helicopter, which recovered two of the bodies, "is why would they leave the boat."
Circumstantial evidence gives only a hint of what might have happened. The signal flag. The cord on the secondary trolling motor that was pulled out as if someone had tried to start it, suggesting the possibility of engine problems. The fact all three men had a chance to don life preservers.
But why were they out of the boat? Eriks thinks it may have been because of rough sea conditions at the mouth of Willapa Bay, which is pocked with shifting sand bars that, depending on waves, currents and wind, can toss up formidable waves.
The Coast Guard reported that seas were running 8 feet at the time of the accident, with a northwest wind of 15 knots.
"It can really get churned up out there, like a washing machine effect," Eriks said. "It can be tough to navigate for anyone. If you haven't done it before or grown up on the bay, getting in and out safely can be very difficult. With any amount of swell and surface chop, the chances are very high of your vessel being tipped over or running aground or both."
The men may have jumped ship to try to swim to shore or to avoid being aboard when a capsize appeared imminent, Eriks speculated.
After almost two decades in the Coast Guard, Eriks has been stationed at Astoria, flying rescue helicopters, the past two years. "Sure, it looks inviting," he said of the ocean. "Everybody likes to fish or be in and around the water, but you just can't take a chance out there."
He said the boat didn't have a radio or flares, two of the essential safety items (life preservers are the third) that every vessel should carry.
Another caveat: Stay with a vessel, Eriks said, even if it capsizes, because it is much easier to spot from the air than a swimmer.
Yeah really. I don't even go far from shore anymore unless I'm in a vessel with a 2nd engine or some other backup form of propulsion. I learned that the hard way.
Well first, 15 knots is 17.26 MPH, knots are 'bigger' not 'smaller' (by 1.15 aprox.).
Second, 8 footers in a 20 foot boat is about the safty limit in most cases. Unless those waves were really long rollers it would be awful hard to fish when most of the time would be spent holding on.
that's weird. the other article says the boat was dry.
It's possible they were taking on water and thought they should bail before they sunk, and hang on to the side of the boat maybe. They weren't figuring on the cold?
Or, in my case, throwing up.
Seriously, this is a tragic loss of three of America's finest. . . .A 1SGT and two SFC's. Probably in their mid- to late 30's, married, and with children.
But in Washington, the temperature of the water should prevent even a bunch of drinkers from getting an urge to go swimming.
They had life vests on but didn't have a radio to call for assistance with.
That is a stupid way to go out on the water anywhere. Where they were it's suicidal because the strong tides, chance of wind changes causing large swells and even almost surf like conditions, and the fact that they were only on a 20 ft. boat demands that you take every possible safety precaution.
They got the life vests right but the lack of a radio is like a baseball player going to home plate without his cleats on.
Damn shame.
The wind itself no, not at all. My point on that was more about the sloppy reporting, even if they did the calculation backwards, it was stil by the wrong conversion factor.
And no not a wuss, just not into breaking equipment or bones from the beating, it's supposed to be pleasure boating!
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