in the mediterranean and as a matter of routine we have surface vessels and subsurface vessels might be transiting the red sea. the bulk of the capability in the middle east is here. both in qatar and in the united arab emirates. those capabilities have been there for many, many years. they are a routine part of the landscape. these are the capabilities used predominately for strikes. there was some prepositions plus up capabilities in advance of the strike options. colonel, the syrian state tv is saying no deaths, three injured near homs. do you think that is likely to go up? do you think that s accurate? well, i would be a bit surprised if it s accurate. in a way that s a good thing. because then it would make it very difficult for the syrians to actually trot out a bunch of bodies that were not part of any
they re showing us the rescues. intense moments. they re working to get them to hospital on land as soon as possible. it s an emergency situation. it s changing by the moment. the navy has set up a hotline for families to call. they are communicating on twitter. as far as the destroyer, the uss fitzgerald has damage above and below the waterline. it s taking on water. the crew is working to pump it out of the hold. thanks for being with us. joining me now retired rear admiral john kirby who served on surface vessels over the course of his navy career. as mrl, thanks so much for being with us. we re getting word right now that seven sailors are unaccounted for at this point. this is some time now after this incident. what kind of operations do you imagine are under way right now to try to find them? as i understand, the number seven is the japanese reporting injuries. i don t think that i have heard them in terms of unaccounted
japanese aircraft as well as surface vessels. the commander of the uss fitzgerald bryce vinson is among the injured. officials say he was airlifted to a nearby naval hospital. they air lifted two other sailors. as of right now the navy says all three are awake but they will remain under observation until further notice. the ship collided with the merchant vessel about 60 nautical miles off the coast of japan, suffering damage above and below the water line and causing flooding in parts of the ship. the navy says that merchant vessel has philippine flags. this all happened yesterday around 2:30 a.m. local time. the uss fitzgerald is a guided missile destroyer and carries tomahawk crews missiles. once it gets over to land and we understand it s made its way there now, the navy says it will be able to figure out the extent of the damage here. of course, the next big question is how could this happen? the ship, the us ship was hit on the right or star board side.
now. the japanese have started medical evacuations of the most critically injured. you can see we have video of this, still frames. they re showing us the rescues. intense moments. they re working to get them to hospital on long as soon as possible. it s an emergency situation. it s changing by the moment. the navy has set up a hotline for families to call. they are communicating on twitter. as far as the destroyer, the uss fitzgerald has damage above and below the waterline. it s taking on water. the crew is working to pump it out of the hold. thanks for being with us. joining me now retired rear admiral john kirby who served on surface vessels over the course of his navy career. thanks for being with us. we re getting word right now that seven sailors are unaccounted for at this point. this is some time now after this incident. what kind of operations do you imagine are under way right now to try to find them?
guard and other operating units over the last week or so based on very sophisticated search planning capability, very sophisticated sensors on the aircraft out there and also the surface vessels. this is going to be a very tough mission for them. indeed. thank you for your time. we appreciate it. we should point out the family just put out a statement saying they will continue their own private search. they ve had fund-raisers over the course of the last week. and they expect that search to continue. we certainly pray that perhaps they can find something. let s turn now to andrea mitchell who joins us live from miami on the campus of florida international university where hillary clinton just finished up a speech laying out her policy position on cuba. andrea, you join us now. thank you so much for being here. well, here in miami just a few moments ago a dramatic speech from hillary clinton drawing a sharp contrast with all the republicans, especially the two florida, jeb bush an