Grief tempers joy for sailor's family

Anthony Cox couldn't wait to get home to Arkansas Thursday to meet his nephew.

Kalib Andrew was to be the first child among the three Cox brothers. But when the news of Cox's death hit his small hometown of Mena on Monday, the baby scheduled to be delivered today was sorrowfully renamed Kalib Anthony.

Betty Cox, the sailor's grandmother, said she was teaching in her first-grade classroom, her thoughts drifting to the pending birth of her first great-grandchild, when her family showed up to tell her the news.

Electrician's mate 2nd Class Anthony Cox, 22; electronics technician 2nd Class Carlos Garcia-Son, 22; electronics technician 2nd Class Brian Adam Lane, 26; and electronics technician 2nd Class Clinton Campbell, 24, were driving in South Seattle on Saturday night when Campbell's black BMW M3 convertible clipped a curb and flipped over. No other cars were involved in the crash and all four men — sailors on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln — died.

Seattle police say the car was traveling north in the 9500 block of Rainier Avenue South at between 80 and 100 mph about 8:40 p.m. when it knocked down a utility pole, flipped over and slid on its top for about a block. Witnesses said the car was being driven at excessive speeds, passing vehicles by driving in the center turning lane and lanes for oncoming traffic, said police spokesman Sean Whitcomb.

Detectives are awaiting results of toxicology tests to determine if alcohol or drugs were factors in the crash. Since three men were ejected from the car, Whitcomb said it's unclear whether they were wearing seat belts or who was driving.

Anthony Cox called his brother at about 5 p.m. Saturday to say he was excited about coming home. He said he was going out for the night but wasn't specific about what he was doing, Betty Cox said.

Cheryl Eppers said her son, Campbell, lived in an apartment near the crash site with one of the other victims, but she did not know which one. A relative of Garcia-Son's said he shared an apartment with Cox in West Seattle.

Garcia-Son, Cox and a third sailor who was not involved in the crash moved into a West Seattle rental house last month, said their landlord, David Delafield. "They were great tenants — they were all really young, all pretty quiet and all really respectful," said Delafield.

While home in Sheboygan, Wis., last week, Campbell and Eppers rummaged through family photos. Homesick and lonely, Campbell claimed a pile of childhood pictures and a framed black-and-white photo of a rocking chair for his new South Seattle home. As they looked through photos, Campbell excitedly told his mother about his new BMW. He promised to mail her pictures of the car. Eppers said she never received them.

Garcia-Son was from Chesterfield, Mo., about 20 miles west of St. Louis, said his father, Al Garcia. In August, after he returned from a six-month Pacific tour aboard the Lincoln, Garcia-Son, his parents and 19-year-old sister had spent 10 days in Peru, Al Garcia said.

Garcia-Son loved to experience different cultures through traveling and talked about joining the U.S. Foreign Service after being discharged from the Navy, he said.

On Monday, a note written by Garcia's cousin, Justin Jacobson of Seattle, was tacked to the front door of the West Seattle home rented by Garcia-Son and Cox. The note informed visitors of the fatal accident and invited friends to call him.

Both Al Garcia and Eppers said their children loved how the Navy gave them a chance to travel.

"Whether he was in Tokyo, Hawaii or Australia, every time he got into port he would get off the ship and call me," Eppers said. "He'd say, 'Hi, mom, guess where I am?' "

When Anthony Cox graduated from high school he wanted to spend the rest of his life in the Navy. But soon after rising to the position of nuclear engineer he told his family that he was homesick and wanted to return to Arkansas and buy a ranch, his grandmother said.

Campbell also talked about being homesick and would call his mother often to share tales of his Navy adventures, his pre-exam jitters over impending exams, his proudest moments and to quell his bouts of loneliness.

Since enlisting, Campbell had both matured and learned the value of being responsible, Eppers said. Campbell was expected to be released from the Navy in March and had planned to move back to Wisconsin and study to become an architect or an engineer, Eppers said.

"I lost my life. He was my life," Eppers sobbed Monday evening. "Even if he's in the Navy, and he died in a car accident, I'm proud to say, 'I'm his mom' "

Brian Lane graduated from high school in Prague, Okla. with straight As and did so well in his mechanical engineering studies at the University of Oklahoma that the U.S. Navy recruited him, his family said.

"He was the smartest guy you'd ever meet. He was going to be a nuclear engineer," said Lane's sister, Amy Cornelius, 23, of Shawnee, Okla.

Lane, who married his high school sweetheart and was the father of a 6-year-old girl, was so important to the nuclear program on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln that his superiors couldn't afford to lose him for a couple weeks so that he could visit his large family back in Oklahoma, said Cornelius. Lane last visited his family a year ago, when his grandfather was undergoing bypass surgery, she said.

"He had 60 vacation days saved up but they wouldn't let him use them because he needed to be by the ship," Cornelius said. "But we'd made definite plans for Christmas."

Despite the distance between Lane and his family, he was an avid sports fan who regularly called his mom to talk about the latest basketball or football game, Cornelius said.

"He was such a fun-loving, funny guy. He could make a joke of anything," she said.

The Navy said it would not release additional information on the sailors until today.

Saturday's crash is the latest in recent months that resulted in the deaths of several young men in the city.

In June, two 17-year-olds and an 18-year-old were killed when the car they were riding in smashed into a concrete barrier on the West Seattle Bridge, rolled and burst into flames.

Last week, a 17-year-old boy and 20-year-old man were killed when a sport-utility vehicle soared over a seawall in Alki and plunged into Elliott Bay. Four others were injured in the crash. A spokesman for the Lincoln said the Navy is constantly working to educate young sailors about safe behavior on and off the sea through videos, seminars, lectures and conferences.

Before returning to its homeport in Everett on Aug. 8, officers aboard the Lincoln made a big push to educate young sailors about the dangers of drinking and driving in particular, said the ship's public-affairs officer, Lt. Cmdr. John Filostrat. A multimillion-dollar drunken-driving simulator was brought aboard the aircraft carrier and set up in the mess hall, he said.

Filostrat said that news of the deaths hit crew members hard.

"This is a horrible accident and it affects the whole ship, all 3,000 members of this community," he said. "Our prayers and thoughts go out to the victims' families and we hope that this drives home the fact that accidents can always happen."

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com

Seattle Times news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report.