Ensign Sarah Mitchell was born September 27, 1994, in Meadowbrook, Pennsylvania. An excellent athlete, Mitchell grew up playing field hockey, basketball, softball, and competing in track and field. With the fitting middle name “Joy”, Mitchell was described as fun and fun-loving.
She graduated from Virginia Tech in 2017 where she earned a degree in biochemistry with minors in chemistry and leadership studies. During her senior year, she served as a platoon commander for the university’s Naval ROTC. She commissioned in May 2017 and reported to the guided-missile destroyer USS Jason Dunham in June 2017. She was deployed soon after.
On July 8, 2018, Mitchell was serving as a boat officer in the Red Sea, the first time she had done so since recently qualifying for the duty. After departing the guided-missile destroyer Jason Dunham on a rigid hull inflatable boat, Ensign Mitchell and three others were thrown into the water after the boat “tripped” its stern going airborne before bottoming out on the water. Mitchell was struck by the propeller and suffered severe injuries. She was transported to a Jordanian hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Ensign Sarah Mitchell was 23.
In the aftermath of the tragic accident, the surface fleet conducted a review and a safety stand down. The sea service updated training and curriculum including improvements to crew qualification standards, safety features, and administrative processes, to prevent such a tragedy from happening again in the future.
Ensign Sarah Mitchell is buried at Rosedale Memorial Park, Bensalem, Pennsylvania.
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