NATION : Ship Blast Victims Californians

YOKOSUKA, Japan — The U.S. aircraft carrier Midway docked at its home base today after two shipboard explosions killed two California crew members and injured 16 others, nine seriously.

“Midway is safe and seaworthy in all respects,” Rear Adm. Lyle Bull, commander of the Battle Force 7th Fleet, told about 100 reporters aboard the 67,000-ton ship a day after the blasts.

For the two 20-year-old victims, identified as Seaman Ulric Johnson, 20, of Martinez, Calif., and Fireman Jeffrey Vierra of Nevada City, Calif., “death most probably was instantaneous,” Bull said. Until today, the two had been listed as missing.