His home in bahrain. so, let s get right to abc s chief global affairs correspondent martha raddatz with us live tonight. martha, what have you learned? reporter: well, david, this was such a shock, not only for his family, but for the 20,000 forces he has commanded since may. this is one of the most critical positions in the navy, in the persian gulf region, where u.s. sailors have faced off with iranian revolutionary guard boats, weapons smugglers and pirates. admiral stearney was a decorated f-18 pilot, a former top gun instructor with more than 1,000 carrier landings. he had also served in afghanistan. but despite what appeared to be a stellar career, sources who know stearney tell abc this was an apparent suicide with no warning, and for now, david, no explanation. all right, martha raddatz in our washington bureau across town. martha, thank you. also tonight, here in the nation s capital, as robert mueller keeps his next move under wraps, president trump is
Notre dame in 1982. he went through top gun training. he flew f-18 super hornets. made more than 1,000 aircraft carrier landings, even served as a top even served as a top gun instructor, really among the most skilled, the most dedicated and a highly decorated admiral as well. we understand he was married with two children, described as a dedicated husband and father, a good friend, certainly a lot of people this morning are asking why this happened with this man. and hans, i mentioned many of those people are in the building you re sitting in right now. i know that his death has reverberated through the halls of the pentagon. what s the sense of where this goes next? they need to figure out who s going to take over the command next. this is such an important position, you likely need to have senate confirmation. you can put someone in there in an interim position, but likely this needs to be a senate