Petty Officer 1st Class Jelani Hill is shown May 14, 2022, during a visit to the Pompeii archaeological site near Naples, Italy. Hill, who had served in the Navy since December 2018, died Oct. 1, 2024, aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman as it was transiting the Atlantic Ocean. (Instagram)
NAPLES, Italy — A sailor aboard USS Harry S. Truman died this week as the aircraft carrier was transiting the Atlantic Ocean, according to Navy officials.
Petty Officer 1st Class Jelani Hill had a medical emergency unrelated to shipboard operations and died Tuesday, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet said in a statement Thursday.
Hill was treated in the ship’s intensive care unit but couldn’t be revived, according to the statement, which didn’t offer additional details. The Navy typically doesn’t release sailors’ medical and other personal information, citing privacy concerns.
Hill, an electrician’s mate from Florida, enlisted in December 2018 and had served aboard Truman since October 2020, according to his service biography.
He completed recruit training in February 2019 and went on to attend the Nuclear Field A School and Nuclear Power Training Unit in Charleston, S.C.
Petty Officer 1st Class Jelani Hill is pictured May 14, 2022, at the Colosseum in Rome. Hill, who had served in the Navy since December 2018, died Oct. 1, 2024, aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman as it was transiting the Atlantic Ocean. (Instagram)
Truman left its homeport in Norfolk, Va., on Sept. 23 for a routine deployment to the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations, which spans from the Arctic Ocean to the coast of Antarctica, including all of Europe and most of Africa.
The strike group’s deployment comes as the Pentagon sends thousands of troops to the Middle East to bolster security for service members already in the region and to aid in the defense of Israel if needed.
On Friday, it wasn’t clear whether Truman had yet transited the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea.
In May 2022, Truman made its first port call to Naples in six years. Hill, who was serving aboard the ship during that deployment, posted photographs on Instagram of visits to the city, the nearby archaeological site of Pompeii and Rome.
A few weeks earlier, the ship also made a port call to Trieste, in the northeastern corner of Italy.
“I absolutely love Venice,” Hill said in an April 2022 post. “I wish I had more time here.”
