Stark Skipper May Be Court-Martialed

The admiral who investigated the Iraqi missile attack on the U.S. guided missile frigate Stark has recommended that the captain of the ship be court-martialed, possibly on charges of negligence, officials said Thursday.

The call for the court-martial of Capt. Glenn R. Brindel was made by Rear Adm. Grant Sharp in a report to the head of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. George Crist, the officials said, requesting not to be quoted by name.

Brindel, who shortly was scheduled to be relieved of command of the Stark for reasons that were not related to the investigation, still was with his severely damaged ship in Bahrain. The Stark was undergoing repairs from the explosion caused by one of two Exocet missiles that killed 37 sailors and wounded 21 others.

The sources said the formal charge against Brindel probably will be negligence since the ship failed to take the proper evasive actions to avoid casualties and damage. Three or four officers under Brindel’s command have been assigned legal counsel.

The bottom line, said one official, is that “the commanding officer is responsible for his ship.”

The recommendation to court-martial Brindel came as little surprise, officials said, because a U.S.-Iraqi investigation and a probe by the House Armed Services Committee pointed in the direction of negligence in defending the Stark from the “unintentional” Iraqi air strike.

Pentagon officials have said Sharp’s investigation focused on why the frigate’s officers failed to observe standard operating procedures and turn the ship to allow its defenses to fire at the missiles.

A report by Rear Adm. David Rogers, who headed a team that went to Iraq, said a radar warning device on the ship had detected, about a minute before the first missile hit, that the Iraqi pilot had locked his fire control radar onto the frigate--meaning he was about to launch an attack. The ship never fired at the plane or its missiles, the report said.

The House Armed Services Committee report on the attack said the U.S. guided missile destroyer Coontz had taken proper evasive action in a similar incident several weeks earlier.

Sharp’s recommendation for a court-martial does not have to be accepted by Crist, who is to send the report to Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the chief of naval operations, the officials said.

Weinberger, who left earlier Thursday on a 12-day trip to Australia and Asia, has the final word on whether Brindel should be court-martialed, Robert B. Sims, Weinberger’s spokesman, said.