The World - News from Feb. 15, 1989

A fellow officer quoted Navy Capt. Alexander G. Balian as saying, “If my own mother were on that refugee craft, I would have done the same thing,” after his ship left behind a junk filled with Vietnamese refugees last June in the South China Sea. Lt. Dan Steakley, testifying at Balian’s court-martial at Subic Bay Naval Base, Philippines, also said there was a lot of “discord, rumblings” by sailors on the Dubuque who felt Balian should have picked up the refugees. Steakley said Balian was an officer who followed the book, “and if the book had required him to pick up the refugees, he would have done so.” Balian has been charged with dereliction of duty and disobeying orders.