EQUITY WATCH : Explosive Charge

The Navy, which rushed to judgment to assign blame for the 1989 gun turret explosion aboard the battleship Iowa, has now apologized for what it concedes was a mistake. That heedless mistake can only have deepened the anguish felt by the families of the 47 sailors who died in the blast.

Relying in good part on a “psychological profile” prepared by the FBI, the Navy in September, 1989, decided that the explosion five months earlier “most probably” resulted from sabotage carried out by Gunner’s Mate Clayton Hartwig. Specifically, the Navy speculated that Hartwig inserted “some type of detonation device” between gunpowder bags loaded into a 16-inch gun for a firing exercise. What motivated this murderous act? The Navy could only surmise that Hartwig was despondent over a supposed failed relationship with another sailor.

But there was no proof of this. In fact, an independent analysis demanded by Congress called attention to the lack of “explicit physical evidence” to support the Navy’s theory. What then caused the explosion?

Adm. Frank B. Kelso, the chief of naval operations, insists that all investigations in the case remain “inconclusive.” However, the congressionally ordered analysis found that powder bags could have ignited accidentally. The Navy, institutionally inclined to blame sabotage rather than equipment failings, pooh-poohed this notion. It instead sought to blame the tragedy on a lone sailor who could not respond. Clayton Hartwig, killed in the Iowa explosion, was thus made a victim twice over, and so was his family.