Probes the explosion of the center gun on the USS Iowa, a disaster that killed several sailors onboard instantly, and the fouled investigation that took followed, resulting in a large-scale cover-up that almost ruined forever the reputation of innocent men.

A harrowing account of a disaster at sea. In April 1989, during a training exercise, the center gun in Turret 2 of the battleship USS Iowa blew up. A botched invest. of the 47 fatalities began hours after the explosion. At Capt. Fred Moosally's order, 250 sailors labored to clean up the scarred turret, heaving steel plates and equip. overboard and scrubbing off splatters of gore before painting the structure inside and out. A technical team lost key evidence while conducting tests that proved nothing but the team's own incompetence. The effort to pin blame for the explosion on Seaman Clayton Hartwig, who died in the explosion, supposedly acting to revenge a thwarted homosexual affair, ultimately destroyed careers up the chain of command of the U.S. Navy.

Written by the head of the technical investigating team, this book examines the key factors in the 1989 explosion that killed 47 crewmen.

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 79. Chapters: USS Missouri, USS Iowa turret explosion, Iowa class battleship, USS New Jersey, USS Wisconsin, Armament of the Iowa class battleship, 1950 USS Missouri grounding incident, USS Illinois, USS Kentucky. Excerpt: The USS Iowa turret explosion occurred in the Number Two 16-inch gun turret of the United States Navy battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) on April 19, 1989. The explosion in the center gun room killed 47 of the turret's crewmen and severely damaged the gun turret itself. The first investigation into the explosion, conducted by the US Navy, concluded that one of the gun turret crew members, Clayton Hartwig, who died in the explosion, had deliberately caused it. During the investigation, numerous leaks to the media, later attributed to Navy officers and investigators, implied that Hartwig and another sailor, Kendall Truitt, had engaged in a homosexual relationship and that Hartwig had caused the explosion after their relationship had soured. In its report, however, the Navy concluded that the evidence did not show that Hartwig was homosexual but that he was suicidal and had caused the explosion with either an electronic or chemical detonator. The victims' families, the media, and members of Congress were sharply critical of the Navy's findings. The Senate and House Armed Services Committees both held hearings to inquire into the Navy's investigation and later released reports disputing the Navy's conclusions. The Senate committee asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to review the Navy's investigation. To assist the GAO, Sandia National Laboratories provided a team of scientists to review the Navy's technical investigation. During its review, Sandia determined that a significant overram of the powder bags into the gun had occurred as it was being loaded and that the overram could have caused the explosion. A...