Review Of The Department Of The Navys Investigation Into The Gun Turret Explosion Aboard The Uss Iowa PDF Download

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...