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.