25 years ago today was the USS Iowa gun turret explosion
 

Does anyone under 25 even know about it?

The subsequent coverage after the explosion showing the procedures for loading the guns was pretty interesting.

That reminds me, I need to go tour that boat


https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...36803842_o.jpg

I remember that, it was the one navy said was caused by suicide

It's not a boat.


Yes, they blamed it on a gay suicidal sailor.

But the general opinion is that the rammer was at fault for over ramming the gun powder bags. Let me explain.

Look at that simplified gun loading animation above.

The green thing is the projectile. The yellow things are gunpowder bags. each is rammed into the breach by that plunger that pops out from the left. A sailor controls that plunger thru hydraulic controls, he is called the 'rammer'.

After ramming the projectile, each of the powder bags is rammed. At the time of the explosion, the rammer on duty was new and had less than an hours practice ramming with dummy loads. He himself said that he was not ready for the real-thing, ramming live powder. He probably rammed one of the powder bags too hard or too fast, igniting them. The resulting explosion is what we saw in the iowa explosion video.

One side of the story ??.

THE COVERUP OF THE U.S.S. IOWA.

Although the Carrier Battle Group has drastically altered the doctrine of fleet operations in the modern age, four WW2 battleships which had been mothballed were given extensive modernization upgrades and returned to active duty during the Reagan years.

One of these ships was the U.S.S. Iowa.

The chief armament of the Battleships are her sixteen inch guns. Little changed from WW2 days, they are loaded by first ramming, with a pneumatic ram, a mission specific projectile into the bore followed by the propellent. The propellent is bundled in silk bags, with the number of bags determining the total charge in the gun (normally 6). The propellent is rammed in behind the projectile and the breach is closed.

Upon command to fire, the center gun on the number one turret fires, and radar tracks the projectile. A correction is computed and the remaining guns adjust themselves and fire.

On April 19th 1989 was 330 miles northeast of Puerto Rico on a training cruise. At 9:55 A.M. during the loading cycle, the center gun in the number 2 turret exploded with an open breach, sending a blast wave into the turret that killed 47 sailors.

The combination of a close friendship with one of the dead sailors, Clay Hartwig, plus some lead foil and a "Gung Ho" magazine led the Navy to accuse 21 year old Seaman Kendall Truitt (who was married) of having been one half of a failed homosexual love affair with Clay Hartwig, with his jilted lover then committing suicide in the number 2 turret.

The ferocity with which the Navy pursued this line of investigation made it apparent that there was another line of inquiry being hidden. Deliberate press leaks by the Iowa's Executive Officer to the Washington Post painted a picture of an unhappy gay sailor blowing himself and 46 of his fellow seamen into eternity. The story was then picked up by The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. The Newport News Daily Press and Times Herald interviewed Truitt, promising him anonymity, then ran his name as page one news anyway.

Meanwhile, the Navy had discovered that the bags of propellent, dating from the Korean war, had been improperly stored for 5 months in temperatures exceeding 90 degrees, the point at which the propellent becomes unstable.

The Navy's investigation also showed that the freshman sailor operating the rammer had over-rammed the propellent, 5 bags instead of the expected 6, slamming it into the warhead.

In response to accusations that the propellent was unstable, the Navy decided on a demonstration, and built a "drop test" rig. This was a simulated 16 inch gun barrel, with a ram at the base, that was dropped onto a concrete block to simulate over-ramming. The intention was to drop test the configuration again and again until it was evident that the propellent inside was safe from accidental detonation from over-ramming. Exactly the opposite was proven. On being dropped, the device detonated. The Navy then destroyed the remainder of the Iowa's propellent store and established new rules for the storing of propellent.

Despite this and other facts, the Navy's official report, issued on Thursday, September 7, 1989, concluded that the disaster was caused by a "wrongful intentional act ... most probably committed" by Clay Hartwig.

This is the key point. Even with the correct cause of the explosion in hand, the Navy willfully and falsely accused Clay Hartwig of a deliberate crime, and destroyed Kendall Truitt's life and career as well.

.

I see, I had lost track of it and never heard that. I guess the explosion was propellant only, I'd imagine a live warhead exploding on top of it all would have been massive.

I wonder how the guy in charge of the ramming screwed up if the ramming is pneumatic? WOUldn't that be a preset force? (not questioning the conculsion, just not getting an idea of the process(

By loading 5 powder bags instead of anticipated 6 I'm guessing the void allowed more force? Plus the compromised state of contaminated powder.


.

Forty-four seconds after Moosally's order, Lieutenant Buch reported that Turret Two's right gun was loaded and ready to fire. Seventeen seconds later, he reported that the left gun was ready. A few seconds later, Errick Lawrence, in Turret Two's center gun room, reported to Ziegler over the turret's phone circuit that, "We have a problem here. We are not ready yet. We have a problem here."[30] Ziegler responded by announcing over the turret's phone circuit, "Left gun loaded, good job. Center gun is having a little trouble. We'll straighten that out."[31] Mortensen, monitoring Turret Two's phone circuit from his position in Turret One, heard Buch confirm that the left and right guns were loaded. Lawrence then called out, "I'm not ready yet! I'm not ready yet!"[32] Next, Ernie Hanyecz, Turret Two's leading petty officer suddenly called out, "Mort! Mort! Mort!"[33] Ziegler shouted, "Oh, my God! The powder is smoldering!"[34] At this time, Ziegler may have opened the door from the turret officer's booth in the rear of the turret into the center gun room and yelled at the crew to get the breech closed. About this same time, Hanyecz yelled over the phone circuit, "Oh, my God! There's a flash!"

At 09:53, about 81 seconds after Moosally's order to load and 20 seconds after the left gun had reported loaded and ready, Turret Two's center gun exploded. A fireball between 2,500 and 3,000 F (1,400 and 1,600 C) and traveling at 2,000 feet per second (610 m/s) with a pressure of 4,000 pounds-force per square inch (28 MPa) blew out from the center gun's open breech. The explosion caved in the door between the center gun room and the turret officer's booth and buckled the bulkheads separating the center gun room from the left and right gun rooms. The fireball spread through all three gun rooms and through much of the lower levels of the turret. The resulting fire released toxic gases, including cyanide gas from burning polyurethane foam, which filled the turret. Shortly after the initial explosion, the heat and fire ignited 2,000 pounds (910 kg) of powder bags in the powder-handling area of the turret. Nine minutes later, another explosion, most likely caused by a buildup of carbon monoxide gas, occurred. All 47 crewmen inside the turret were killed. The turret contained most of the force of the explosion. Twelve crewmen working in or near the turret's powder magazine and annular spaces, located adjacent to the bottom of the turret, were able to escape without serious injury. These men were protected by blast doors which separate the magazine spaces from the rest of the turret.

oh, yeah, I see how that could be.
reminds me of the hms,............the hms........hood? invinsible?? the one the sailors left those blast doors open in their turret during the epic clash with the bismarck, dooming their vessel.

its amazing that so many men work in just one turret.

Be glad you were on the Iowa and not HMS Barham when it went up. And yes, those dots on the hull are sailors.

I was in the Navy at that time, so I sure heard about it.

Sad videos. Didn't know about it.