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- <text id=91TT2387>
- <title>
- Oct. 28, 1991: American Notes:Military
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Oct. 28, 1991 Ollie North:"Reagan Knew Everything"
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 35
- American Notes
- MILITARY
- Without Clear Proof
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Ever since a gun turret exploded aboard the battleship Iowa
- in 1989, killing 47 sailors, the Navy has sought the cause of the
- blast. The two-year probe, however, has been inconclusive. Last
- week Admiral Frank Kelso, Chief of Naval Operations, admitted
- that "despite all efforts, no certain answer regarding the
- cause of this terrible tragedy can be found." The Navy also
- apologized to the family of Clayton Hartwig, one of the sailors
- who perished. An initial criminal investigation had suggested,
- without strong corroborating evidence, that Hartwig had
- committed suicide by setting off the explosives because he had
- been upset over a failed homosexual relationship.
- </p>
- <p> It will probably never be known why bags of ammunition
- designed for the ship's 16-in. guns ignited during loading,
- creating the inferno in which the men died. And despite Kelso's
- expression of regret that Hartwig was blamed for the incident
- "without clear and convincing proof," his family is not dropping
- a $40 million lawsuit against the Navy for soiling the dead
- man's name.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-