
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 25, 1990                   TAG: 9005250679
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

IOWA REPORT DISPUTED

Congressional investigators said today their tests did not support the Navy's finding that sabotage caused the USS Iowa explosion, a day after the Navy reopened its investigation into the disaster that claimed 47 lives.

The congressional report said the explosion could have resulted from gunpowder bags in the ship's guns being rammed at "higher than normal speeds."

The Navy on Thursday ordered a halt to any firing of 16-inch guns aboard the service's four battleships after an "unexplained" ignition of some gunpowder bags during testing.

Today's report was presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee by the General Accounting Office, which investigated the Navy's controversial finding that gunner's mate Clayton Hartwig probably sabotaged the battleship in an April 19, 1989, explosion.

Last fall, the Navy said Hartwig, who was killed in the explosion, "most probably" had placed "some type of detonation device" between gunpowder bags when he supervised the loading of the warship's guns.

Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., said today's testimony by the GAO report "cast grave doubts on the Navy's findings" that foreign material had been found in the gun barrel.

Nunn said the GAO finding "will essentially eviscerate the Navy's conclusion" that the explosion aboard the USS Iowa was the result of a wrongful, intentional act.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the ranking Republican on the committee, said the laboratory findings were not a full answer to what exactly happened aboard the Iowa and called for additional testing.

The GAO said tests at the Sandia National Laboratory "could not corroborate the Navy's technical finding that an improvised chemical device initiated the explosion."

The GAO analysis made no mention specifically of Hartwig in its report.

The GAO hired the Sandia Laboratory to evaluate and critique the testing done by the Navy in its initial investigation.

The report said the Sandia Laboratory was "confident in its findings, which conclude that the foreign materials that the Navy found were not inconsistent with the nominal levels found throughout gun turrets and were consistent with the maritime environment."

Elements of calcium and chlorine, which the Navy contended came from a detonator placed between the gunpowder bags, were readily found in turret No.1 aboard the Iowa and in turrets on the battleships New Jersey and Wisconsin, the report said.

"Therefore, Sandia could not corroborate the Navy's finding that such foreign material was evidence of a detonator," the report said.

by CNB