Term Papers on The U.S.S. Iowa

Term Paper Title	The U.S.S. Iowa
# of Words	1100
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.4

The U.S.S. Iowa

The USS Iowa was commissioned on February 22, 1943 and served until February 24, 1958 when it was decommissioned. On September 1st 1982 modernization and reactivation begun. On April 28, 1984 it was recommissioned and put back into active duty. During it’s career it traveled all around the world. In one deployment it traveled 30,983 nautical miles and crossed eight time zones. And it visited over 30 ports. On November 26, 1989 its last 16in round was fired giving the Iowa a total of 2,873 rounds fired since the 1984 recommissioning. Since its initial commissioning in 1943 a total of 11,834 16in rounds were fired.
On April 19, 1989 a terrible explosion occurred in the number two turret on the Iowa. 47 out of the 52 men that were in the turret at that time were killed and there were no real witnesses. Killed in the accident was a 25 year old gunnery mate named Clayton Hartwig. For a while Hartwig was said to have been in a scuff with another man on the ship named Truitt Smith. The Navy had questioned Smith who said, "Hartwig made a homosexual advance at me which I rejected"(Peter Cary 5). Then Smith said something that changed the investigation from accidental to criminal. Smith told them, "I had seen an electric kitchen timer, like the ones they sell at Radio Shack" (Peter Cary 5). The Navy began checking Radio Shacks to see if Hartwig had bought one but it turned up nothing. They then began to analyze some of the residue from the blast to see if they could find any particles from a timer but nothing was found. What they did find was chemical coated steel fibers. They did tests to see what could of produced these wires and came up with an incendiary device of brake fluid, steel wool, and common chemicals. The device ignited and produced the same chemical coated fibers found in the residue. The scenario that the Navy came up with fit everything the navy knew. The many tests they conducted found no obvious way that the bags could ignite accidentally. But Hartwig, "A depressed suicidal gun captain with a knowledge of explosives, could have made a incendiary device and slipped it between the propellant bags"(Peter Cary 6). This was a very convincing story, but, Smith recanted his hour interrogations and NIS threats that he could be an accessory to murder. He said he created a fictitious homosexual story to satisfy the NIS’s questions. "They told me, ‘We know he did it’" (Peter Cary 5). He believed he’d seen a timer somewhere on the ship, but he probably imagined seeing it in Hartwig’s locker. The whole idea of Hartwig intentionally causing the explosion was falling apart. A professor of psychiatry and director of the Suicide Education Institute of Boston said that the Navy needed more to prove that Hartwig was suicidal and homicidal. He said that ninety percent of suicides are associated with drug addiction, alcoholism, or some mental condition. Hartwig was not a drug user or even a drinker. Some experts turned to Hartwig’s letter home. One to his hometown sweetheart was upbeat and happy. Also found in his room was a list of things to take to London for his next as...

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