The battleship Iowa was an accident waiting to happen. The crew lacked confidence in the senior officers. The captain had made numerous public mistakes and tried to cover them up, training for the gunnery crew was minimal at best, and the chief gunnery mate was a battleship fanatic who had plans to put his name in the record books by shooting a projectile farther than had been done before, even if it meant using 50-year-old powder not designed for the purpose. One Tomahawk missile they had fired had attacked the state of Alabama, flying erratically off course, and finally slamming into a hill, the first federal offensive against Alabama since the Civil War. This error was hidden from public view because the Navy brass was on the Hill testifying that the new missile was so accurate it could "fly through bedroom windows." On another occasion, they almost shot their bow off during a gunnery exercise. The crew was writing letters home about what a dangerous ship it was. The author, a former naval officer and 60 Minutes producer, has written the definitive expose of a horrendous accident that never should have happened and the unconscionable Navy cover-up that attempted to pin the blame on a lowly sailor. The huge sixteen-inch gun turrets are complicated pieces of machinery that require a very delicate ballet on the part of a highly trained crew to fire properly. Any mistake along the way can cause an incredible explosion. Many of the officers and men were not trained on these big guns, few had received any training, and the day of the explosion the captain was pushing them to the limit trying to show off for a visiting admiral. The same captain had clearly stated his bias toward missiles as opposed to artillery, and during the ship's refit had neglected to have much work performed on the turrets. Sailors had discovered that plugging in a light bulb larger than 25 watts would overload the circuits and blow fuses. The highly unstable powder that was loaded was dated from 1945.
The ship failed numerous inspections and its captain was written up. The inspection team reported to Secretary of the Navy John Lehman that the ship was unsafe and should be taken out of service. Lehman refused to do so. The investigation was botched from the start; evidence was ignored or suppressed, officers with obvious conflicts of interest were placed in charge of elements of the investigation and families were harassed. The Navy's final report created a firestorm of protest, it had so many holes. They were eventually forced to disavow the report and investigation and apologize to the family of the man they had falsely accused of causing the explosion. Then came Tailhook . . . .
