Qualla: USS Iowa Turret Explosion

USS Iowa Turret Explosion: Introduction

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The last words anyone heard from inside Turret Two came over the phone circuit at 09:53 on the morning of 19 April 1989. Leading Petty Officer Ernie Hanyecz shouted, "Oh, my God! There's a flash!" Then the center gun of USS Iowa's Number Two 16-inch turret exploded. A fireball traveling at 2,000 feet per second tore through all three gun rooms, collapsing bulkheads and filling the turret with cyanide gas from burning polyurethane foam. All forty-seven crewmen inside were killed. Iowa was 260 nautical miles northeast of Puerto Rico, conducting a routine gunnery exercise. What happened in the seconds before that fireball would become the subject of one of the most disgraceful investigations in modern Navy history -- one that destroyed a dead sailor's reputation to protect the institution that had failed him and his shipmates.

USS Iowa Turret Explosion: A Ship Already Failing

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Iowa had been recommissioned in 1984 as part of President Reagan's 600-ship Navy plan, pulled from mothballs after twenty-six years. The revival was ambitious. The reality was grim. In 1986, Rear Admiral John D. Bulkeley supervised an inspection that the ship failed comprehensive...

USS Iowa Turret Explosion: Eighty-One Seconds

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The morning of 19 April began with a misfire in Turret One's left gun. Standard procedure required resolving the misfire before proceeding. Captain Moosally ordered Turret Two to load and fire a three-gun salvo anyway. Forty-four seconds later, the right gun reported ready. Seven...

USS Iowa Turret Explosion: Blaming Clayton Hartwig

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Navy appointed Commodore Richard Milligan to conduct an informal, one-officer investigation -- meaning testimony was not taken under oath, witnesses had no legal counsel, and no one could be charged with a crime. When witnesses described unauthorized gunnery experiments that ...

USS Iowa Turret Explosion: Forty Scientists and a Supercomputer

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Senator Sam Nunn's Senate Armed Services Committee refused to accept the Navy's conclusion and brought in Sandia National Laboratories. Forty scientists, led by Richard Schwoebel, began their own investigation in December 1989. What they found systematically demolished the Navy's...

USS Iowa Turret Explosion: Sincere Regrets

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On 17 October 1991, Admiral Frank Kelso held a press conference at the Pentagon. The Navy had spent $25 million on the investigation. Kelso stated that the Navy had found no evidence of sabotage and no evidence the gun had been operated improperly. He offered "sincere regrets" to...